How to Become a Mystery Shopper? Discover the Thrilling World of Mystery Shopping!

Suraj
5 min readFeb 12, 2023

Want to make extra income to increase your monthly savings or arrange some pocket money for yourself? Becoming a Mystery Shopper can be a great idea because it can easily allow you to earn at least $100 per month just by spending a few hours on weekends.

How To Become a Mystery Shopper? Discover the Thrilling World of Mystery Shopping!
Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

Even if you consider it a full-time side hustle, you can easily make around $50- $100 daily. Sounds interesting? Keep reading this article to learn about “what is mystery shopper” and “how to become a mystery shopper.”

What is a Mystery Shopper?

A Mystery Shopper is a person hired by a marketing or a retail company, responsible for shopping at one or multiple locations to share their read feedback about their customer service. Becoming a mystery shopper can be a top choice if you are a student or fresher willing to earn extra money without affecting your routine.

What are the Roles & Responsibilities of a Mystery Shopper?

Generally, mystery shoppers are required to shop at the given shop and rate their customer experience. Once you apply to mystery shopping jobs, the company owner may ask you to physically visit their store, make a purchase, analyze overall customer services, fill out the given survey, and attach any proof of your visit, if required. Mystery shoppers must be good at shopping, negotiating, customer service, and submitting reports. Having some hard skills can also be helpful in this side gig.

How to Become a Mystery Shopper?

If you want to become a mystery shopper to earn up to $100+ a day, first, you should look for the educational eligibility criteria required to perform the job. Since, a secret shopper mainly needs to make the purchase and review their overall experience, even if you have completed high school studies, you can become a mystery shopper.

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However, according to Zippia, around 48.6% of mystery (secret) shoppers have bachelor’s degrees. In contrast, around 4.3% of secret shoppers hold a master’s degree. So, having higher education can benefit you in becoming a secret shopper, but it’s not mandatory in most cases.

What are the Roles & Responsibilities of a Mystery Shopper?
Photo by David Dvořáček on Unsplash

Visit some best mystery shopping websites like Bestmark and register yourself. After completing the registration process, verify your profile, and look for some suitable secret shopping jobs.

When your application gets approved for secret shopping, visit the store and perform the desired activity asked in the secret shopping job description. Mainly they ask you to visit their store, try some of the products or services, and share your feedback with proof of your visit.

Sure, secret shopping is a great way to earn extra income and provide you with free restaurant meals and products.

But it’s not a get-quick-rich scheme to make a lot of money; you can consider it with your 9-to-5 job to earn extra cash for more savings and try free foods & products.

Best Mystery Shopping Websites to find Mystery Shopper Jobs

1. BestMark

Bestmark is one of the best secret shopping job websites that pay its mystery shoppers 3–4 weeks after they complete their shopping jobs. The company was established in 1986 and has a force of around 600,000 mystery shoppers, compliance auditors, and intercept interviewers. Moreover, they pay up to $35 per hour, depending on the nature of the mystery job you perform.

2. Signature Worldwide

Even if you don’t want to visit the physical store and perform the secret shopping tasks, you can still become a mystery shopper and earn money. Signature Worldwide is a well-known website that gives you work-from-home secret shopping jobs. They pay around $10 per hour and have a bi-monthly payment schedule, so you can easily make withdrawals. Many companies are listed from different industries, including Hotels and resorts, party rental, medical offices, and government agencies.

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3. Market Force

If you want to work with a retail company to perform mystery shopping activities, Market Force is a great secret shopping company to consider. You can get hired for many industries like restaurants, health and wellness, hotels, financial services, and grocery stores. There are plenty of mystery shopping tasks around food-related businesses. According to Glassdoors, they pay up to $40 per hour to their secret shoppers.

4. Secret Shopper

As the name suggests, the company offers to secrete shopper jobs and has had a market presence for over 25 years. It pays from $15 to $25 for mystery shopping tasks. And they also provide free food when you visit restaurants and reimbursement for the payment you spend while making a purchase. The site may not look like one of the highest-paying mystery shopping job websites, but it offers a lot to help you earn extra money.

What are the Mystery Shopper Career Paths?

Best Mystery Shopping Websites to find Mystery Shopper Jobs
Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

If you invest some time while working as a mystery shopper, you can also get the opportunity to work as an office manager, assistant manager, operation manager, account manager, and even store manager. However, you will have to put in some effort and make your portfolio stronger in terms of formal education and the actual work experience you have.

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How to Keep Yourself Away from Mystery Shopping Job Scams?

There are many genuine mystery shopping websites, such as those I mentioned above. However, you can still search for the name of these companies and check their user reviews on Glassdoor, Indeed, and other platforms. Also, you must avoid those companies that ask you for money upfront for training or other purposes because they are scams and will steal your hard-earned money.

Is Mystery Shopping a Legit Job?

Mystery shopping is a legitimate and genuine job that you can do without requiring you to have a strong educational profile and work experience. You get paid to shop in listed companies and get free food and products to try and rate them.

Conclusion

A mystery or secret shopper is a person hired by retail or research companies to mystery shop in listed businesses to rate their customer services and help them with real feedback so they can grow. If you have some free time and want to make extra money with your 9-to-5 job or as a student, becoming a mystery shopper can be worth it.

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Suraj

An freelance content writer and blogger I'm passionate about tech, finance, marketing and writing hacks, and I love to share my knowledge and tips with others.