TransactionTree is a new web service that offer paperless receipts. Their service connects to the retailer’s point of sale systems to give customers a choice of printing out a paper receipt, or submitting the receipt to TransactionTree’s online service. The customer gives the clerk an email address and the customer’s online receipts go into an online account attached to the email address.
There isn’t the slightest chance that you will ever use this service. From the company’s website and demo it is clear that the advantage the company is promoting is reducing the use of paper, not the convenience of being able to keep all of your receipts in one place. There is probably a good reason for that even in an optimistic case, so few retailers will use this service that the customers will likely only have a few receipts stored at the website. If the customer really wants to organize receipts, a much better solution is Shoeboxed.com.
But do customers really care enough about saving 1/8 of a sheet of a paper on the very few occasions they find a retailer who is using TransactionTree? In exchange for giving up their email addresses? Not likely. Customers would get much more environmental impact from having the phone company email out their bills.
As the CEO of TransactionTree is quoted in an article at LiveScience.com , ”people are looking for the little things they can do ” to save the environment. I suspect that TransactionTree is far too little for anyone to care.
