Risiti lets users track their receipts online, and with the upcoming launch of Risiti for Business, it hopes to strengthen the relationship between business and consumer.
Receipts are a hassle. Sometimes it’s important to save them, but other times it just feels that way as consumers hoard them out of habit. After watching receipts travel from his wallet to a pile on his dresser to the shredder, David Osborn decided to take the process online.
Risiti, which Osborn and his co-founder Bigyan Rajbhandari launched last October, lets consumers snap a photo of a paper receipt and send it via email (or forward an electronic receipt) to the Risiti website, where users can then organize and store all their receipts.
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Osborn said that Risiti has “quite a few” users giving feedback on the consumer side, so he and Rajehameari are working on the next major development: Risiti for Business.
The co-founders hope that they can use the data in their system to help small and medium-sized businesses tap into targeted marketing.
Osborn (left) said it’s much harder for a business to get a new customer than to retain an existing one. Risiti for Business uses a customer’s previous purchases to make suggestions — he compared it to Amazon’s “Recommended for you” feature for brick-and-mortar businesses.
For example, the owner of a local bike shop can set up a trigger to automatically email people who bought a bike (and sent the receipt to Risiti) six months later to remind them to come in for service.
“With each future purchase, the relationship keeps getting stronger and stronger,” Osborn said.
Although the program allows businesses to contact consumers, Osborn said privacy and consumer control are priorities. Businesses can only see receipts they issued, not everything the user logged, and businesses don’t have direct access to the user’s contact information.
Targeted marketing is a highly competitive area, with websites tracking users’ clicks and purchases and traditional agencies offering services to businesses. Another Des Moines startup, Bawte, also lets brands connect with their customers after they tag purchases.
Osborn said that Risiti is unique, however, for focusing on the receipt. He said the startup has been talking with several companies about using Risiti for Business when it launches early next year. Participating businesses will pay a monthly fee to use the system.
Both co-founders have other jobs and are building Risiti on the side. Osborn said he’s looking forward to the idea coming full-circle once both the consumer and business sides of Risiti are live.
Credits: Screenshot from risiti.com. Photo of Osborn from twitter.com.
