Amazon pays customers for uploading receipts from purchases at other stores

Amazon has set up a program where it asks US customers to send in receipts for purchases from other stores. Amazon wants to use that data for its own stores and advertisers. Participants receive credit to spend on Amazon in exchange.

Amazon Panel participants receive up to $ 10 per month in credit for submitting ten receipts. For the time being, only residents of the United States can participate. According to Amazon, ‘most receipts’ are valid, provided they are purchases within the past 30 days. The retail giant cites as an example receipts from supermarkets, drugstores, department stores, but also restaurants, cinemas and amusement parks.

Customers need to take a photo of their receipts with an app and then upload it. Amazon says it will use the data to improve the offerings of Amazon.com, the Whole Food Market stores and services such as Prime Video.

Amazon also says it will share the collected data with advertisers. The data is anonymized, Amazon says it only shares aggregated data and does not provide individual information from participants to third parties.

Amazon’s new tool to collect even more data may be a sensitive issue for regulators. The practices of the webshop giant are being investigated by the European Commission, among others. The American FTC also has Amazon in its sights.