My Merchant Account Blog

What Makes a Good Receipt

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

A good receipt can help to prevent a chargeback. There are a lot of shopping carts that send out a order summary before the credit card is charged. This potentially can increase sales. If the customer decides not to buy the products for some reason, the customer still might have your email.

Once the customer enters the credit card information and is approved, a receipt should be generated. This email should be in text format to the consumer to help bypass any spam filtering. On the checkout page, your domain name should be there asking the consumer to whitelist your domain name. Your receipt should thank the customer from buying from http://www.example.com and then state that is a a part of (Your DBA here). A lot of times this is very different and can be confusing for the customer (Some Ways to Help Internet Merchants Reduce Fraud and Chargebacks). You should also have there the total the credit card was charged. As well as an order number from your company. If you have a order number or tracking number from the electronic payment gateway, provide that at the end of this email.

And then you should have a break down of each item purchased. Show a sales tax and shipping line - even if you do not charge for it. This way everything is there.

And then provide your web address again, a contact email address, your physical address, and phone number(s), preferably both toll free and a local number for your customers to contact you.

When the order is shipped, send them an email letting them know the order is shipped. If you have a tracking number with UPS, USPS, Federal Express, DHL, etc., give that to them as well.

Consider also of taking advantage of this email (receipt) by adding upcoming sales, giving the customer a discount on the next purchase, asking him to complete a survey, etc.  This way, you adding a bit more to your communication with your customer.  And then maybe follow up on the sale a week or two after the delivery of the item(s).  Since you will probably also ask the customer to confirm he wants to receive emails from your company, offer a discount or a sales code in the email - this will help to ensure the customer will continue receiving emails from your company.  Most people like to save money and if he sees the company as a money saver, this offer will usually make the customer reluctant to stop emails from your company.