You might have heard of mystery shopping before where people are getting paid for shopping on various places. You might be wondering if this is a real and legit way to make money. Well, yes mystery shopping is a real job that you can work for and get paid.
Mystery shopping may seem to be an easy job that everyone can do but actually it wasn’t really an easy task. As a mystery shopper, you not just have to go out to do the shopping but also you need to prepare a report on what has happened on your shopping. Your report will be based on fact rather than your opinion or thought. In other word, you are reporting on what you’ve observed and experienced during shopping. You never need to express your opinions or comments on your shopping.
Some companies even require in-depth report. They want to know what was said from the beginning to the end besides reporting what was happened during your shopping. But don’t worry, if you are able to do reporting on shopping, with some extra effort you should be able to provide detailed and lengthy report to those companies that request it. And when you are becoming more experienced on this, you’ll find easier to work out the report.
What you will be asked to shop?
This will depend on the request of the companies. You might be asked to try out a new restaurant, purchase an item in a store, stay in a hotel, call for a pizza delivery, try out a product or service and so on. Whenever there is a mystery shopping assignment for you, details and requirements of the shop will be provided and you can choose to accept or pass on if you aren’t interested.
How to get started with mystery shopping?
The first thing you need to do is to sign up with companies that offer mystery shopping opportunities. There are plenty of companies offering mystery shopping opportunities but not every company can be trusted. If you encounter companies that require sign up fee, then most probably they are not legitimate.
The real mystery shopping companies are free to join and they usually pay monthly. Below is a list of legit companies (US and UK based) that people have worked with and got paid:
US Mystery Shopping Companies
BestMark
AboutFace
Intellishop
Mystery Guest, Inc
Shoppers Critique
Trendsource
UK Mystery Shopping Companies
Retail Eyes
IMS
GfK Mystery Shopping
The more companies you sign up with, the more mystery shopping jobs you would probably get. However, your location also affects your eligibility on the mystery jobs. If you are living in a bigger city, you’ll get more opportunities to shop. But if you stay in a smaller town, then you probably find less opportunities of mystery shopping.
Most companies pay via PayPal or bank deposit. So you must have a Paypal account. If you don’t have a PayPal account, you can create an one with your debit or credit card on http://www.paypal.com.
There are certain jobs that require you to spend money out of your pocket first when doing the shop. It is OK to spend your money to shop first because you will be reimbursed later. You should be earning anywhere from $5 to $40 per shop. There are also some big assignments that pay up to $1,000 but you probably have to evaluate an entire mall.
Mystery shopping can certainly be a nice source of extra income. It could give income of few hundred dollars per month constantly which is good enough to pay off all your bills. There are also people who go full time for mystery shopping and make a living out of it. If you enjoy shopping and be able to provide fact-based report, then this job can be right for you.
About Claudia Rose