Ashrita Mohan seems like your typical college student in search of the perfect pair of jeans at one of the big clothing stores in the city. She fits the bill of a fussy shopper, as a saleswoman patiently tries to help her.
But Ashrita is not a regular shopper looking for skinny jeans; she is a ‘mystery shopper’ — one among the 6,000-odd such residents from various fields of life in the city. These are people recruited by companies to pose as shoppers to gauge how the store staff and atmospherics come across to a typical consumer. “A friend introduced me to this last summer as a way of making some quick money during our college break,” says the third-year visual communications student. “But, now I do it just for fun. I get to do something I love: shopping. Also, sometimes, I am compensated for purchases, instead of getting paid,” she adds.
Manufacturers as well as retail companies are increasingly resorting to mystery shoppers to be their eyes and ears on the floor. Whether it is keeping tabs and doing random checks on customer interaction, display of items, merchandising, billing or even maintenance of restrooms and utilities, companies want anonymous and honest reviews.
Pankaj Guglani, CEO of Mumbai-based Redquanta, a company that puts mystery shoppers in touch with companies, says Chennai was one of the first metros to jump on to the bandwagon. “We have 4,000 mystery shoppers in Chennai, reporting for companies in industries varying from beauty, food, textile to even e-commerce,” he says, adding, “We match profiles of interested applicants with the sort of assignments that suit them. We have a lot of people who are looking at doing something interesting on weekends and not regular income,” he says.
Christie Sylvia was one such person. When she was working from home, writing content, she explored mystery shopping. She describes an assignment at a skin clinic: “They wanted me to test the knowledge of their staff and whether they went beyond pushing the customer to opt for their treatments,” she says. She sent her feedback and was compensated for her time spent on the assignment.
Mr. Guglani says shoppers are often compensatedthrough services in the store. “A restaurant audit can mean a meal for two on the house for the shopper, while a real estate visit would mean a fee,” he says. Assignments set back the clients anywhere between Rs. 300 and Rs. 5,000. For some it is money, but for others like Ashrita, it would mean just attaching the word ‘mystery’ to what they already are: shoppers.
