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This article offers evidence-based recommendations to help managers navigate digital tipping systems effectively. Based on an extensive review of research on tipping and survey data from 577 Nordic consumers, we identify key consumer preferences and business strategies for tipping success.
Managers should avoid prompting customers for tips at the start of a service transaction, as doing so tends to reduce customer satisfaction and perceived fairness. Instead, firms should prompt customers for tips after service or adopt technology that allows customers to privately change their tips after the service.
Tip defaults matter: high suggested tip amounts (>10%) can backfire by making customers feel pressured to tip more than they want. Businesses should instead use modest suggestions (e.g., 5-10%) and include both «no tip» and «custom tip» options.
Privacy also plays a vital role. When customers feel watched by employees during the tipping process, they report lower satisfaction and are less likely to return to the business. Managers should train employees and integrate technology into the payment process to ensure tipping occurs discreetly.
Digital tipping can boost employee pay, retention, and service quality, but must be implemented thoughtfully. Firms that align their tipping practices with consumer expectations - by requesting tips at the end of the service, providing appropriate default tip options, and preserving privacy - can increase tip revenue while maintaining a positive customer experience.Digital tipping has come to the Nordics. With the rise of cashless payment systems-such as mobile apps, handheld card readers, and countertop terminals-it is easier than ever for businesses to prompt customers to leave a tip. Following global trends like «tip creep» and «tipflation,» and in line with the region's shift toward cash-free transactions, we provide data suggesting that Nordic customers are now being asked to tip more frequently, in higher amounts, and across a wider range of service settings-especially via service apps and at counter-service restaurants. As these new tipping habits take root, businesses that fail to adapt risk losing both employees and customers.
Aside from the ongoing cultural debate of whether Nordic countries should adopt tipping (Braathen-Reif, 2024), businesses are already asking for tips. For example, pointof-sale systems like those sold by the Oslo-based firms Favrit and DiggiPOS prompt customers to tip by entering an amount into an open field or by selecting a suggested tip amount. Digital tipping creates opportunities and challenges for employees, managers, firms, gig workers, policymakers, customers, and others. For example, employees often see tips as a chance for additional income, customers sometimes feel pressured to tip, and firms strive to maintain customer satisfaction and employee retention without raising prices.

This paper draws on research from tipping, particularly digital tipping, to provide Nordic firms with clear guidance for integrating new tipping technologies into different service contexts. As prior tipping research has primarily been conducted outside the Nordic region, we wanted to know more about digital tipping in the Nordics. To find out more, we used an online platform called Prolific to survey 577 people across all five Nordic countries.1 We asked these Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, Finns, and Icelanders how often they encountered new tipping technologies, how they feel about the current trends of tipping, whether it is appropriate to request tips for different types of service (e.g., taxi rides, food delivery), how often they tip for different services, if and when they have felt pressured to tip, and about the process and format of tip requests. These survey results help us integrate global research into Nordic contexts, reveal how tipping norms are changing in the Nordic region, uncover how Nordic consumers feel about those changes, and make specific recommendations for Nordic businesses.

Tipping in the Nordics: How customers feel about digital tipping
Digital technologies are expanding the practice of tipping in the Nordics, though consumers are skeptical of this trend. In fact, 75% of the Nordic consumers we surveyed feel that digital tipping has had a negative impact on Nordic culture and society, while less than 5% think it has had a positive impact (20% remain neutral). A majority of the people we surveyed believe that too many businesses are asking customers for tips (55%), that customers are expected to tip more now than they used to (56%), and that there is now more pressure on customers to tip (55%). Only a quarter of the consumers we surveyed are unconcerned about these issues.
Digital technologies are disrupting cultural and service-specific tipping norms. Traditionally, these norms helped customers know when and how much to tip (Azar, 2007; Conlin et al., 2003; Lynn, 2006). For example, in the Nordics, tipping was considered optional at sit-down restaurants, was less expected in other services, and businesses rarely prompted customers to tip (Haugom & Thrane, 2025). Today, that is changing. Consumers in the Nordics and around the world are trying to navigate new tipping practices, including explicit tip requests in unexpected places. People are now being asked to tip in service settings where tipping was not the norm-such as at cafes and food trucks, in airplanes or retail stores, for services completed by robots or self-service machines, and even on digital donation platforms like GoFundMe (Attari et al., 2025; Kim, 2018; Levitz, 2018; Warren & Hanson, 2023a).
An important question is whether customers think tip requests are appropriate in the new contexts where they appear. Focusing on the more common digital tipping contexts, our survey found that most Nordic consumers are neutral about full-service restaurants using digital tools to request tips. However, many Nordic consumers consider digital tipping prompts inappropriate in quick-service settings-takeout, fast-food restaurants, deliveries from restaurants or grocery stores, haircuts, and taxi or appbased rides like Bolt. Firms that provide these services should be aware that customers often think merely asking for a tip is inappropriate. Still, these businesses might be able to earn additional revenue, as our survey found that some customers tip for these services, ranging from 5% who tip at fast-food places to 30% who regularly tip for food delivery and app-based rides.

Should firms use digital technology to prompt customers for tips? If yes, how should they do so? When deciding if and how to incorporate tipping technologies into the service script, businesses must first ask, should we request tips? Firms need to weigh different considerations to answer this question. Compared to not asking for tips, asking customers to tip can increase employee wages, retention, and service quality, which customers also appreciate (Lynn et al., 2011). However, requesting tips can frustrate customers, particularly when there is no established tipping norm (Fan et al., 2023). Further, research from the U.S. and other Western nations finds that including tips