Secret Shopping And Shopping Blogs

Shopping blogs are of a more recent origin. The blogosphere, or the world of internet blogs, has been witnessing tremendous changes virtually on a day-to-day basis. At first, there were only political and personal blogs. Now one can find corporate blogs, journalistic blogs, shopping blogs, and technological blogs. Shopping blogs are similar to e-commerce websites; but are more personalized and smaller in scope and product range.

These blogs provide valuable information about various products and services in the form of product descriptions and reviews. Customers can actively participate in discussions. Shopping blogs are more content-focused, as opposed to sales or action-oriented websites. Therefore, these blogs are excellent tools to create a better awareness among the users about the product or the service. Secret shopping is the most effective method to evaluate the performance and functionality of shopping blogs.

Secret shopping is a tried and tested way of evaluating the performance of ground level marketing and sales staff at a retail shop. Theoretically, it can be considered as a tool for market research, such as questionnaire surveys. However, it is conducted secretively, and hence it is infinitely more effective than the conventional and formal forms of market research.

In this form of market research, a researcher masquerades as a casual shopper and observes certain pre-determined factors in the behavior and customer relationship of the sales person and ask certain predefined questions. The researcher, known as secret shopper or mystery shopper, then gives a detailed report about the performance of the sales staff. And yes, the mystery shopper will be paid for his or her efforts if the report is found satisfactory and genuine.

Secret shopping is mainly conducted in restaurants, hotels, hospitals, textile showrooms, mobile phone outlets, home appliances shops, self storage units, and property management organizations. It can be conducted in a retail outlet that sells some physical products such as mobile phones or an organization that provides some service such as a hospital.

Nowadays, secret shopping of online stores has also been increasingly becoming popular. The online mystery shopping focuses more on the ease of using the services of the website, display of various products on the web page, variety of products available, pricing patterns, and the actual time taken for delivery.

Secret shopping offers an opportunity for the interested people to develop an additional source of income. If you are interested, you can make use of many secret shopping opportunities available on the internet and make some additional bucks.

However, one has to be realistic about the money one will be able to earn through mystery shopping assignments. As its name indicates, most of the activities associated with this form of data collection are secretive. Therefore, one cannot find much information about this job such as the exact wages of the job and contact details of experienced secret shoppers, on the internet.

According to Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA), the average rate per shop is $5 to $20. Obviously, for tougher and more elaborate assignments one can charge a higher rate. For example, if the organization wants a video footage of the performance of sales persons, the rate will be much higher than mentioned above - as operational costs and risks of such assignments are higher than that of normal assignments.

Secret shopping assignments have been in great demand of late, because of the rampant job losses in many high profile industries. These assignments will not, and cannot, make a person super rich; but these can offer a person a decent source of regular income to support his or her daily needs.

It is not very difficult to find secret shopping jobs. However, one cannot trust all mystery shopping advertisements. Some of them are issued by fraudulent people to swindle money from unsuspecting victims. Therefore, one has to be careful while selecting these assignments.

The rule of thumb is to never make any advance payment to the advertiser, who might demand a registration fee or a caution deposit. Never fall for it, even if the amount demanded is small. Genuine organizations do not make any financial demands.

Normally, you do not need any certification or particular educational qualification to work as secret shoppers. However, MSPA offers some certificate courses. These are good starting points if you are struggling to find the right opening. You need to have the integrity, dedication, and an ability to write clear and concise reports.

One should be motivated enough to carry out a secret shopping assignment with a high level of responsibility. If you do not have enough time, you might become tempted to pay a hasty visit to a shop and write a report using your creativity and imagination. Such reports may get accepted once or twice. However, if you make it a habit, you will be caught sooner than later and it will result in a big loss of reputation.
In addition, such irresponsible actions would defeat the purpose of mystery shopping.

Companies hire secret shopping volunteers to get a clear picture and exact data of what is happening in the shop floor. They do not want the opinion or impression of the secret shopper. What they want is how the sales people behave and their response to certain queries. The organizations then provide this data to experienced research analysts for further investigation.

The secret shopper should have a clear idea of the guidelines and specifications provided by the organization. Typical parameters for evaluating the sales persons include the following: how they greet you; whether they are patient in dealing with you and clearing all your doubts; and whether they encourage you to use other services or buy other products or not. You may not be able to make notes instantly about the performance of the sales persons based on the given criteria. Therefore, the mystery shopper has to make mental notes during the assignment and remember those while writing the report.

It has to be remembered that one has to get multiple projects simultaneously to earn enough money to pursue secret shopping as a full time career option. One has to be patient and ready to work hard. A majority of organizations that provide mystery shopping assignments prefer to work with experienced and reliable volunteers. If you manage to gain confidence and trust of these organizations, you can develop a successful career as a mystery shopper.

Secret shopping is not without controversies. There are many frauds and scams associated with this kind of data collection. A majority of cases involve plain cheating. Some organizations demand money from prospective mystery shoppers either by promising them some lucrative assignments or "valuable" tips for getting assignments. Most people are aware of such scams. However, some people still fall for them. When they give the required amount of money, the people behind these organizations vanish without giving any assignments. Some organizations send a booklet or an email newsletter containing widely available and obvious information about secret shopping. In any case, you will end up losing your money.

There are some innovative scams as well. One of the most notorious secret shopping scams involves the clever use of bank checks. It goes like this. You apply for a secret shopping assignment after seeing an advertisement in a newspaper or on the internet. You instantly get an offer letter along with a check of, say, $5000. The letter says that you will get, for example, $200 per assignment. And this is the first sample assignment, based on the successful and prompt completion of which, you will be selected for further assignments.

The sample assignment is pretty simple. You have to wire an amount to a specified address using services such as MoneyGram or Western Union. Needless to say, this assignment is to evaluate the efficiency of customer service executives of MoneyGram or Western Union.

They have sent you a check of $5000; you can deduct your assignment charge of $200, and send the remaining $4800 to a specified address. The only thing is that you have to do it quickly. Otherwise, you may not get further assignments. Therefore, you send the specified amount as quickly as possible, without waiting for the encashment of the check. You will realize your mistake only when the check bounces. You will not be able to get the check cashed, as there will be no money in that account. If you opt for such fraudulent mystery shopping companies, you will end up losing even the money you have at present. Therefore, do not accept any types of checks before you do any assignments.

Secret shopping helps improve the overall functionality of shopping blogs. The greatest advantage of these blogs is the value of information and availability of specific products. These blogs are helpful for manufacturers, marketers, shop owners, and consumers alike. Consumers can find new products and services; marketers and shop owners can find the pulse of customer requirements; and manufacturers can get feedback from the customers.