Secret Shopper Review

Monday, December 2nd

2024 Mystery Shopping Company Reviews

Secret Shopper

• Pay from $10 to $120 per job
• Monthly payment through direct deposit or check
• Make a free account by answering quick questions
• Tons of local opportunities
• High-payment opportunities
• Mobile app available
• Routing for multiple shops per day
• "A+” rating and accreditation from the BBB

Secret Shopper is a site that's been around for 30+ years. With a worldwide shopper base, you can work for Secret Shopper no matter where you're located. Open since 1990, Secret Shopper offers on-site shops, phone shops, and online shops for a variety that works for any schedule. You can expect to earn extra cash, free services, free meals, and complimentary hotel or travel stays, and with a mobile app, Secret Shopper lets you fill out your paperwork on the go. However, we could not find evidence that Secret Shopper is accredited by the Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA), but this doesn't appear to have affected the company's reputation.

Tons of local shops with site recommendations too

To see the jobs listed at Secret Shopper, you'll need to join the website. First, put in your name, date of birth, gender, phone and email. You'll also be asked for your address and your tax ID number (or SSN), but you can choose to skip that for now if you just want to see jobs. You'll need to sign three agreements for privacy and your position as an independent contractor. Then, you can head to your shopper portal and begin looking at jobs (also known as "shops”). Notably, Secret Shopper offers you recommended shops right off the bat. We were recommended three that were all within 20 minutes of our location. You can expect to find shops for industries like dining, retail, grocery, banking, fitness, automotive, events, property, hotels, online services, and phone services.

Highly organized job boards with 100+ shops

We love how the job board is organized at Secret Shopper. Each job has an icon to tell you what type you'll be working on. Property shops have a little house icon, automotive shops have a little car, and fitness shops have a running man. You can sort the jobs by distance, city, detail, or location. The recommended shops are based on your demographic information, so the more you fill out, the more accurate the recommendations will be. You can also look at the full list outside of the recommended shops, and we had more than 100 to choose from in our area.

Tons of details to help you succeed

On top of the at-a-glance icons on shop listings, you'll see the location, type of shop (what you'll be expected to do), the distance from your current location, and the flat payment (plus any reimbursement). If you like the concept of a shop from its listing, you can click through for even more details. You'll find a client briefing (which must be followed precisely), and any important notices will be posted in the complete briefing too. For example, we saw one gig for a medspa. If you had previously visited one of these chain locations before, the notice stated that you would be ineligible. The job asked for you to book an IV wellness appointment, upload photos of the building, document the wellness plan offered to you, and write an assessment for the booking process as well as the in-spa experience. There are no details left up to chance, so you'll know exactly what you're doing on each job.

Payments from $10 to $120 per job

If you are less impressed with the payments offered at some of the other companies in our review, you'll love the numbers at Secret Shopper. The lowest payment we saw in our list of nearby shops was $10, but the majority of the gigs were $20 per job. We even saw one for $120 for a single shop. There were also impressive reimbursements for almost all of the shops (up to $99). On some of the listings, you're allowed to bid for a price you think is fair for payment (but reimbursement can't be negotiated). If your bid is accepted, you'll be given the shop right away. Your payment will be sent monthly through direct deposit if you're a US or Canadian citizen. You can also choose a check, and these will be sent on the 20th of every month.

Build a shopper route

One of the special features we loved at Secret Shopper was the Scheduled Shops tab. To maximize your payout for a single day of mystery shopping, you can use Schedule Shops to sign up for routes. These routes will spread out shops (up to 3 per day) that will help you get the most done without doing unnecessary driving on one route.

Solid scores from the BBB and app users

Secret Shopper currently holds an "A+” rating and accreditation from the Better Business Bureau. However, finding feedback for Secret Shopper is a little harder than at other sites. We were able to find reviews for the site's mobile app, where Secret Shopper has a 3.9-star average. In general, mystery shoppers love that the site is easy to work with and that they can pick up some serious cash with mystery shopping at Secret Shopper. While some customers are frustrated with technical issues, most contractors are pleased with the ability to choose their jobs and organize them with a routed day of reimbursed (and paid) shopping. While we would love to see more feedback outside of mobile apps, the response to Secret Shopper is impressive.

Solid mystery shopping experience

Secret Shopper is one of our favorite sites hands down. While we were worried about a lack of accreditation through the MSPA, mystery shoppers are saying we don't need to be (and neither do you). Secret Shopper is legit, and it makes mystery shopping a breeze. With high-paying opportunities and impressive reimbursements, this is a great site to check out if you're interested in mystery shopping. Only the general lack of reviews outside of the mobile app stores and the missing MSPA accreditation keep Secret Shopper from being our top pick, but it easily earns a competitive score in our review.