Invoices in the digital era: A qualitative study on consumer preferences

Abstract

The technical conditions have always determined the potentials of the payment systems’ development. Since the arrival of the digital era, there have been many new possibilities for the development of payment methods. In this study we investigated how the digitization affects our invoicing systems with the purpose to enlighten the effect of digitization on our payment systems. We set up a theoretical framework that was to be the foundation of how we view a consumer in this matter. Our results are based on interviews with 16 consumers who answered questions about their invoicing habits and preferences. This information was then analysed with help from the theoretical framework and compared to earlier studies. A discussion is presented in the analysis on the different effects that the digitization has had on the consumers’ invoicing habits and along with our findings we also generated hypotheses that can be used in future research. In its whole, the respondents were fairly uneducated on the subject and only a few knew the underlying reasons of their own invoicing habits. The most striking result was that there is a large gap between how the respondents perceive the electronic invoice and how it actually is, making them less eager to try it. Nonetheless, the respondents were interested in trying a digital alternative to the paper invoice. The respondents older than 40 years old perceive the electronic invoice to be more difficult to use than the younger respondents. Furthermore, security was very important for the respondents when they shop online. It is clear though that more consumers would use electronic invoicing if they got to talk more about it or if they would get regular and coherent information about electronic invoicing. Since the digitization is a growing phenomenon we believe that this is very important to study in order to understand how our payment systems are affected. Furthermore, we believe that the electronic invoice is an innovation that is perfect to investigate in order to further grasp how consumers and companies think when an existing product or service is digitized.