The association between food benefit online ordering and redemptions: evidence from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children

Objective: To examine how the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) online food benefit ordering could influence WIC benefit redemptions. Design: A cross-sectional study. We compare the average redemption rates between online ordering early adopters and non-adopters among WIC customers before and after implementing WIC online ordering. A propensity score-weighted difference-in-difference model was used to estimate the coefficients. Setting: The Oklahoma WIC programme and a grocery store chain in Oklahoma. Participants: 12743 Oklahoma WIC households that had redeemed their food benefits at the grocery store chain in 2020. Results: WIC online ordering significantly positively affected redemption rates for eight of the fifteen food categories. For example, the difference-in-difference coefficients (P–values) of these food categories were cheese or tofu (0·077, <0·01), yogurt (0·092, <0·01), whole milk (0·082, 0·022), low-fat milk (0·060, <0·01), eggs (0·049, 0·033), breakfast cereal (0·085, <0·01) and infant formula (0·073, 0·039). Two food categories with significantly negative difference-in-difference coefficients had relatively lower redemption rates overall: canned fish (Coefficient = –0·209, P < 0·01) and infant cereal (Coefficient = –0·138, P = 0·015). There were no significant changes in the redemption of fruits and vegetables (Coefficient = 0·031, P = 0·121). Conclusion: Adopting WIC online ordering was positively associated with benefit redemption rates among most food benefit categories. Our findings provide preliminary but important evidence regarding online food benefit redemption among low-income consumers.