Make Money by Becoming a Mystery Shopper

The month of February I'll be offering a money-making tip every weekday. Here's the one for today:

Become a mystery shopper.

Here are the details on this idea from ABC News:

Mystery shopping is focused on monitoring and improving service quality to ensure consistency with brand standards using anonymous resources. With mystery shopping, an individual walks into a retail, grocery or convenience store, a restaurant, or a gas station to measure specific behaviors and make certain observations. Among them: associate greetings, the length of time to be served, the availability of merchandise, the knowledge of the sales team, and so on.

Retailers don't hire shoppers or merchandisers directly; all of this is handled by a third-party vendor. You accept an assigned task and then to get paid you must prove that you've completed it, which is typically done by answering and submitting an online survey about the experience. You might also be required to take photographs of your work, specifically for merchandising assignments. It's all spelled out in advance before you agree to the work.

Most mystery shopping assignments pay between $8 and $10. Merchandising is generally in the range of $13 to $18. Some assignments offer free meals and/or groceries either as a form of compensation or in addition to a small fee. More complex assignments pay more — up to $30 or so per assignment. If you're being offered substantially more, that's a red flag and you should question the legitimacy of the assignment.

There are hundreds of companies throughout the country that hire shoppers and merchandisers. Some hire for both; others handle one or the other. Every shopper who told me she makes at least $100 a week is registered with several companies and actively takes on several assignments per week. Some women I spoke with say they make upwards of $500 a month because they're diligent about working at it.

I used to work for a retailer and we paid an outside service several thousand dollars to do a series of mystery shopping efforts for us, and we were a pretty small outfit. So if even the little guys are doing this (and spending decent money on it), imaging what the likes of Walmart, Target, and such are spending. (BTW, I think Macy's could certainly use a few of these.) ;-)

Besides, it's getting paid for shopping!!!!! Wouldn't this be a dream job for most Americans???? :-)

Comments

[Dave]

FMF,

No offense, but as a regular reader to your blog, I want to say that your hatred toward Macy's is misguided. The clear theme that arises from your link above is that you hate Macy's because their products are overpriced. Well, I can't argue with you about that, but I think there must be more going on.

There are SO MANY stores in this country where products are exorbitantly overpriced. Neiman Marcus is known as "Needless Markup" for a reason. Buy something at Tiffany's and YOU KNOW you are paying a 1300% mark up for the "blue box." Products at Macy's are comparably priced to other nationwide retail chains. Macy's products are significantly UNDER priced compared to Bloomingdale's, Dillard's, Nordstrom's, Saks Fifth Avenue, etc.

So again, why Macy's? It's like railing against Ford Motor Company, because they are so overpriced compared to Kia, but completely ignoring BMW, Mercedes, Ferrari, Porsche, Acura, and Lexus.

[thomas]

Probably hates Macy's because they are the lower rung of the high end market and therefore gets more gift cards to them. I'm sure he would comment on the other stores if he had the reason.

Secret Shopping isn't as easy as some make it out to be.

[FMF]

Dave --

Thomas hit the nail on the head. I'd probably hate those other stores as well, but I never shop in any of them. My gift card to Macy's has forced me to shop there.

[becky]

Good idea (talking about the money-making tip, not the Macy's shot), but do you know how much time it takes to perform these mystery shopping trips? I know it must vary, but do you know the average length of time for the $8-$10 versus the $13-$18 versus the $30?

[Valerie]

I do Mystery Shopping and make between 30-50 dollars a month. It's not by any means my primary stream of income, but it is legitimate, I get a few extra meals a month, and I enjoy feeling like a spy!

[Paul]

Um people.... a lot of what Macy's sells you can get in other places for a lot less.

Several items that a local Macy's sells I can easily get any several local stores for anyway from $1 less to half the price of Macy's.

Macy's while good store, is a overpriced.

There are unfortunately a lot of 'fake' mystery shopper things out there, so it still is a good idea to verify it.

[Mary]

I love mystery shopping, and found that the harder the assignment, usually the more it pays. I've done shops that pay over $100, and others that pay nothing, such as find dining shops. The ones that paid nothing, covered an expensive meal for me and my guest.

[Danyell Brumfield]

I would love to be a mystery shopper.There's nothing better than shopping! Are you hiring.