11.2 Billion Receipts a Year – None of Them Are Marketing

01 /The Concept

At its core, Slip built an app that lets offline retail stores send digital receipts to customers.

At minimum, that's a genuine environmental win – UK retailers (the startup is UK-based) issue 11.2 billion paper receipts annually, and those receipts aren't recyclable because they're printed on thermal paper.

But environmental impact isn't Slip's real play. The platform turns receipts into marketing real estate – transforming a dry transaction record into an ongoing touchpoint between seller and buyer.

Old-school receipts were just rows of items and prices.

In the Slip app, they become rich web pages where retailers can embed product recommendations with links to reviews and detailed descriptions, email newsletter signup prompts, extended warranty upsells, buy-now-pay-later offers, and other marketing hooks.

For customers, the app becomes a receipt wallet – and that has real utility, since paper receipts are required for returns but have a habit of disappearing. Slip's founder came up with the idea in the exact moment he couldn't find a paper receipt to return something.

The app-as-receipt-vault is the hook that gets people to download. But the longer-term ambition is turning Slip into a personal shopping assistant – surfacing relevant stores, products, and services based on the user's actual purchase history.

A gift voucher feature is also coming soon: retailers will be able to include shareable vouchers in receipts, which customers can forward to friends.

One retail chain that moved to Slip saw newsletter signups rise 226% after adding a signup form directly to digital receipts in the app.

Slip launched in 2022. Since then the platform has onboarded 400 stores, the app has been downloaded 25,000 times, and users have received 100,000 digital receipts.

Slip has now raised its first round of €2.9M.

02 /Why It Matters

In its fundraising deck, Slip made two arguments worth unpacking.

The more fundamental one: offline retailers struggle to go omnichannel because they can't hook customers into a digital relationship. There's no email, no account, no ongoing connection.

When an offline shopper opts into digital receipts, that changes entirely. It opens a brand-new online communication channel between that store and that specific customer.

Not every shopper will opt in, of course. But does a retailer need all their shoppers? Not really. They need the ones who could become loyal. Downloading an app and agreeing to digital receipts is a qualifying signal – it distinguishes potentially loyal customers from one-time foot traffic.

The more tactical argument: Slip successfully positioned itself inside a fast-growing trend. That trend is Retail Media – advertising placed directly at the point of purchase: in physical stores, on e-commerce sites, and on marketplaces.

The retail media market is projected to grow to $140–150 billion in the near term. Amazon's marketplace already generated $44B from advertising alone last year – not from transaction commissions, but from brand and seller ad placements.

Retail media is especially effective because it appears on the "last mile" before a purchase decision – able to tip a shopper toward an advertised item or prompt an unplanned purchase entirely.

Receipt-based advertising hits a different moment: the shopper has already bought something. So why bother? The real play is that for a short window after a purchase, the customer is in a relaxed, psychologically connected state relative to that retailer. That window is ideal for encouraging an additional purchase or reinforcing loyalty with a bonus.

In other words, post-purchase marketing is retail media too – just working the "first mile" after the sale rather than the last mile before it.

Being able to show that your startup is swimming with a big, rising tide is critical for fundraising. It signals far better odds of success than "customers will buy because our product is great" or "we're going to create a new market"

Sometimes a pivot is required to make that case. A [recent review covered](/review/tri-sposoba-dlja-masshtabirovanija-na-jetom-novom-rynke) The Desire Company, which started as a product review site earning affiliate commissions, then raised its latest round producing expert video content on demand for brands – and repositioned as a retail media company because those videos are designed for in-store displays, e-commerce pages, and marketplaces.

Another overlooked touchpoint that works just like receipts: shipping status notifications from online stores. Those messages can carry the same types of links, upsells, warranties, and newsletter invitations – and they operate on exactly the same "first mile" post-purchase logic, with the same favorable engagement dynamic.

At least two startups have already built platforms that turn shipping notifications into marketing channels: Malomo ([related reviews](/review/gde-moj-zakaz)], which raised $8.3M, and Wonderment, which raised $6.5M.

03 /Opportunities

The obvious direction: build for the retail media market.

This is a category growing faster than search or social advertising ever did. Search advertising took 14 years to grow from $1B to $30B. Social took 11 years. Retail media hit that same milestone in just 5 years.

At $150B in projected near-term size, even a small slice of that market is serious money – but you need to get in before the dominant positions are taken.

There's a wide range of entry points. Platforms that turn receipts or shipping notifications into marketing channels – like Slip, Malomo, and Wonderment. Content studios that produce brand-commissioned retail content – like The Desire Company. Ad servers for e-commerce sites and marketplaces – like Kevel ([related reviews](/review/super-dengi-na-super-pokupateljah)), which raised $45.2M. Even a dedicated email provider designed specifically for shoppers who want a separate inbox for retail registrations – like Flash, which raised $12.5M.

Or something else entirely. What else could be built here?