10,000,000 shopping assignments for you

In 2005 there were more than 10 million mystery shopping assignments completed, according to a study commissioned by the Mystery Shopping Providers association.

That same study estimated that the mystery shopping industry was worth around $600 million 2005, and growing at 15% a year.

But here’s what’s really interesting. Reading between the lines, if there were 10 million assignments in 2005, accounting for 600 million dollars, that would average out to $60 per assignment. That means, on average, there was $60 in revenue per assignment….

Which gives us an interesting way to gauge what to expect as fair pay per assignment.

Looking at it another way, that $60 needs to be split among a large group of people. First, the mystery shopping company takes a cut. Some of that money goes to the general overhead of the business, some of it to the scheduler, the report editor, the person working with the business being shopped, the marketer, the person designing the mystery shop, and so on. And of course, there is the owner of the mystery shopping company, who wants to create as much profit as possible for him/herself.

All of which provides very little room for the mystery shopper to get a fair cut.

Fortunately, there are good companies out there that value their mystery shoppers and DO give them a fair wage for their mystery shopping.

If you want to get the best pay with mystery shopping, you need to find those good mystery shopping companies. But here’s the thing. Once you find the good companies, you’ll no longer need to take assignments from the low paying companies. And that means the low paying companies will have one less mystery shopper to work with, which means they’ll be forced to raise their rates.

So – instead of taking a low paying assignment, I say you ought to spend that time applying to more companies.

If you want to make a nice solid income with mystery shopping, then you’ve got to find the good companies. Aim for a list of 20 companies that you work with on a regular basis. And maybe another list of 15 companies that you keep tabs on every once in a while.