Getting paid to shop can be a lucrative job that pays a few dollars by using an app or thousands of dollars if you are a shopper who sources high-end clothes and furnishing. Many people work for grocery store shipping services as Shipt shoppers or Instacart shoppers. Others pick up a few dollars in their spare time with apps that offer cashback.
Do you love to shop? Whether you enjoy finding things you like or tracking down deals, wouldn’t it be even better if you could get paid to shop?
Without even leaving your home, you might earn as you shop for yourself. If you are at home in the world of retail and have a good eye for clothing or furnishings, you can have a lucrative job as a personal shopper. You can shop for others without much training and a reliable vehicle if you work with Instcart or Shpt.
If you want to pick work when it is convenient, these flexible job opportunities might be just what you are looking for.
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How Do I Get Paid To Shop?
There are three main ways to get paid to shop. Some of these opportunities can be pretty lucrative, while others are really part-time side gigs just to put a bit of extra money in your pocket.
Many people find themselves constantly in a state of frenzy, rushing around from one destination to the next. To reduce their stress, these people may utilize a delivery service to bring the items they need to their door. The shopping is done by an in-store shopper who goes to the local stores and delivers the items. Some major vendors, such as Instacart and Shipt, deliver much more than groceries, but the list of stores varies by area.
The second way to get paid to shop is to use an app that rewards you with payments for your online shopping. These apps reward you for purchasing things you are already buying. You might access coupon codes to reduce your price today or earn cash back that you will collect in the future.
The third is to become an independent contractor who does personal shopping for those too busy to do it for themselves. This can be anything from buying items to decorate a new home to purchasing gifts for them on an as-needed basis. Some people hire a stylist to act as a shopper, ensuring their outfits are always on point for work and recreation.
Ways To Earn
1. Grocery Shopping
Services such as Instacart and Shipt deliver groceries from area grocery stores, drugstores and pharmacies, and other local stores that might include Sam’s Club, PetSmart, Staples, Sephora, or dollar stores.
Some just shop for the products, while others both shop and deliver grocery products to a person’s home. Those who do both can earn more than those who just pull products from the shelves. Drivers use their personal vehicles to make deliveries, although in some cities with excellent public transit, some shoppers use public transit.
Full-service Instartcart shoppers who deliver are paid a wage based on order size and weight, distance, and dollar value. In addition, any tips the customer adds to the order go 100% to the shopper.
Rate of Pay: With tips, Instacart shoppers who deliver are paid a fee per order, plus tips. That brings their wages up to about $15 per hour, although they can make more in some areas. If you grocery shop and deliver for Walmart Spark, you can earn anywhere at much as $40-$50 an hour, although the average wage is $18.88.
2. Mystery Shoppers
Mystery shoppers are hired to test the quality of customer service in a business. Acting like a regular customer, the shopper poses as a regular shopper who goes into a business to purchase or return items. Of course, the employees do not know the person was sent in to see how customers are treated.
Also known as a secret shopper, the company or another company can employ the individual. They rank the quality of experience they have. If the company hires them, the business CEOs will analyze the data and make appropriate adjustments to ensure that the experience that customers have is a positive one. When an outside company sends in the shoppers, the ratings are published. As you can imagine, these reviews will either help or harm a retail store or other business.
There are three types of mystery shoppers: In-person, telephone mystery shopping, and hybrid, where the shopper might buy an item and then use either online or phone customer service to address an alleged issue.
Beforehand, the shopper will know what the gig pays.
Rate of pay: Depending on what kind of mystery shopping you do and how often you work, the pay can vary from $298 – $1884 monthly.
3. Personal Shoppers
When you are a personal shopper, you shop for others. This can involve you shopping with the person or doing all of the work on your own and having the items delivered to the individual.
Individuals hire personal shoppers because they don’t have time to shop, aren’t good at coordinating outfits, or don’t have the expertise to buy wisely – especially for furnishings. Someone might hire a full-service shopper to do anything from purchasing a new wardrobe to taking care of the annual Christmas shopping.
Rate of pay: High-end personal shoppers can make roughly $61,000. Rates on Thumbtack indicate that some shoppers charge $50-$200 an hour, but Salary.com puts the rate between $19-$24.
4. Amazon Personal Shoppers
Amazon personal shoppers can help take something off of a person’s plate while also saving them a shopping trip. Amazon wardrobe jobs are perfect for people who love to shop and are looking to work on their own schedule.
How it works is the person chooses clothing and accessories from Amazon Prime wardrobe by using their own personal taste, information the customer has supplied, and artificial intelligence analysis of what the customer has indicated they like.
Hard to believe that you can make money by shopping, isn’t it? Well, believe it because personal shoppers are becoming more common than one might think.
Rate of pay: According to ZipRecruiter, Amazon shoppers make about $21 an hour.
5. Shopping, Errands, and Personal Assistant Jobs
Considering seeking employment shopping, running errands, or doing other small tasks for someone else? Depending on your availability and where you live, you may be able to find some great opportunities to make a few extra bucks either as a side hustle or a full-time job. Companies like ScaleSource hire employees to work in this capacity.
Are you a bit of a handyman? Check out TaskRabbit, where people can hire you to do odd jobs around the house.
Rate of pay: Although salaries may vary, the average rate of pay for ScaleSource is $41,000 annually. The TaskRabbit site indicated what workers charge per hour for various services.
5. Food Delivery
If you don’t mind leaving your house but are looking to make a few bucks, you can work for a company that allows people to order from a delivery app and then have the items delivered to their homes.
Aside from doing grocery shopping for Instacart, you can also deliver food from restaurants from businesses like GrubHub, DoorDash, or Uber eats. The customer orders their food item, such as breakfast and coffee from Starbucks. Once the order is prepared, a driver can pick it up and deliver it.
If you are thinking about becoming a delivery driver, you can get started without much more than a reliable vehicle, a driver’s license, and the desire to work. Most of these jobs pay you extra cash that is periodically direct deposited into your bank account.
The beauty of these jobs is that you can check the app and indicate your availability anytime you have free time.
Rate of Pay: Delivery drivers make around $16 per hour.
What Apps Pay You To Shop For Yourself or Other People?
It probably sounds too good to be true, but some apps reward you for shopping using them. These apps are either cashback apps or ones where you receive rewards points that can be traded in for perks. You either order through the app or take a picture of your receipt to get credit, depending on how that particular program works.
Apps that give you free money for buying things you already use:
While you couldn’t live on what these gigs pay, the reward they offer add up. Most offer a tally of your current earnings when you log in.
