Top 10 Mystery Shopping Companies For Secret Shoppers (2023)
What is Mystery Shopping Jobs?
Mystery Shopping or secret shopping is an interesting concept of sending a person to monitor a business or a shop by the company itself or a competitor.
Best Mystery Shopping Companies In 2023
There are hundreds of ways to make money working from home & becoming a secret shopper is one of the easy ones.
You as a person can become a mystery shopper by buying the product or services of the company and checking the quality of the customer service, prices, cleanliness, etc.
These are usually done by big companies that have strict terms of services and quality standards that need to be maintained from time to time.
Hence they hire secret shopping staff like you, to go to their offices, shops, etc to monitor certain things secretly.
Secret shopping is also performed by a business to check its competitors about the quality of their services and pricing etc.
This is also kind of like market research to improve business standards to a certain level beating the competition.
If you are looking for how to make money online, working from home – you can become a Mystery shopper. Later on, we will also discuss the best mystery shopping companies that actually pay you.
Have you ever seen advertisements or messages saying something like “getting paid to shop” or maybe “getting paid to eat a pizza”? Apart from the company itself, there are many reputed third parties who hire Mystery shoppers and they are connected with multiple brands.
If you are a work-from-home mom, dad, student, or looking for part-time jobs who have 4-5 hours a day to spare, you can try this. In this blog let’s see some important tips to understand the concept of secret shopping and how to make money with it
What Does a Mystery Shopper Do?
As we have discussed above, mystery shopping is a concept used by bigger brands and companies by sending someone called a secret shopper to monitor the quality of its branches. This is another cool and easy way to make money for part-time job seekers if you have few hours to spare every week.
Mystery shopping is a secret method used by companies to do market research about the quality of services, sales, compliance, and staff performances, or even to monitor competitors. There are also phone mystery shopping companies that provide assignments for you to make mystery phone calls.
These are without visiting the actual business premises but monitoring the quality of customer support through phone calls.
How Does Mystery Shopping Work?
When you become a Mystery shopper or a secret shopper, you will be visiting certain business locations pretending to be a consumer. You will be acting like a normal customer trying to buy a product or service.
These are sometimes done with secret audio recordings when you speak to the staff and try to buy something which the business is offering. These can help in identifying how the staff behaves, what prices are offered, the quality of the services, cleanliness & how organized the business premise is.
You will be instructed by the companies before you are recruited and sent to these locations. These are pretty simple and easy ways to make some extra cash which you won’t need a lot of investments. Sometimes the company pays you to buy a sample of products and check their quality getting your feedback too.
How Much Does Mystery Shopping Pay?
Just like all the free-to-join offers out there, with Mystery shopping Jobs you won’t be making 1000’s a month. If you are looking to make anywhere from $100 - $300 a month with a few hours of work a week, you can choose the secret shopping job.
As a shopper, you will be getting certain perks that will pay you for eating that free pizza, trying that free sample, and checking the restaurants on how the customer service is doing. When you join some of the most reputed mystery shopping companies you will get assignments every week or so.
You will be getting assignments Maybe 2-3 times a week or more depending on the clients that will pay you approximately $10 - $20 per assignment. Again the payout depends on what type of assignment you are given and how long it might take for you.
How to Become a Secret Shopper and Get Paid?
This is not like a job application where you need a lot of qualifications to become a secret shopper. All you need is some valid identity proof and apply it online to some of the most reputed company websites. The customer support team might call you to verify your identity and your experiences. Most of the Mystery shopping companies accept fresher with no experience and you can start right once your application is approved.
10 Best Mystery Shopping Companies That Pay Top Dollars (2023):
If you are looking at how to make money online with Mystery shopping make sure you sign up with a reputable website. There are many sites that may not offer you a better payout for your work.
These Top 10 sites we have listed are some of the best websites for secret shopping jobs which pay much higher than any other normal company. For joining, it requires minimal information and you can start pretty quickly to get your first assignment.
GBW mystery shopping company also formerly known as GAP Buster was started in 1994 whose headquarter is in Melbourne Australia. This company has branches in more than 105 countries globally and nearly 500,000 mystery shoppers work for this company.
They deal with customer surveys, consulting projects, retail and brand audits, competitor benchmarking, etc. The normal assignment hours will be during the days where normally customers come in to buy and get those services.
Some of the industries that GAPBuster served are:
Banking & Financial Services,
Cinemas and Entertainment,
Restaurants,
Convenience stores,
Retail and groceries etc.
Regarding the payout, it depends on what project and assignments you get as we mentioned earlier are the same for all other companies. Online application to become a mystery shopper is a very simple process and it takes only 72 hours to get your application verified.
Sinclair Customer Metrics serves industries like Restaurants, Banking, Grocery, Retail & Convenience Stores, which will pay you anywhere from $10-$20 per assignment. This company offers secret shopping, telephone mystery shopping, and video mystery shopping too.
The telephone shopping assignments are good for you if you are looking at how to make money online while working from home. To sign up and activate your application online, it’s an easy 5 minutes process. Read the Terms of service properly before you join the company.
You might also need a few recording types of equipment if you join the site and perform assignments. Make sure you contact the support team and get proper guidance if you are new to the industry.
Second to none is a great company to join if you are looking at how to make money online with Mystery shopping. This company is available to only US and Canadian residents. This company was started in 1989 and is well-trusted when it comes to the customer service sector.
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For the payout as we mentioned before, as a secret shopper, you will be paid per assignment and also get refunds for anything you spend completing the tasks. Some of the industries they serve are:
E-commerce & Retailing
Financial Service Providers
Healthcare sector
Restaurants
Services & consumer Products etc.
Some of the biggest brands which use second to none for their quality monitoring are T Mobile, Staples, California Pizza Kitchen, CITI, USAA, Expedia, and FedEx.
Confero is another highly reputable company that was first started in 1986 and has over 140,000 secret shoppers signed up for the job. If you are 21 years old or above and are a resident of the US and Canada you can apply for the job. However, in Canada, they have a limited number of locations where they accept applications from.
They have almost every type of Industry they deal with:
Hospitality & Restaurants
Grocery & Retail
Travel
Entertainments
Medical
Financial
Banking
Automotive
Education
Government
Bare International has had a great reputation in customer research and data analysis for business for the Last 33 Years. It was first started in 1987 and has clients in 150 countries, offices in 10 countries, and more than 500,000 mystery shoppers. The company completes more than 50,000 mystery shopping assignments every month for high-profile clients across the globe.
They deal with all kinds of domains like consumer goods, Electronics, Financial, and Restaurants. The pay with Bare International is also an average market rate of $10-$20 per assignment. Joining the site is pretty simple and this is another company for making money working from home.
Secret Shopper - mystery shopping company has been around in the market since 1990 and is a privileged member of the Provider association of Mystery shopping. This is a well-trusted association of professional trade for the secret shopping industry which few are members.
The payout is also a little better than others and you will get paid around $10 to $25 per project in varieties of assignments in many industries. The company will ask you to have a system with a printer or digital scanners for submitting your reports and receipts.
Some of the industry's secret shoppers deal with:
Financial and Banking
Restaurants
Healthcare
Education
Retail
Real Estate
Automotive Etc.
If you are looking to make money online or to work from home About Face is a well-established and legit company that pays you much higher than other companies. The company is in the market for more than two decades and most of the secret shoppers are females.
About Face will pay you anywhere from $20 to $45 per project and pays you through PayPal once a month. The company serves more than 14 Major categories of Businesses in North America alone:
Women's Lifestyle – Health, Beauty & Services
Food and Beverages
Transportation
Telecom
Education
Automotive
Real Estate
BestMark is one of my favorite mystery shopping companies which is highly trusted in this industry and was featured in Essence Magazine and Oprah. This company achieved an A+ rating from the BBB and is a real industry leader in secret shopping.
They have a wide variety of companies and industries like:
Real Estate
Automotive
Entertainment
Health and Fitness
Hotels & Restaurants
Service stations
Bestmark was first established in 1986 helping 1000’s companies to experience customer satisfaction through mystery shopping. In order to apply as a secret shopper with Bestmark, you need to be 21 or more and have proper transportation with good communication skills.
Intellishop is a great mystery shopping company with a wide variety of clients in many industries such as Home Goods, Fitness, Food Services, Real Estate, Insurance, Sports, Shopping Malls, Teams & Venues, Transportation, etc.
There are 3 main secret shopper experiences that they deal with – on their website, on the business locations, or over the phone. You will get paid for your shop assignments approximately 30 days after the last day of that particular month in which the tasks were completed.
The payout days are normally on the 20th day of every month. This is another great choice for making money working from home in your spare time.
Market force is our #1 choice on our topic about how to make money online working from home with mystery shopping. This company has been around in the market since 1972 and is the leader in the secret shopping industry, without a doubt.
Everyone seems to be pleased with the quality of the service they provide for both the companies and the shoppers too. Most of their tasks are related to daily shopping, gas stations, Pizzas, and Restaurants.
The amount of money you are paid may vary on what assignment you are in, approximately $11 per hour. You will get a full reimbursement or partial refund for anything you purchase during the project. You will need a minimum of a High school diploma and 18 or more for applying to this site.
Pros & Cons of Mystery Shopping Jobs:
Even though becoming a mystery shopper has many perks and benefits, it also has some disadvantages. So let’s see what good things you will be getting by becoming a secret shopper for these companies and the cons about it too.
Mystery Shopping Pros:
It is a Free to start work from home opportunity.
You can work part-time without any limitations.
It always has minimal requirements to get approved as a shopper.
You will be getting free products and samples to try as a customer
It’s a great opportunity for those who love shopping
Anyone with good communication and monitoring skills can do it.
Many Mystery shopping companies recruit shoppers across the globe.
Mystery ShoppingCons:
The payout might be less
You can’t become rich with this kind of work.
The payouts are most of the time-delayed for 30-45 days
You might not be getting the daily task.
A good observation skill might be required
Final Thoughts About Mystery Shopping:
Now that you have learned a bit about how to make money online with mystery shopping, always look for a company that has a great reputation. You can also apply for more websites, but make sure you read the term and conditions because some companies don’t allow you to apply with other different sites. You can go for Market force or Best mark which has the best reputation in the mystery shopping industry. All the best and make more money.