Internet Shopping Increases, will Traditional Mystery Shopping Decrease?

Black Friday is the name for the shopping day after Thanksgiving in the retail industry, but Cyber Monday is a rising star.  Cyber Monday is the first day back to work after Thanksgiving, and a big shopping day, as people return to their high speed Internet connections at work to shop online.  Cyber Monday, also known as Black Monday, first appeared in the press in 2002.  Similarly it is the first day many online Etailers break "into the black" financially.

Friday eBay was the top online retailer, with 9.5 million unique visitors, followed by Amazon, at 4.6 million and walmart.com attracted 3.4 million. Following closely were Target.com. at 2.9 million visitors, and BestBuy.com, at 2.1 million Nielsen NetRatings stated.

Monday Internet traffic,  tracked by  visitors per minute, was up 35 percent from normal Monday traffic, the sites tracked were drawing nearly 1.63 million visitors per minute according to ComScore Networks, a market research company based in Reston, Va.  Last year, consumers spent more than $380 million on the Monday after Thanksgiving, a 29 percent increase over the same day in 2003, according to ComScore.

While the Internet used to be the place to find obscure, no overhead outlets, now more brick and mortar companies are establishing a duel presence on the Internet as well as in your strip malls.  Many MSers assume this will open up shopping opportunities for current MSers to branch out into online shopping, as those big companies have the deep pockets to support a MS program. (Online shopping article)

There are already MSPs that shop virtual establishments.  Web Mystery Shoppers, pictured above is one of the MSPs for this service. 

Does this trend threaten Mystery Shopping jobs?   There are two schools of thought on this issue.  The first position is that such MSPs are less likely to provide a profitable reimbursement, and more likely to provide a fee to the shopper, this may hurt the bottom line of MSers at tax time.  The prospect of more taxable income and less reimbursements/perks does little to reward professional mystery shoppers.  Some virtual shops do not require the shopper go through the purchase component; purchase is not always the crucial operation or even focus of some web sites.  MSPs often do not even need to hire professionals, wanting instead the average-Joe-off-the-street to evaluate the intuitive nature of the site layout. 

On the other hand, one needs to consider the flexibility and cost effectiveness of MSing from your computer, mileage and time become less costly to the IC.  The companies that have the proceeds to shop themselves online are also the same places currently visited by MSers.  As brick and mortar companies now monitor their virtual presence it is logically to assume they will continue to take the pulse of the store too.

Facts! 

83% of Internet users will shop online in 2005 holiday season

79% of online retailers will offer free (with a catch) shipping this holiday season

"In many cases...online stores offer better customer service than their brick-and-mortar counterparts, even if there is no direct human interaction"  Elaine X. Grant of Customer Relationship Management Buyer.  Mystery shoppers of websites may need to have a different skill set than the traditional brick and mortar shoppers.

Grant continues to point out, "The ability to read a list of FAQs [frequently asked questions], search a knowledge base or chat with a Web assistant is much better than the typical [service] you receive [from] underpaid, overworked and completely disinterested employees in most retail stores."  This does not sound like the traditional mystery shopper will meet the needs of an ever growing online salesforce.

Shop.org, an online retail trade group in San Jose, California, states E-commerce will grow by 85% this year, posting at over $61 billion.  What did people buy on Cyber Monday? Jewelry, electronics, gourmet food, furniture and home décor were the top draws for 2004.  What will future Cyber Mondays do to your future as a mystery shopper? 

Resources: CNN, Shop.org, Nielsen NetRatings, ComScore Networks, Cathy Stucker, MSNBC, ZDNet Research, Consumer Reports, and CRM Buyers.

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