Dive Brief:
- As of this month, recipients of federal assistance for needy families in 17 states and the District of Columbia can use their benefits to buy select items on Amazon's website, an Amazon spokesperson confirmed in an email on Wednesday.
- The e-commerce behemoth added the option to use an Electronic Benefits Transfer card — which is how recipients of federal assistance receive their benefits — at checkout earlier this month, the spokesperson said.
- "We are looking to continue expanding Cash EBT payment acceptance to additional states in the future," the spokesperson said in an email, although she did not provide a timeline.
Dive Insight:
This is not the online retailer's first move to let participants in social safety net programs use their assistance to shop on Amazon's website.
Nancy Dalton — then Amazon's head of customer experience — announced in a Q&A with Chain Store Age last year that the e-commerce titan had launched a pilot program with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to let recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) buy food items online in some states. Dalton is now the director of Amazon Access.
TANF and SNAP recipients can elect to receive their funds on an EBT card, which is used like a debit card.
Amazon's checkout now has an "EBT cash" option at checkout in eligible states.
The benefits can be used to pay for "select items," according to an undated announcement on Amazon's website.
Those items fall into "categories like electronics, toys, beauty and personal care, and home and kitchen," the spokesperson said.
Ineligible products include Prime memberships, alcohol, jewelry, firearms and tobacco, among other things.
An EBT Card can also be used to pay for delivery fees, bag fees and gift boxing on Amazon, the announcement said.
The eligible states are Florida, Washington, New York, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Tennessee and West Virginia.
The brick and mortar stores Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods do not accept EBT payments, according to the announcement.
