Top 25 Mystery shopping companies in India 2020


Mystery shopping companies in India.
Mystery shopping companies

Best mystery shopping companies in India 2020


Below is a list of 25 Mystery shopping companies who conduct audits in India. I have only worked with the first 13 companies, the rest 12 companies also do audits in India. I have ranked them on the basis of number of clients, timely payment, ease of report filing, trust, and customer support.  A mystery shopper is a person who observes everything without being observed.


1) HS Brands - It's an International company which provides brand protection, mystery shopping, compliance, and validation services. The company was founded in 1992 and it is headquartered in Las Vegas, NV. 

2) IPSOS - It is a Paris based company which was founded in 1975 by Didier Truchot. 
3) Floorwalk - FloorWalk is specialized in mystery Shopping and Consumer Insights. It was founded in 2014 and it is headquartered in Nagpur, Maharashtra.

4) Infakt Insights - Mr Kunal Khanna is the founder of this organization and it was founded in 2015. Their headquarter is in Pune,Maharashtra.

5) Bare International - Again an international company headquartered in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Fairfax. It was founded in 1987. 

6) Channel Play - Channelplay was founded by three IIM graduates in 2006. Mr Sundeep Holani is the current CEO and co-founder of the company. They have their mystery shopper application for android as well as iOS .

7) Redquanta - Mumbai based company was founded by Mr Pankaj Guglani in 2010. Their mystery shopper application android and iOS makes secret shopper’s work easy.

8) Shaw Hotels - This company was established in 1991 by Late Mr. Pesi M. Shaw, a Chartered Accountant by profession. They are Mumbai based.

9) Trans MR - They provide service of Research and Analysis, Mystery Shopping, Custom Training Programmes, Market Entry Consultancy Service, Custom Reporting, Data Analysis, Competitive Evaluation, Online Support Service, Telephonic Service. It's a Mumbai based company established in 2006.

10) Onion Insight - Bhairavi Sagar is the owner of this company and it was established in 2009 in Mumbai.

11) The Le Capri - A Delhi headquartered company was founded in 2010.

12) International service check - It's an international firm. They pay you by paypal.

13) Helion research - They focus on Customer Experience Measurement, Sales Channel Measurement, Sales Channel Effectiveness & Business Intelligence. Their headquarter is in Antwerpen and it was founded in 2009


I haven’t worked with the companies listed below so I can’t tell exactly about them but you can visit their websites and become a mystery shopper.

21) TacheMR


What is mystery shopping ?


It is a process to evaluate the quality of the sales and services, conformity, performance, etc. the market research firms seek the information about the market or their competitors to
improve their customer service and insights. They conduct audits in Retail, Automobile, Real estate, Banking and finance, Hospitality, Consumer Goods, restaurants, Fitness, Tourism, Hotel, E-commerce, Teaching institutes, Theaters, Amusement park etc sectors.

Mystery shopper
Mystery shopper

Why is Mystery shopping necessary ?

A client wants to check customer experience, service quality, process efficiency, store hygiene, staff knowledge, Hospitality etc. in their outlets. If a client visits the outlets in-person, then it is obvious that they will get a genuine outcome. Hence the client outsources this work to mystery shopping companies and makes the work easier and efficient. These agencies send their mystery shoppers to the nearest outlets. They visit as a customer and check all the parameters as per client’s requirement.

The information gathered by the mystery shopper should be 100% authentic. Depending upon this information, an agency will measure the parameters as per client’s requirement. The purpose of doing this isn't to take an action on someone by capturing their behavior either right or wrong. The main purpose of the exercise is to get the insights of the company and accordingly they can improve the quality and efficiency of their work.




Types of audits.


Basically there are three major types : 

1) Inquiry audit – In this type of audit, the shopper will visit the assigned location as a customer and will inquire about the product/s and gather all the required information. Based on the information and proofs the shopper will have to submit the report within the given timeline. 


Example – A company will ask you for your preferred location, date and time to which you can select any nearby location to do the audit. Once you select your location, they will explain and share you the guidelines on the E-mail ID. As it is an inquiry audit you will have to just inquire about the products e.g. watch, Jewellery, property, vehicle, phone etc. They will inform you to collect few proofs, but while doing this you will have to make sure that it’s a mystery audit hence you should not get revealed by the company associates or else the audit will go void. After the completion of your audit, you will have to login to their portal and submit the report/questionnaire of your experience in the store.Later, they will quality check the report and approve it, once the report is approved you will get the audit fee within the scheduled date given by the company.



2) Purchase audit – This type of audit is an advantage for both the shopper as well as the company because you get paid for what you have purchased. 


Example – It is similarly like an inquiry audit; the only difference is here you will have to purchase or take the service e.g. Shoes, Spectacles, Salon service, Cuisine, Bike service, Clothes etc.You have to attach the image of the bill in your report and then you will be reimbursed the money.



3) Revealed audit – This type of audit is a bit different from the previous two. In the above two types you had to visit the store as a customer without informing them that you are a mystery shopper. Whereas, in this type you have to reveal yourself that you are a secret shopper.

Example – A company will share you one authority letter given by the client. You will have to show that letter while doing the audit and reveal yourself that you are an auditor. It can be an inquiry or a purchase audit. In an inquiry they can ask you to measure product stock, products arrangement, interior etc. Majorly they do purchase and return audits in this.


Process to become a mystery shopper.


- Sign up on their websites.

- Login to their dashboard.

- Check which audits are available nearby you and apply.

- Then their executive will contact you and brief you.

- As per the guidelines, conduct the audit.

- Fill and submit the report.


I have given a list of companies. You can register with all of them. Most probably they send an email whenever they start any new project. Some of them send a text message or app notifications too. Many times if you are a regular shopper they contact you directly.



Tools to do audits.


The main thing which will require is a smartphone. Agencies mainly require Exterior picture with timestamp, audio recording, video recording, a cleared scanned document picture, geographical tag. Here are the tools which will make your survey easy.
  1. Quick video recording - You can start video recording and lock the phone, still it captures the video.
  2. Timestamp camera free - Click pictures through this app which will add time in the photo.
  3. Automatic call recorder - You can use this app for call recording.
  4. Camscanner - Through this app you can capture a crystal clear picture of your document.
  5. GPS verification - In some of the surveys they ask you geographical area, so this app generates a unique code which you can share with them. They redeem it and they come to know your location.


Tips and conclusion.


- Always write down the things immediately when you come out of the outlet.
- Make rapport with their employees to get many projects.
- Submit reports on time.
- Have patience about payment. 
- Provide genuine feedback to respective mystery shopping company.
- All the projects start or resume at the start of the month.
- A good mystery shopper is always equipped with the tools mentioned above.


So you can sign up on all the mystery shopping company's website and become a mystery shopper. You just have to spend on an average 20-45 minutes to conduct an audit. You can pick up bulk audits also and earn an extra income. If you have any query you can reach to me. 

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