Amazon Giving Back 5% on Purchases at Whole Foods by Prime Members

With e-commerce giant Amazon expanding into the grocery business, its loyalty programs full of perks is following close behind.

Members of Amazon Prime who uses the company’s Prime Rewards Visa card will now receive 5% back when they use that card to shop at any Whole Foods Market location.

The latest offer, announced on Tuesday and available immediately, provides additional light at the initiatives the e-commerce retailer will use to recruit new member of Prime and how it is hoping to turn loyalists of Amazon into shoppers at Whole Foods.

Amazon acquired the chain of grocery stores specializing in high-end organic foods in June of last year for $13.7 billion. Earlier in February, Amazon started offered two-hour free delivery from its Whole Foods stores located in Austin, Dallas, Cincinnati and Virginia Beach, to members of Prime.

Amazon Prime is a membership program with an annual cost of $99 that included streaming video and music, photo storage and free shipping.

Members already receive 5% back on any purchases on Amazon, when they use an Amazon Prime Rewards Visa from Chase. They receive 2% back when using the card at gas stations, restaurants, and drugstores, and a return of 1% on every other purchase made using the card.

However, this time a deal for 5% has extended to purchases that are beyond just Amazon.

We have seen much excitement and the adoption around the Amazon Rewards Visa cards and are very thrilled to partner with Whole Foods and Amazon to bring more rewards to our card members, said the president of Chase’s Co-Brand Cards, Leslie Gillin.

Those who already have one of the cards, but who are not members of the Prime program will receive 3% back on their purchases from Whole Foods.

John Mackey, the CEO and co-founder of the chain said the chain was excited to launch its Amazon Rewards Visa card in its stores, with benefits to customers on every purchase they make at Whole Foods.

The hope is that the perks will attract more members of Prime to shop at Whole Foods, and get those that already do, to shop more often. Amazon also like is saving money on fees for the credit cards, when customers at Whole Foods pay with one of its branded credit cards than with other cards from other companies.

Amazon has also made other moves since taking over Whole Foods. In August, prices were cut on some of the bestsellers at the supermarket chain by up to 43%. But last December, reports surfaced that some of those prices had inched higher. The giant of e-commerce also begin selling its Echo devices at Whole Foods locations.