Shopalong Review – Can You Get Paid for Shopping?

Most get-paid-to platforms perform market research for their clients by creating or curating online surveys and having a large number of demographically targeted people take those surveys. Some panels will, however, pay for other activities. For instance, observing and studying your behavior during shopping trips. Shopalong is one of these panels that promises to reward your regular shopping sprees.

While the idea to get paid for doing what you would do anyway sounds admirable, it still doesn’t mean they actually deliver on the promise. So, let’s find together how it works!

Who Are They?

Shopalong operates under the umbrella of Purchased, a market research company that boasts cooperation and partnership with tech and retail giants such as Google, Walmart, Microsoft, Coca Cola, Lowe’s, P&G, Clorox, Old Navy, and many more. They even feature a testimonial from Google, confirming their “innovative research and relevant insights”. While this definitely means that they are legitimate, it still tells us nothing about how they treat the other part of the equation – their users like you and me.

How Does Shopalong Work?

You can go ahead and hit “Sign Up” on their website to register for an account. But to access all assignments, it will be necessary to download their app, available both on Google Store and iTunes App Store. Now, first things first.

• Complete the short form on their homepage to create an account. No questions asked except for your contact info, age, gender and residency. And registration is free, which is another sign of legitimacy. 
• You will get a confirmation link shortly. Click through the link to verify your account.
• Go to Google Store or iTunes App Store and download the app.
• There’s nothing else to do. Just wait for an email invitation to your first assignment. When you get it, click to see if you qualify.

The rest is pretty straightforward. As soon as there is an assignment available for you, go for it if you want. Just make sure you complete all the steps – otherwise, you won’t get your reward.

The assignments will usually vary in length and complexity. But most of the time, it boils down to preparing a shopping list, taking pictures of the products you bought or the receipts, or taking short polls about your shopping experience. The assignments will be especially numerous in the weeks preceding major holidays such as Mother’s or Father’s Day, Black Friday, Thanksgiving, etc.

How Much Can I Earn?

And now to the most important part – your earnings. For every successfully completed assignment, you will get anything from $5 to $50, depending on the complexity and number of tasks. That sounds like quite a reward considering that you don’t have to do many things out of the ordinary. But the problem is, assignments aren’t near as frequent as they would need to be to qualify for a regular side hassle.

But there’s more good news. You can get your cash either in Amazon gift cards or via PayPal. And there’s no cashout threshold, which means you can get your hands on the earnings as soon as any are available. That’s a rare feature, and I heartily applaud them for it. Most get-paid-to platforms require from you to earn at least $20 or $25 (or even more) before you can cash out. And most of them pay so low that it takes months to meet the threshold. So far, so good.

What Do Users Say?

As is absolutely expected, user reviews vary from excellent to horrific. Most of the disgruntled users report that the app suddenly starts bugging as you approach the final step of the assignment. And of course, you can’t get your hands on the money if you don’t complete the assignment. In another typical scenario, a user can’t log into their account to collect their money upon completing an assignment. However, Shopalong seems to have great and helpful customer support, so these issues tend to resolve quickly.

Advantages

• They pay in cash, and there is no threshold. If you’ve spent even five minutes of your life on get-paid-to panels, you will know how important this is. And how much of a competitive edge. Choose PayPal or Amazon gift cards – it’s up to you.
• The rewards are pretty generous. The officially announced range is $5 to $50, but many people report getting $20 to $25 on average. A nice incentive indeed!
• Assignments are usually easy and fun, as all of them are related to shopping. Sure, you might not be interested in roaming through the skin care department when you’re only in store to buy some groceries. But it won’t take up much of your time, and you don’t have to buy anything you normally wouldn’t.
• Customer service is helpful and responsive in most cases. They even reply to complaints on Google, which is a rare sight.

Disadvantages

• There are no assignments on a regular basis. Therefore, you can’t count on this to be a regular source of income. Some users have waited for months for the next assignment. Too bad, but you can fill in the holes by combining this panel with a few others.
• Many users complain of not being able to collect their earnings. And that happens in the last stage, when you only have a single poll left to complete the assignment. While it may be a bug in the app, it’s a serious one. And I sure hope they will fix it.

Final Thoughts – Is It Worth Your Time?

If you are an ardent shopper, this app should be good enough for you. Even if you can’t use it to earn regularly, it’s still nice to earn $20 from time to time for doing next to nothing. In any case, I would heartily recommend you to combine this app with a few others, if you’re into GPT panels at all. (Shoppers Perspective Community comes to mind.)

If you, however, expect to get rich with this app, there are two things you can do. Either lower your expectations, or try to find another way to earn money online. This panel, as most others that I’ve come upon, won’t do that for you.