What is a Shopper?

As a shopper, you will be providing guidance, advice, and buying services to customers. This job involves communicating with clients to determine what they are looking for, offering advice and knowledge of the best products to purchase, processing orders, and assisting with exchanges or returns. If you are creative, have extensive knowledge of trends and the latest products, then this is the job for you.

As a shopper, the duties and responsibilities that you will be performing include but are not limited to processing customers' orders, recommending products based on trends, processing financial adjustments, supporting clients with exchanges and replacements of any good that they do not like, and maximizing client base. Essential skills required for the position include customer service, researching, communication skills, time management, organizational, and computer literacy. There are no formal educational requirements for the position, but most people prefer individuals who have a background in sales, fashion, and marketing.

As a shopper, you will not just be shopping for others. The average hourly salary for this position is $15.30, which amounts to $31,826 annually. Since this is not a formal job, you may be required to work flexible hours, as per the customer's needs.

What Does a Shopper Do

There are certain skills that many shoppers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed customer-service skills, hand-eye coordination and listening skills.

Learn more about what a Shopper does

How To Become a Shopper

If you're interested in becoming a shopper, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 34.2% of shoppers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 2.7% of shoppers have master's degrees. Even though some shoppers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Shopper

Shopper Job Description

Shoppers are hired by clients or companies to procure items, often special furniture, equipment, luxury goods, or technological devices, within a set budget. They locate these items, connect with vendors' sales teams, close deals, process payments, and ensure that these items are delivered to clients in good condition within an agreed-upon timeframe.

Learn more about Shopper Job Description

Top Shopper Jobs Near You

Shopper Career Paths

As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a shopper can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as security officer, progress to a title such as technician and then eventually end up with the title operations manager.

Average Salary for a Shopper

Shoppers in America make an average salary of $36,631 per year or $18 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $49,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $27,000 per year.

Average Shopper Salary

$36,631 Yearly

$17.61 hourly

$27,00010%

$36,000Median

$49,00090%

See More Salary Information

What Am I Worth?

Roles and Types of Shopper

There are several types of shopper, including:

Retail Clerk

Role:

A retail clerk is a sales professional whose job is to help customers with their shopping by directing and serving them, stocking shelves, manning the register, packing and bagging produce, and acting as a teller or cashier when necessary. Their additional responsibilities include serving shoppers by politely helping them find what they are looking for, completing purchases, taking care of facility maintenance and appearance, gathering carts, keeping aisles in order, and setting up displays that highlight certain products.

They are required to follow directions, to get along with their teammates, to dress according to company policy, to look and act like a professional at all times, and to perceive what needs to be done and do it, whether that's requesting stock for an empty shelf or opening a new checkout line during the evening rush. They also need to learn about new items and procedures willingly and quickly.

This position does not require a college education: A high school diploma or GED is sufficient. Retail clerks earn an average salary of $23,367 annually which translates to $11.23 per hour. They are generally paid per hour, work in shifts, and might work more hours and longer shifts during the holiday season.

Average Salary: $30,046
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Personal Shopper

Role:

If you love shopping to the point that you are extremely good at it, why not become a personal shopper? As a personal shopper, your main duty is to find products that your clients want and buy them on their behalf. Moreover, you are also responsible for looking for and providing suggestions if your clients don't have a specific product in mind.

Personal shoppers can work as freelancers for private clients, but they can also find work in boutiques and stores. Either way, this job requires excellent customer service skills, a keen eye for detail, and a good knowledge of the market and industry they are serving.

There is generally no educational requirement to become a personal shopper, but you would typically need the experience to attract clients or qualify for a regular job. To build their portfolios, a lot of personal shoppers start by freelancing for private clients or take special requests from stores.

The average salary of a personal shopper is around $49,000 per year. But if you serve bigger clients or handle high-value products, your salary and commission may be way higher than that.

Average Salary: $32,875
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Blood Donor Recruiter

Role:

A blood donor recruiter's responsibility is to source blood donations. You have to perform outreaches, create awareness, and contact individuals or businesses to get blood. You are also required to work out ways to increase the database of the volunteer donors. This could be achieved by the use of press releases or awareness campaigns for recruitment. As a blood donor recruiter, you have to interact and encourage potential donors. Your responsibility also includes providing them with the necessary information. A blood donor recruiter has to ensure that a good relationship is maintained between the organizations and the donors. You should also plan and implement strategies to retain as well as sufficient donors for the program's needs.

You must have at least a high school diploma to qualify for this role. Basic computer knowledge is essential. It is also required that you can speak, write, and communicate effectively in the English Language. As a recruiter, you should have good human relations and be a problem solver. A blood donor recruiter earns an average of $44,988 yearly.

Average Salary: $44,142
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Shopper Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active shopper jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where shoppers earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Shopper Jobs By State

Rank	State	Number of Jobs	Average Salary
1	California	5,337	$38,970
2	Florida	3,841	$34,050
3	Texas	3,827	$37,554
4	Illinois	2,725	$38,890
5	Pennsylvania	2,600	$38,881
6	Ohio	2,468	$39,231
7	New York	2,391	$43,033
8	Georgia	2,244	$32,464
9	New Jersey	2,173	$43,500
10	Michigan	2,049	$40,062
11	North Carolina	1,909	$31,293
12	Massachusetts	1,763	$44,531
13	Virginia	1,702	$37,016
14	Indiana	1,568	$36,007
15	Arizona	1,248	$30,702
16	Minnesota	1,240	$38,196
17	Tennessee	1,195	$32,310
18	Wisconsin	1,161	$41,674
19	South Carolina	1,078	$36,804
20	Missouri	984	$30,667
21	Maryland	980	$40,856
22	Colorado	946	$37,545
23	Washington	944	$36,597
24	Alabama	932	$31,966
25	Kentucky	853	$36,374
26	Connecticut	809	$40,578
27	Iowa	632	$41,258
28	Louisiana	625	$36,713
29	Oklahoma	600	$34,686
30	Utah	564	$38,178
31	Arkansas	515	$34,146
32	Oregon	514	$36,769
33	Mississippi	487	$35,050
34	Kansas	484	$33,043
35	New Hampshire	379	$38,135
36	Nevada	355	$32,079
37	Maine	354	$43,491
38	West Virginia	296	$42,888
39	Idaho	283	$34,023
40	Delaware	274	$40,502
41	New Mexico	274	$33,536
42	Rhode Island	242	$34,173
43	Nebraska	232	$39,431
44	Montana	174	$38,627
45	Hawaii	154	$39,191
46	Vermont	137	$45,933
47	North Dakota	128	$43,864
48	Wyoming	104	$41,418
49	South Dakota	92	$39,537
50	Alaska	83	$44,257

Shopper Education

Shopper Majors

Business

20.8 %

Criminal Justice

8.7 %

General Studies

8.7 %

Shopper Degrees

Admissions

Most Popular Majors

Computer Science

Business

Education

Music

English

8. Bentley University

Waltham, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$49,880

Enrollment

4,177

Admissions

Most Popular Majors

Accounting

Business

Marketing

Communication

Liberal Arts

9. SUNY Farmingdale

Farmingdale, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$8,306

Enrollment

9,394

Admissions

Most Popular Majors

Business

Liberal Arts

Criminal Justice

Nursing

Graphic Design

10. University of Akron

Akron, OH • Private

In-State Tuition

$11,463

Enrollment

13,676

Admissions

Most Popular Majors

Liberal Arts

Nursing

Business

Marketing

Psychology

Top Skills For a Shopper

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 36.3% of shoppers listed groceries on their resume, but soft skills such as customer-service skills and hand-eye coordination are important as well.

Groceries, 36.3%

Grocery Store, 25.3%

Customer Orders, 25.0%

Customer Service, 2.5%

Instacart, 2.3%

Other Skills, 8.6%

Choose From 10+ Customizable Shopper Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Shopper templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Shopper resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

Shopper Demographics

Shopper Gender Distribution

Female

61%

Male

39%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

Among shoppers, 61.3% of them are women, while 38.7% are men.

The most common race/ethnicity among shoppers is White, which makes up 61.9% of all shoppers.

The most common foreign language among shoppers is Spanish at 60.5%.

Online Courses For Shopper That You May Like

Advertising Disclosure

1. Make the Sale: Build, Launch, and Manage E-commerce Stores

Make the Sale: Build, Launch, and Manage E-commerce Stores is the sixth of seven courses in the Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Certificate. This course explores how businesses and individuals sell products online, including using popular platforms like Shopify. You’ll go through the process of creating a mock e-commerce store. To do this, you’ll build a Shopify store, add the necessary information, and create product listings. You’ll explore how to reach customers online through...

See More on Coursera

2. Satisfaction Guaranteed: Develop Customer Loyalty Online

You made it! Satisfaction Guaranteed: Develop Customer Loyalty Online is the seventh and final course in the Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Certificate. In this course, you’ll explore strategies for building customer loyalty in e-commerce. You’ll also explore specific tools to develop and maintain client relationships. At the end of the course you’ll work through a scenario that demonstrates your ability to deliver a successful e-commerce strategy. Finally, you’ll wrap up the course by...

See More on Coursera

3. Customer Analytics

Data about our browsing and buying patterns are everywhere. From credit card transactions and online shopping carts, to customer loyalty programs and user-generated ratings/reviews, there is a staggering amount of data that can be used to describe our past buying behaviors, predict future ones, and prescribe new ways to influence future purchasing decisions. In this course, four of Wharton’s top marketing professors will provide an overview of key areas of customer analytics: descriptive...

See More on Coursera

Show More Shopper Courses

Job type you want

Full Time

Part Time

Internship

Temporary

Best States For a Shopper

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a shopper. The best states for people in this position are Vermont, Massachusetts, Alaska, and North Dakota. Shoppers make the most in Vermont with an average salary of $45,933. Whereas in Massachusetts and Alaska, they would average $44,531 and $44,257, respectively. While shoppers would only make an average of $43,864 in North Dakota, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Maine

Total Shopper Jobs: 354

Highest 10% Earn:

$55,000

Location Quotient:

1.34

$43,491

Avg. Salary

View 354 Shopper Jobs In ME

2. New Jersey

Total Shopper Jobs: 2,173

Highest 10% Earn:

$58,000

Location Quotient:

1.37

$43,500

Avg. Salary

View 2,173 Shopper Jobs In NJ

3. West Virginia

Total Shopper Jobs: 296

Highest 10% Earn:

$56,000

Location Quotient:

0.97

$42,888

Avg. Salary

View 296 Shopper Jobs In WV

Full List Of Best States For Shoppers

How Do Shopper Rate Their Jobs?

Top Shopper Employers

Most Common Employers For Shopper

Rank	Company	Average Salary	Hourly Rate	Job Openings
1	Shipt	$42,408	$20.39	402
2	Meijer	$40,575	$19.51	4
3	Instacart	$38,901	$18.70	107
4	Stop & Shop	$38,793	$18.65	27
5	The AES	$38,305	$18.42	4
6	ShopRite Supermarkets Inc.	$38,174	$18.35	8
7	Joyson Safety Systems	$37,641	$18.10	3
8	Peapod	$37,599	$18.08	60
9	Jerry's Enterprises	$35,214	$16.93	10
10	Aerotek	$35,020	$16.84	8

Updated February 6, 2023

What is a Shopper?

What Does a Shopper Do

How To Become a Shopper

Shopper Job Description

Shopper Career Paths

Top Careers Before Shopper

Top Careers After Shopper

Recent Job Searches

Average Salary for a Shopper

Roles and Types of Shopper

Retail Clerk

Personal Shopper

Blood Donor Recruiter

States With The Most Shopper Jobs

Number Of Shopper Jobs By State

Shopper Education

Shopper Majors

Shopper Degrees

Top Colleges for Shoppers

1. University of Pennsylvania

2. Baylor University

3. SUNY College of Technology at Alfred

4. Ball State University

5. SUNY College of Technology at Delhi

6. Bowling Green State University

7. Stanford University

8. Bentley University

9. SUNY Farmingdale

10. University of Akron

Top Skills For a Shopper

Choose From 10+ Customizable Shopper Resume templates

Shopper Demographics

Shopper Gender Distribution

Online Courses For Shopper That You May Like

Best States For a Shopper

How Do Shopper Rate Their Jobs?

Top Shopper Employers

Most Common Employers For Shopper

Shopper Related Careers

Shopper Related Jobs

Shopper Jobs By Location

Shopper Jobs By Company