More than 20 retailers in London's West End are about to trial the use of electronic receipts, in a movement which has been described as the biggest change to hit shopping since the invention of the loyalty card.
From Saturday, shoppers in these stores will be able to receive an electronic receipt, or e-receipt, by swiping a card.
The receipt will then be stored in a secure online 'Cloud' accessible through a web portal or through a downloadable app.
And unlike some suppliers, the customer controls their data and chooses which offers they want to receive.
The software, provided by company eReceipts, sits in the background and does not increase checkout time or affect the performance of the till systems.
The data service is powered by cloud-hosting specialist Rackspace and backed up by the Amazon Web Services.
This is not the first time electronic receipts have been used in the UK - Apple stores have offered them alongside traditional paper receipts to customers for some time, and The Huffington Post understands Cycle Surgery and Snow&Rock also offers them.
Consumer responses to the innovation are largely positive, though some who already receive receipts electronically have found some of the accompanying marketing mailshots off putting.
These electronic proofs of purchase are backed by the former chairman of Tesco and current chairman of E-Receipts Lord MacLaurin.
In a statement, he said retailers, consumers and businesses will all benefit from the technology, as retailers will be able to utilise customer data (provided the customer gives their permission) to derive a new revenue streams and increase footfall.
“Combining the obvious benefits for retailers, consumers and businesses, with the simplicity of the eReceipts system, we will see the end of the paper receipt," he added.
Participating shops can also publish geographically-located and time specific promotions on the created eReceipt, allowing them to create targeted promotions based on customer spending habits and visible trends.
And of course there are cost savings in terms of the administration streamlining, lack of receipt paper and ink, and the reduction in consumer returns fraud.
It's also anticipated businesses may wish to use the service to monitor employees' expense receipts.
Each employee would be issued with an eReceipts account card and mobile phone app which can be used to capture receipts from enabled retailers automatically, or capture normal receipts from non-participating receipts manually.