Digital Restaurant Receipts: What They Are and Why Use Them

Digital restaurant receipts are among the common restaurant technology trends. Unlike standard receipts, digital ones give food service businesses multiple additional options and have various benefits. They can be used as part of a restaurant’s marketing efforts by giving customers the option to easily review the business. They are also a more convenient way for customers to track expenses and organize their receipts for cost reimbursement or tax deduction reasons. In this post, we’ll shed some light on digital restaurant receipts, their benefits, and how businesses in the restaurant industry can use them. If you operate a food service business, you might find it beneficial to read our posts on restaurant fraud and how to manage restaurant tips.

Key takeaway: Digital restaurant receipts contain all the information that a paper receipt has. However, food service businesses can add links, QR codes, promotions, and additional info in a digital receipt. Many customers prefer digital receipts compared to physical ones as they can be organized and accessed more easily.

What Is a Digital Restaurant Receipt

This is an electronic version of regular paper receipts. The main difference is that instead of a physical copy, customers receive it electronically via email, text message, or a mobile app. Digital restaurant receipts still contain the most important details of the transaction such as the date, amount paid, and an itemized list of all food and beverage ordered. In addition to these main components, restaurants can also include other elements in the design of a digital receipt. For example, they can have a promo code or a discount coupon for future purchases. Loyalty programs have become a popular way to boost restaurant customer acquisition. Thus, businesses can also include information about the customer’s loyalty points.

Benefits of Digital Restaurant Receipts

Both customers and food service businesses can benefit from this trendy restaurant technology. Let’s examine how.

Benefits for Restaurant

1. Switching to digital restaurant receipts can reduce printer and paper costs;
2. Digital receipts offer better data collection capabilities and restaurant marketing opportunities;
3. Digitalization and less waste can show a business’s efforts to be a sustainable restaurant;
4. Digital restaurant receipts are one of the steps to achieve better integration with POS or CRM systems;
5. Digital receipts can encourage customers to go through the loyalty and advocacy stages of the marketing funnel by incentivizing them to leave a review online;
6. A variety of additional details and information can be included in a digital receipt. For example, it can include the ingredients and calories consumed with each dish.

Benefits for Customers

1. Clients can more easily track expenses in restaurants that use digital receipts;
2. Digital receipts are always available and customers can use them for tax deduction or cost reimbursement.

Tools to Create Digital Restaurant Receipts

There are many solutions that help food service businesses digitalize their receipts. Allow us to share the main ones.

1. Square POS is one of the best options for business owners of small and medium food service businesses;
2. Toast POS is among the leaders in restaurant POS systems. It’s used by restaurants of any size;
3. Clover POS is yet another very popular system used for the management of restaurant sales that can create digital restaurant receipts;
4. Lightspeed Restaurant is also a POS solution for food service businesses that is cloud-based and allows deep data tracking;
5. Although Shopify is commonly associated with eCommerce websites, it can be used in the food and beverage industry as well. Shopify POS is ideal for restaurants with eCommerce operations such as extensive sales of restaurant merchandise.

Other Ways to Digitalize a Food Service Business

In addition to digital restaurant receipts, there are other things that eateries can digitalize. Keep in mind that technologies are here to stay and one of the ways to guarantee restaurant success is to benefit from them. Here are some solutions that can help restaurant and catering businesses.

1. QR codes for restaurant menus can help waiters and make ordering in restaurants easier;
2. Online order and delivery solutions are a must-have in the food service niche market nowadays;
3. Cloud-based POS systems can centralize payment and orders. They also make analytics easier;
4. Inventory management with modern tools like BlueCart can reduce food waste;
5. Digitalizing restaurant training programs can also make it easier to train new employees. It can be used for restaurant manager training as well;
6. Kitchen display systems can be integrated with a restaurant’s design to achieve better efficiency;
7. There are multiple innovations in the field of marketing – modern email marketing tools like Mailchimp or social media solutions like Buffer can help food service businesses achieve high ROI with their advertising and marketing campaigns;
8. Staff scheduling should also be digital and cloud-based so that employees can access their schedules from anywhere;
9. Reward programs can help restaurants achieve better brand loyalty and recognition. Implementing a loyalty and reward program across multiple channels and platforms is challenging but it can be done with modern restaurant technology.

Frequently Asked Questions about Digital Restaurant Receipts

From tips on wholesale sales to advice about restaurant risk management, you can find multiple comprehensive resources on BlueCart’s website. Check out the answers to some of the commonly asked questions regarding digital restaurant receipts.

What Is Included in a Restaurant Receipt?

The design of a standard restaurant receipt contains a few key elements. These are date and time, price, tax, total amount, payment method, receipt number, and location. Other components on a receipt such as name of the server, logo of the establishment, and the table number are optional. In contrast to regular paper receipts in restaurants, digital ones usually contain many additional elements such as a QR code or a link to leave feedback or review.

How to Design a Restaurant Receipt?

Most restaurant POS systems and other software & hardware solutions for food service businesses have pre-made layouts for receipts. If a restaurant business wants to customize the design, that can be done fairly easily. Alternatively, there are also multiple free and paid online resources that allow businesses to design their own restaurant receipt. If you’re interested in changing the template for your restaurant’s receipts, consider going digital. In the long term, that saves costs and it also gives a food service business multiple additional opportunities.

Can You Get an Old Receipt from a Restaurant?

In most cases, getting an old receipt from a restaurant is possible. That’s primarily done to claim reimbursement or as a required document for a tax deduction. The easiest way to get an old receipt is by contacting the restaurant and giving them as much information about your receipt as possible. If their system doesn’t allow issuing old receipts, you can use your card or bank statement. Keep in mind that this is not a receipt and it may not be accepted for tax deduction purposes.

BlueCart: The Solution for Restaurants and Suppliers

For the past few years, BlueCart has become one of the best solutions for both wholesalers and food service businesses. Our software allows restaurant managers to track inventory, find suppliers and compare their prices, and easily order in bulk. Specialized and broadline distributors also have multiple reasons to use BlueCart. Thanks to our marketplace, businesses can increase B2B sales while simultaneously automating various tasks and processes. Thanks to BlueCart, wholesalers can also digitalize their business by creating eCommerce catalogs and managing orders more efficiently. Schedule a demo and see how our wholesale ordering software can help you grow your distribution business.