5 Best Mystery Shopper Jobs In 2023 (Earn $25 Per Hour!)

Thankfully, mystery shopper jobs aren’t exactly like that. Yes, you’ll need to be undercover, but you just need to act as a normal customer would.

To thank you for doing this, companies pay you a fee, and you may be able to get products for free as well!

I have personally been mystery shopping for years now and started this as an easy college side hustle, and I’ve received free food and clothing besides being paid for my time.

You can become a mystery shopper too and make money on the side, once you check out these great mystery shopping jobs.

Let’s take a look at this awesome side hustle idea and get you set up to make extra money with the best legitimate mystery shopping companies out there. 

What is a Mystery Shopper?

A mystery shopper is someone who is paid by a company to undertake certain tasks that they set out for them to do.

It could be testing out their website, shopping in-store, seeing a movie or checking out the theater, or ordering a meal at a location.

Let’s pretend that you own a company. You can’t be there all the time, but you want to know how it’s being run without you there.

So what do you do? You hire a mystery shopper to go do some mystery shopping and scope things out for you!

A mystery shopper acts like a regular customer and carries out the tasks that they’re asked to do.

This varies from job to job, depending on the mystery shopping company and what they want to checked.

If you become a mystery shopper, then you’ll have to do various tasks, but you’ll be told what to do ahead of time.

5 Legitimate Sites To Find Mystery Shopper Jobs

There are a lot of good mystery shopping companies out there, but it’s also worth looking at which ones are the best paying.

Mystery shopping can be fun, but many people worry they won’t be well compensated for their time.

You’ll be told how much money you’ll make mystery shopping, plus oftentimes you get freebies on your trips.

1. Market Force

Market Force is one of my favorite mystery shopping companies for mystery shopping jobs- I’ve gotten a lot of free meals through this company!

The companies usually on Market Force include restaurants, cafes, banks, and other stores, e.g. clothing.

Mystery shoppers tend to get more freebies from Market Force jobs rather than a high pay rate, but I never complain about free food.

They tend to offer a small pay rate to mystery shoppers and a full or partial reimbursement on anything you need to buy as part of the task.

 Market Force usually asks you to enter the store and ask as a normal customer would, so if you’re in a coffee shop, they’ll ask you something like buying a coffee and a cookie.

To sign up, you need to:

Create an account to be a Market Force shopper
Answer some questions
Sign the Terms of the Agreement, and you’re done!

2. BestMark

BestMark is one of the biggest mystery shopping companies, so you can be sure that you’ll get some jobs from them!

Your pay depends on the jobs you accept, but they have assignments at hotels, restaurants, resorts, and more. Bestmark refers to mystery shoppers as ‘field representatives.’

To sign up, you need to:

Go to their ‘Become a Shopper’ page
Click on the button that says ‘Sign Up Now’
Enter your information
After this, check your inbox for an email to finish your application
Wait to see if they approve your application

3. Intellishop

Intellishop has a large variety of clients in different industries for mystery shopping.

That includes Fitness, Food Service, Home Goods, Insurance, Real Estate, Shopping Malls, Sports Teams & Venues, Transportation companies, and more.

There are 3 main mystery shopper experiences that they do – on location, on their website, or on the phone.

The pay is via Paypal, and it’s worth noting that payment won’t come through individually for each shop but all lumped in together.

You get preference for jobs if you have worked for Intellishop before, have a high shopper rating, do not have any flake or cancel citations, have hero citations, have a Gold or Silver certification, or have registered as IC Pro.

To sign up, you need to:

On the Mystery Shopping Services page, click on the top header that says ‘Shoppers’ and then the drop-down line which says ‘Become a Shopper’
Enter your email address and then click on the ‘Go’ button
Complete the demographic questionnaire (this is how you’re selected for certain jobs)
Enter your tax information
You’ll just then need to agree to the terms, and you can get started!

4. Secret Shopper

Secret Shopper is a legit mystery shopper company – they have been running since 1990. They’re a charter member of the Mystery Shopping Provider’s Association, the professional trade association for the Mystery Shopping industry.

The payment for each job varies, but the normal range of payments is $15 – $25 per hour. For some shops, such as restaurant visits, the payment may just be your meal reimbursement.

They ask that you have access to a computer and either a digital scanner or printer for submitting the proof of the shop, e.g., a receipt and your report.

You must be over 18 years old to sign up for secret shopper jobs, but you don’t need to have any previous experience.

They ask that you’re reliable, detail-oriented, and have ‘exceptional written communication skills.’

To sign up, you need to:

Visit the Secret Shopper Sign Up page
Select your country and then click on the button ‘Sign Up to Shop’
Agree to their T&C’s
Complete the basic certification test
Fill in your personal information

5. Sinclair Customer Metrics

The industries that Sinclair Customer Metrics serves include Banking, Convenience Stores, Groceries, Restaurants, and Retail.

They offer mystery shopping, video mystery shopping, and telephone mystery shopping. The telephone ones are good if you want to work from home and get paid.

To sign up, you need to:

Visit the New Mystery Shopper Sign-Up page
Enter your name, email, and reference code if you have one
Review the Information for Mystery Shoppers Document
Read and agree to the Independent Contractor Agreement
Fill out the Secure Online Application
Take the Sinclair New Shopper Challenge
Take the New Shopper Survey

What To Expect as a Secret Shopper

The mystery shopping companies you sign up for give you all the details you need for the job.

So make sure you read the job description before applying!

Every assignment is different, but as an example, let’s look at a restaurant’s mystery shopping job posting:

The company may have you ask certain questions to the waiter e.g. what would they recommend, do they have any gluten-free meals, etc.

This way, the company can find out if there are certain training programs that need work or if the food isn’t coming out as expected.

The mystery shopping companies outline things like this, plus any other additional questions or tasks they need checked.

You may be asked additional things such as checking out the toilet facility, if they have any particular signs up, etc.

To get paid for mystery shopping, you’ll need to complete a report after you have completed whatever tasks were part of the job.

Most companies want you to do this within 24 hours of completing your mystery shopping, so make sure you’re on top of this!

I’ve seen people complain about spending a ton of time on reports, but the companies we’ve mentioned don’t have anything like that.

The report covers everything you did and noticed on the assignment, but if you’re a quick typist, this shouldn’t take you very long.

It also helps to do this straight after you do the mystery shopping, that way, it’s all fresh in your mind and you can get it out of the way quickly.

How Much Do Mystery Shoppers Make?

Mystery shopping is a creative way to make money without doing much other than shopping and perusing stores as you normally do.

And it pays surprisingly well!

On average, mystery shoppers make $41,611 per year according to Zip Recruiter.

That comes down to about $20 per hour, but $40K is for those who do mystery shopping full-time.

Many pick up these jobs as part-time work, so the median salary winds up being closer to $20,000 per year.

But the more hours you put into this, the more you earn from it- just like any other job, but with more shopping fun to be had!

How to Avoid Getting Scammed

While mystery shopping is legit, and there are legitimate mystery shopping companies out there, there are also many mystery shopping scams, unfortunately.

You must check websites thoroughly and check postings for mystery shopper jobs to ensure they’re real companies.

If a mystery shopper company contacts you, or you do a Google search and sign up for whatever pops up, this is where you may get caught by a scam company.

A common mystery shop scam is to ask you to deposit a check – but it’ll be a fake. You won’t ever have to pay to sign up for a company either so beware of any that ask you to do this.

Be wary of any emails you receive claiming to be a mystery shopper company, using poor or broken English.

Also, be sure to check the email provider where the emails are coming from. A legitimate company wouldn’t use AOL, Yahoo, or Gmail emails.

The best way to avoid signing up with scam companies is to sign up for mystery shopper sites based on recommendations.

We recommend some of the best mystery shopping companies in this article, and you can be confident knowing that you won’t be scammed.

Related Opportunities To Make Money

Mystery shopping is an easy win-win for earning money. It doesn’t take much time, and you can get some great freebies for your time. 

If you’re looking for ways to earn extra money online besides mystery shopping jobs, here are our top places to get quick jobs:

Steady Freelancing (And More!)

Everyone has their own skill set, and Steady is the best way for you to find jobs that fit your unique background.

From work-at-home side hustles like becoming a proofreader and becoming a transcriptionist to full-time careers, you can find hundreds of job postings on Steady.

You can sign up for free, using great features like Income Trackers and Income Boosters to ensure you know your worth!

Postmates Food Deliveries

Making food deliveries can be a very lucrative way to make money delivering food with your car.

You can sign up to be a Postmates courier and get paid to deliver groceries and take out.

You can make up to $20+ per hour and set your own schedule so you can work as often or little as you’d like.

There’s no start-up fee – you can download the app, apply for Postmates, and get started earning more money!

Swagbucks

Swagbucks is primarily known as a survey site but offers many other options to make money there as well.

You can make money with Swagbucks by answering surveys, watching videos, getting cashback, playing games, and so on.

In an hour, we’ve made a few bucks, which isn’t a lot, but we firmly believe that every dollar counts.

You may as well get paid if you’re going to scroll around on your phone and play games anyway!

InboxDollars

InboxDollars is another one of the best survey sites that we use almost daily.

Like Swagbucks, you can play games for cash, answer questionnaires, and watch videos for some extra change.

The app is easy to use, and you have plenty of options to make money on your phone pretty quickly.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve been on the fence about whether to try some mystery shopper jobs, we hope this has given you some food for thought.

You can make $20 per hour with this kind of job and do some interesting things as well.

Being a mystery shopper does open the door to many new experiences, which you may as well get paid for, right?

As mentioned, you’ll want to sign up for the best mystery shopper companies to make sure that you’re with a legit company.

Remember to only apply for secret shopping gigs from a list of reputable companies and watch out for scammers who only claim to pay for mystery shopping.

Mystery shopping is a great way to make some extra money, and it’s a fun job that pays well, so you should give it a shot.