Accepting SNAP/EBT Payments for qualified goods

[ryanhalst]

Hello,

I am interested finding ways for small farms to sell their food online to SNAP/EBT customers. Does Shopify or Amazon Pay offer methods of accepting SNAP payments so that customer transactions can be handled online?

Thank you for your time,

Ryan

[harbinhollow]

Hi! Can you send me info, please? I need to accept EBT. I am USDA approved and ready! 

[N_Abey]

Dear @harbinhollow 

Thats great, feel free to drop a message with your contact details. we will get back to you with next few steps.

[harbinhollow]

Can you type the email normally? That's not making sense to me?

[joniboi]

Hi @N_Abey could you send me the info to accept EBT/SNAP Payments 

[Cami_12]

Hi Abey,
I was hoping to get more information on this option as we are looking about the possibility of accepting EBT but trying to figure out what is required, how much it will cost and if it is worth it to us for the amount of customers that would like to use it.

[Justdash-it]

If anyone have information on how to accept SNAP online on Shopify, please let me know.

Thank You

[N_Abey]

Dear @Justdash-it 

Please drop us an email to "nipuna at oganro dot com" with your contact details. we will get back to you with possible options. 

[Chrischurch1]

I have the information you need. My company has helped several companies get
set up with EBT.

Send me an email at chris@advancedtargeting.agency
or call 415-699-1609.

[CommonSense]

@N_Abey can you email additional details on accepting SNAP/EBT through Shopify? I'd love to see a demo. Mt email is garrett.ramela@commonsense.coffee.

[lauren_8]

@N_Abey I am looking to introduce a SNAP/EBT payment acceptance gateway to my Shopify shop.  I would be interested in seeing a demo and learning more about how we can do this as well as the cost of integrating this into our site. If possible, I would like to set up a call to discuss.

My email address is: lauren.devlin@archetypesg.com 

[N_Abey]

Dear @lauren_8 

I have drop you an email to mentioned email, but email got bounced back. 

please drop me an email to "nipuna at oganro dot com" with your contact details. We will get back to you with further details.

[Justdash-it]

Information sent to chris@advancedtargeting.agency.

Thank You

[AMyers]

Hello,

Would you also send me information on how to start accepting SNAP benefits through a Shopify storefront.

Thanks so much,

Alys

alys@supplybulkfoods.com

[eCommCraig]

I see a lot of similar comments for people looking for SNAP payment processors. I'm wondering if anyone has solved this and can provide a soup-to-nuts guide for the rest of us? Here is what I have gathered so far:

1. You have to be an eligible vendor, which means you meet the criteria for having enough "staple foods" as defined by the USDA here.
2. You'll need an account with an approved payment processor that can accept a "secure PIN." It appears this may only be Fiserv/PaySecure or FIS/Worldpay (although they do say "or other" on their guidelines).
3. A developer will have to create an integration between Shopify & your processor <<--this is the part that I would think has been done already and can be replicated? ANYONE? 

If anyone has examples of Shopify stores that are accepting SNAP please help! It appears there are dozens, if not hundreds of other merchants that want to know how to do this?

[Chrischurch1]

Shopify does not, unfortunately. Amazon does not either because it's outside their gateway payment. 

We ended up making a plugin for Woo Commerce that allows merchants to accept EBT payments along with other debit cards. We still put out non-ebt clients on Shopify, but clients who want to accept EBT, have to go to WP/Woo platform. 

If you want more info email me at chris@advancedtargeting.agency. I'm happy to walk you through what's involved and it's awesome that you are getting smaller businesses to participate. 

Chris

[Chrischurch1]

Hi - 

The process you have outlined is correct, but pretty much a failure path because the Fiserv/PaySecure or FIS/Worldpay advise given by the USDA/FNS. We have been helping our clients get set up with EBT's for about 10 months now and we get a lot of new clients referred to us saying that they contacted Fiserv/PaySecure or FIS/Worldpay and it went nowhere because they don't know anything about a consumer-facing website. We brought it to the attention of the USDA/FNS and they said, in a snarky manor, that was their policy for now (send to Fiserv/PaySecure or FIS/Worldpay), and that was that. Cutting to the chase, the best way to do it is to go to Card Knox.

Send an email to Preston Glenn pglenn@cardknox.com - he can get you a gateway payment that accepts EBT for both online and in-person. Enclosed is a letter from the CEO of Fidelity Payments, who owns Card Knox to show you it's real. That said, Shopify charges 2%+ over their processing fee, so we have found it more cost-effective to build a WP site for our EBT clients, but it depends on volume, right? 

Send me an email if you need more info to chris@advancedtargeting.agency. 

[sonilgandhi]

Did you find any other solution, we also want on our site that customer can pay for food bills using there EBT/SNAP card. If you have find then please share some info it will help us lot.

Thank you.

[Chrischurch1]

Shopify does NOT offer any gateway payment system that accepts EBT Cards. We talked to Shopify about it and they didn't have any idea what was going in the US with EBT's. They thought it was interesting, but not on their product roadmap whatsoever. They said if your want to use EBT's it would be 2% over the 2.9% or 4.9% processing fees and that would apply to all card transactions. This was a non-starter for us. Sooo....

For our clients who want to take EBT cards, we went with Pay Now Direct www.paynowdirect.com. Pay Now Direct accepts all cards, including EBT's, at or below 2.9%. They also help with getting their clients approved by the USDA/FNS. 

[Chrischurch1]

Visit www.paynowdirect.com - they have a solution

[sonilgandhi]

Hey, @Chrischurch1 

Thank you for the super help on this. I'm now curious to know that did you create your custom payment solution in shopify to allow EBT/SNAP from paynowdirect? or you purchased some plugin which already provide this ?