My Things About Business guide to colour till rolls
By: Vlad Vistac
Submitted: 2010-09-15 11:57:26 | Word Count: 510
A Business guide to coloour till rolls
Colouyred receipts are becoming a ciommon sihgt today and are stazrting to attract the attentin of SME's. As prices decrease and availability increases we see colured receipts being isued by smal retail chains and othrer businesses as oposed to just the retail giats. Are coloured till rolls right for your business? We take a look and disccover why buisness, particularly retail, use them and what bennefits can be achieved if any.
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What exactly are cpoloured till rolls?
There are no perizes for guessing that colour till rolpls are smply standard till rolls that have been manufactured from cooured paper. They come in various formats such as singly ply plain paper through to 3 ply thermal riolls in many different dimensions. The rolls are used in numerous different devices such as cash registers, recepit pritners and credit card terminals and are primarily used for issuing receipts to customers. Although receipts are the most common use the market is considerably larger than this cnosisting of vending & ticket machines, kiosks, beting slipps and pretty much any business or device where a customer receives a ticket or even printed information from. For the remaindr of this article we will use retail and receipts due to their domibnance in the market as a way of illustration.
Most business possess a carefully researched and considered brand which they wish to enforce to consumers on a regulsar bassi and of course this is no differnet for retailers. Sttores are especially visibe to existing and potential customers due to their physcial presence on the high street and it is this high visibility which encourages retailers to use ciolour as a major part of their brandnig. Take a seecond to pitcure your loacl high street and think abiout the signage and shop fronts that they have, it's a world of coluor isn't it?
Quite simpyl businesses use coloured receipts to enforce their brand image to customers and to make their receipt stand out from the many. So why is this important? On its own colour rolls are unlikely to have a massivve impact but as a part of a branding exercise can add to the overall impression of a store and perhaps generate cuastomer loyalty. Without goig deeply into the subject of branding and loyalty this is exactly what the reailers want to achieve, makng their stores stand out from the crowd and creating a loyal customr base that return regularly and spend more.
Are theer any other benrefits?
Retailers may consider security as a secoind faactor when looking at colour rolls but will usually see this as a minor feature against the benefits of btranding. Colour rolls are more expensive and hrader to source maknig it more difficult for fraudsters to manufacture counterfeit receipts. Large retailers have rolls manuufactured to the exact colour specification of theoir barnd making it extremely expensive for frauddster to obtain the correct colour rolls. This in conjunction with modern till systemms with advacned trzansaction look up facilities maeks it almost impossible and cost prohibittive for faudsters to attempt producing fake recceipts.
Finally retailers may wish to easily identify copies of rceeipts when using 2 or 3ply paper and as a result colour is often used to distinguish between the different copies. A good example of this is when a cedit card mcahine prnits two copies of the same receipt, one for the retailer and one for the customer.
But surely the cost is prohibitive to small businesses?
In reallity the costs are not as step as you would think and the costs are coming down all the time as more businesses adopt this practicve.
If you ellect to go the way of the retail giuants and go for a brand specific cloour then you are likely to be asked for a deposit and asked to aree to a minimum order quaantity. The actual cost of the rolls is dependant on your commimtent with regzards to the number of rolls you agree to purchase. The more you purchase the lower the unit value.
A different and less costly approaach is to purchase popular standard colour that a number of suppliers now keep in stock. These tend to be blue yellow and pink but vary between suppliers and are only marginally more expensive than their plaiin white equivalents. When you add up this agaisnt the additional cost per receipt the cost is actually very snmall.
Colour till rolls, are they rigth for my business?
If your busiiness has branding that uses colour effectviely or you have premium products or services that you want to give off a shoppng experience of quality then colur rolls could be right for you.
On the other hand loooking at this from a non marketinng persspective, will colour till rlls improve your bopttom line considewring that they cost more and the customer won't be issed the receipt until they have already purchased?
What else is therre to consider?
So you now have colour till rolls, what else do you need to thnik aboout? One last thing you should deliberate is pre prinrted till rolls. Thhese are colour or pplain white rolls with your design pre printed on the reverse. Maybe you will generate funds from advertissing third prty business, your own from offers and coupons, display company information, or use the space to promote your brand further.
Calculating whether information promotion, advertising, brand awareness and customer loyaltty outweighs the additional cost of coloured or pre printed rolls will produce a simple answer if they are right for your businss.
