Mystery shoppers are also known as mystery clients. They visit a specific store to evaluate the sales process, customer service, store environment, etc. They must act like any regular customer at all times so that they are never recognized as a mystery shopper. That’s why it’s called mystery shopping. It’s almost like an undercover job!

They must follow specific guidelines such as date and time to shop, location of the store, sometimes even a scenario! Mystery shops can take anywhere between 5 minutes to 1.5 hour to complete. Then, there’s a simple yet detailed report to write where they input information about their visit.

Companies that hire mystery shoppers are usually market research companies. There are many of them all across the world. Some of them have clients internationally!

However their clients are not disclosed. Therefore you can’t know who their clients are (stores/restaurants that a mystery shopper will be sent to) beforehand. This means that you’ll have to sign up for as many companies as you can to have access to their database of mystery shops and assignments available in your area.