News

More than half of British businesses have increased their use of paperless billing in the past five years, a survey of more than 1,000 businesses has found.

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) study focused on usage of Royal Mail but identified several trends of potential concern to commercial printers.

A massive 86% of businesses use the internet and email for transactions that would have gone through Royal Mail five years ago.

According to the BCC study, 53% use paperless billing more than they did five years ago, while only 3.5% use it less, with the rest recording no change in their usage pattern.

The biggest reason for the increase in paperless billing was the improved technology, with 76.5% of respondents citing this as a factor.

However, 49% also said they had made a conscious decision to use less paper, 48% said it was to save money, and 30% said it was because of the unreliability of Royal Mail.

Even move damning for the postal operator, more than two-thirds of respondents said Royal Mail was not a "professional and efficient organisation to deal with", and 31% said they planned to use a competitor in the future.