Gong’s Market achieves a first for SNAP in California

Grocerist, which makes e-commerce profitable for grocers with the first and only industry-specific solution built on Shopify, announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has approved the Grocerist-powered Gong’s Market, an IGA grocer, as the first single-store independent grocer in California to be able to process SNAP EBT payments online.

The Grocerist solution is now an approved path to meeting the USDA requirements for any grocer aiming to accept SNAP payments online from the more than 42 million monthly participants in the SNAP program, which amounted to $105 billion of spend in fiscal year 2021.

Grocerist’s mission is to help digitize and modernize the independent grocery industry worldwide.

Its solution gives each grocer their own e-commerce website with premium product imagery, functionality for weight-based selling, product substitutions, alcohol sales, picking/packing and pickup/delivery logistics, plus tools and services for digital marketing, and social media commerce.

“Grocerist makes it affordable and manageable for the independent grocer to successfully compete with the industry giants online,” said Grocerist co-founder and COO, Matt Smith. “We launch new grocers in weeks, help design and execute their marketing, and enable them to harness the power of digital in order to grow and profit.”

To help grocers achieve success online, Grocerist acts as an extension of their team. It provides omnichannel marketing support and training to grow the merchant’s customer base and revenue. This allows the grocer to focus on operating their core business, and manage what they do best.

“Grocerist made it possible for us to reach more customers and grow our business,” said Michael Ohashi of Gong’s Market. “Grocerist helps run our e-ecommerce technology, marketing, and analytics so we can focus on best serving our customers.”

Grocerist is part of a new class of Software as a Service (SaaS) companies that are developing proprietary technology on top of large e-commerce platforms. “As a result of this approach, Grocerist can make an otherwise inaccessible enterprise-grade solution accessible to independent grocers,” said Grocerist co-founder and CEO Jeff Anders.

Grocerist customizes Shopify and integrates best-in-class third-party technology to satisfy the unique needs of independents. For online SNAP EBT, the company partnered with USDA approved Third-Party Payments (TPP) provider, Forage. Forage is one of only three third-party payment processors authorized by USDA for online SNAP transactions and works directly with grocers and platforms to make their services available to government benefits recipients.

About Grocerist
Grocerist makes e-commerce profitable for grocers, with the first and only industry-specific solution built on Shopify, the world’s largest e-commerce platform. Grocerist brings together order management, product data, marketing capabilities, order picking and delivery in one solution that’s simple to implement and use. Its platform helps grocers grow overall revenue, gain incremental customers, drive higher profits and win market share. Learn more at https://www.grocerist.com/.