Audits vs Merchandising vs Mystery Shops

I have been doing mystery shops (mostly unrevealed) for the last year but wanted to know what exactly merchandising and audits entailed. I am sure they vary greatly between MSCs and client, but can anyone give me some generic examples? Do they tend to pay better or worse than mystery shops when looking at the time it takes to complete? Thanks in advance!

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In order to get answers from folks who do merchandising, I suggest that you post a question about that in the Merchandising area of the forum, since they tend to hang out there. As for audits from MS companies, perhaps if you post in the MS section, more shoppers will see and respond. Since I have never done an audit and do not do revealed shiops I do not have answers for those myself.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

I am an employee as a merchandiser and make an hourly wage. I am an IC as a shopper and get paid by the job. I hate audits in general and have only done a few and that was quite awhile ago. They pay by the jjob generally and not enough for me personally to bother with.

Thanks for those answers! I will keep looking into it!

The jobs vary. You may become more effective and efficient over time. You might like a variety of tasks. You might negotiate for bonuses. You might enjoy interacting with other people. There are so many variables in why you might like these types of work! Have fun finding out what these jobs are like for you!

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. - Lao-Tzu

audits and mystery shopping are pretty intertwined... a significant number of mystery shop assignments have an audit portion first and then reveal...

merchandising is usually dealing with placing products/displays out on the floor...

however the larger companies do a mix of both if they are employed by a number of companies... for instance one of the walmart contractors had me place movies on display and then go around and check and make sure that disposable shot glass cups were with the soda displays

shopping north west PA and south west ny

I prefer auditing to mystery shopping. You don't have to hide what you are doing and people are very friendly and helpful. But I have found that MS pays much better. I also do merchandising for a manufacturer not a rep firm and I like having a regular paycheck that I can count on. You can always do all 3, I do. It's not hard at all.

If you're looking for all different types of retail merchandising jobs, a good resource is [retailmerchandisinghq.com]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/2017 12:07AM by GJCarp.

You don't need to be "certified" to be a merchandiser. Sounds like the mystery shopper "certification" from years past.

@sherrij10 wrote:

You don't need to be "certified" to be a merchandiser. Sounds like the mystery shopper "certification" from years past.

One company has announced a test for merchandisers for one brand's project. If one passes this test, one can continue as a merchandiser. If not, then.....

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. - Lao-Tzu

Who has the test? Advantage's recruiter emailed me a bunch of questions in a very informal format for a Sales Assignment for a very large company that is coming out with a set of new products.

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Audits vs Merchandising vs Mystery Shops

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