Wynshop and Aurus to begin processing online SNAP orders

The U.S Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) has pre-approved financial services company Aurus Inc. to process online payments made though the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Aurus, which becomes the fourth company approved to process online SNAP payments after Forage, Fiserv Inc. and FIS Inc.’s Worldpay, has also partnered with digital fulfillment company Wynshop, which will help expedite the process of grocers achieving certification through FNS. A spokesperson noted that Aurus is integrated with Fiserv and FIS, which it will use to process the transactions. 

In order to earn certification, grocers must prove their ability to: properly display error messages for users,  process items based on weight, allow split tender transactions and more.  

The SNAP online payments program began in 2019 and has since expanded to include millions in SNAP payments annually.  

Wynshop said in a press release that the certification process for grocers to accept online SNAP payments is “complex and time consuming" and that its new service will help speed up and ease the process.   

"Until now, when grocers wanted to accept online EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) benefits, they had to go through a grueling approval process with FNS that could take months," said Wynshop Chief Product Officer Barry Clogan in a statement. "We've set things up so that they no longer need to do any of the heavy lifting. When a grocer on the Wynshop platform decides that they want to accept EBT payments, we provide them with easy-to-use templates that reduce both friction and time to approval." 

The company said it worked with FNS for six months to create a template that helps streamline the documentation and processes necessary to achieve certification from FNS. Using the template "drastically reduces the time, cost and complexity of this process for grocers, making it easier than ever before for them to accept EBT payments via their online stores,” according to Wynshop.

* This story was updated to clarify the relationship between Aurus and payment processors Fiserv Inc., and FIS Inc.