After two years of study and debate, the Department of Defense has made a policy change effective November to allow 16 million more honorably discharged veterans to shop online for discounted military exchange products.

Peter K. Levine, acting undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, signed a memorandum Wednesday announcing the benefit expansion, effective Veterans Day – Nov. 11 – and giving Congress the required 30 days’ notice before actions begin to implement the plan.

Months of preparation are needed to make e-shopping portals more robust and to allow the Defense Manpower Data Center time to create software for verifying veterans’ status using Department of Veterans Affairs records.

Several million vets are eligible to shop in exchanges – on base or online – because they are active or reserve component retirees, or 100 percent disabled from service-connected injuries or ailments, or Medal of Honor recipients.

Thomas C. Shull, chief executive officer of the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, led a three-year quest to expand online exchange shopping to all honorably discharged veterans with access to computers. It cited two reasons.

One was to reward their service with exchange product savings that, on average, will be near to 20 percent versus commercial department store prices when military exemption from state and local sales tax are considered, too.

Shull’s other purpose was to increase exchange revenues to help offset troubling declines due to the drawdown of active-duty forces, base closures and the end of military tobacco discounts for the higher priority of healthier populations.

The Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard exchange services joined Shull and the exchange service in pushing for the shopping benefit expansion. They worked with Levine’s office and with resale board executives in refining the proposal.

The online benefit does not extend to veterans’ dependents, although spouses and family members theoretically could use the authorized customer’s login credentials, given the nature of an online shopping benefit.

Exchange officials project that expanding online shopping will result in $1.8 million in added annual fixed costs to handle the larger customer base. However, they also project added sales and revenue, which will more than offset any added operating or order-fulfillment costs. Higher net earnings are seen boosting exchange dividends to support on-base morale, welfare and recreational activities.

By verifying shoppers electronically, the department will not have to produce special identification cards. The data center estimates that 13 percent of eligible veterans, primarily those who served before 1981, might not be in their database when the shopping benefit becomes available.

An audit of public comments to earlier news articles on the plan showed 90 percent support for veterans online shopping.