Gigwalk is a cell phone app you can use to find quick merchandising “gigs” on the fly. You download the app to your phone, enter some basic information and your Paypal address, and then you can have it search for gigs near you. I find it often reports gigs to me that are up to 50-60 miles away as the crow flies. But some are local, and those are the ones I try to get.
The great thing about this is the longest you should have to wait for payment is about ten days. I’ve had gigs that paid within 24 hours. My first gig tried to pay me the same day I did it but I hadn’t yet entered a Paypal address so it took another day.
Once you download the app, check it regularly even if you don’t have time to do any gigs. You build up a rating based on how often you check in plus how many gigs you do. If your rating is high enough, I believe you eventually reach a point where you can “self-assign.” Until then they usually will let you know within an hour or a day depending on the gig whether you have it or not.
Each gig will have a window of time during which it must be completed. When you apply, it will ask if you can do it within, for example, 6 hours or 2 days or 1 week. Or it might be within 1 day or 3 days or 2 weeks. It just depends on the gig. Preference is given to gigwalkers who can do it the soonest.
As with any contract work, flakes and cancels can work against you. Don’t take a gig if you aren’t sure you can do it.
So what will you do on a gig? You could be checking a local grocery store to see if a certain item is in stock, or putting up a shelf talker, or checking a price. You could be helping with a recall. You could just have to take a picture of a display the store already set up, to prove they had done so. Some gigs could take an hour or more; the ones I’ve done so far have taken from five to twenty minutes.
Requirements: you MUST have a smart phone with GPS ability, a good camera, and geotagging turned on. It will tell you if you don’t. My first gig I must have spent twenty minutes trying to figure out how to turn geotagging on and getting the GPS to report the correct location. (My phone tended to remember the last location where I used GPS and I would have to turn the phone off and on again to get it to reset and report my correct location.) Note: all pics must be taken with the phone. You cannot use a camera and upload them when you get home. All work is reported on location.
My first gig paid $25 so for a few minutes in a store and no report to do later, this can be lucrative. Some gigs pay only $6, maybe less. It might be worth picking up even the cheap shops to get your rating high enough to not have to wait to be assigned.
Go to your phone’s app store and look for Gigwalk. It’s a nice way to add to your mystery shopping income and put your smartphone to work for you.
Questions about this article? Email the editor: james@mysteryshoppermagazine.com