I have been successfully mystery shopping for 10 years and am quite familiar with the process of finding shops. However, I am trying to help a relative, whose anxiety does not permit her to engage in the "covert" nature of mystery shopping, to begin merchandising.
As we have been researching it, the process of finding jobs seems to be different for many merchandising companies, with a need to register but then having to apply for jobs directly with the retailer, vs. finding individual assignments on a job board.
Am I misunderstanding the process of finding merchandising work/assignments?
Are there companies that operate in the same manner as most MSC's, with individual jobs posted to an internal job board for which registrants can apply? If so, can you recommend any?
More generally do you have any advice to offer in terms of where and how to get started with merchandising?
Thanks in advance for any recommendations, tips, or advice that you can provide. I have tried to contribute over the years on the MS side of this Forum and hope that someone can help in this area.

I do a lot of merchandising. There are sites that are like MS such as Snap Audit; but, I haven't found many. Most of the jobs I do is as an employee and I receive W-2's such as PHG. I also have to take drug tests and other tests (background checks) prior to getting hired with most.

Most companies now want you to already know how to read and understand a planagram(POG),be able to lift up to 50 pounds, climb up & down ladders repeatably, stand for up to 8 hours, kneel, crouch ,
sit on cement floors ,etc. Merchandising consist of doing resets , new store set ups audits, inventory, cycle visits, etc. Now most companies require that you have a smart phone and have to download their app, or they provide you with a ipad to do your reporting on.

Customer Impact does some feature merchandising (restocking/auditing displays). For learning how to do store resets as part of a team I recommend the Survey Merchandiser app. They have grocery and H&B resets that they subcontract for Crossmark. They also have single-brand audit and restock jobs.

The Merchandising by Survey app

If you use it you can use my referral lindseylZB38

I agree with starting at survey merchandiser for beginners. It's a great way to get work pretty fast and to get your feet wet.

I do merchandising that is set up like mystery shopping. Driveline which you are an employee but you are assigned projects that you can confirm or not confirm to do it. Once you confirm then you will have to complete the project by the due date, but you can do it when it fits your schedule within the timeframe. They have instructions to print out or use app, and you take photos confirming the project is done. There is also crossmark that you can sign up for and apply for different job offers they have. Set And Service Resources is another one that has general merchandising, heavy etc and you can sign up online and apply for different jobs they have available. The pay is not the greatest in merchandising, but I am learning and it goes hand in hand with mystery shopping. Best part, most have no bosses to deal with other than email and or phone

Great responses! I have done assorted merchandising tasks. These are great for me, generally. The ones with lots of standing are a real pain the the back. But that is just me. I love the variety, the fact that many gigs are finished fairly quickly, and the jobs can be combined with audits, shops, personal tasks, etc. I have my little ways of dealing with the back at work. Other people do what they need to do for themselves.

For someone with anxiety, it might be a good idea to think about embedding buffers into their schedule. To offset work stress, they might give themselves quiet time, rest time, fun time, or whatever makes their unique equation work. Some things that 'might' make a newbie antsy include: waiting to get checked in before starting the job (during this time, the sense of preparedness and readiness might slip away); feeling unprepared for various details of a first-time effort/text anxiety (all those details are not sitting still in the mind but are running about like wild animals who've escaped the zoo!); and concern about making a mistake (money and time might be wasted, or self-esteem could plummet). Your relative can alleviate some of these concerns by giving themselves time to study and review, doing one job at a time, doing multiples of one task type, or whatever little tricks they devise that can minimize terror and increase comfort.

Some of us love merchandising. I hope that your relative will give themselves a real chance to find out if they would like to do some of this work. :

I work as an employee for several merchandising companies. They schedule my work for me but generally ask about my availability first, and I have the option to decline work if I don't have time or if it's too far away, though often they will offer to pay for a hotel within a certain price range and pay mileage/drive time to go out of town.