Alistair Barr

USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO – Some on Wall Street grumble that Amazon.com operates more like a charity than a publicly traded corporation focused on making money. The company's latest project, AmazonSmile, makes this at least partly true.

Starting Wednesday, when Amazon customers shop on a new version of the company's website – smile.amazon.com – the company will donate 0.5% of the purchase price to charity. Customers pick their charity through the new website and there are almost one million to choose from, including St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and charity:water.

There is no cap on the amount Amazon will donate and almost every physical product sold by the company is eligible, which means tens of millions of items. Digital goods are not included, but that may come in the future.

High-end art – a relatively new category for Amazon – is eligible. That includes Willie Gillis: Package from Home by Norman Rockwell, which is listed for sale for $4.85 million on Amazon. If this work was bought through AmazonSmile, the company would, in theory, donate $24,250 to charity.

Everything else about the Amazon online shopping experience stays the same, including the shopping cart, wishlists and shipping options. The prices will also be the same, so these donations will suck some of the profit out of each sale Amazon makes through the program.

Ian McAllister, general manager of AmazonSmile, said the company did this because it thought customers would love it – a stock response from an Amazon employee who has worked on several different initiatives, including gifting and social applications, at the company since 2006.

Another possible reason is that consumers may shop a lot more frequently on Amazon if they know their favorite charity is getting money every time they buy something there.

A similar psychology lies behind the success of Amazon Prime, a subscription service that costs $79 a year for free two-day shipping in the U.S. plus other benefits. Prime has fueled a big increase in customer loyalty and boosted Amazon's revenue in recent years because customers come to its website more often to make sure they are getting the most out of their annual $79 payments.

Any group that is registered as a 501(c)(3) organization with the IRS can sign up to receive donations from AmazonSmile. Charities can sign up through org.amazon.com.

AmazonSmile is not replacing Amazon's existing affiliate programs, which already help charities and other small organizations and individuals earning money when shoppers go from their websites to Amazon to buy something.