Want to be a Shipt shopper? See the requirements & a gig overview

Shipt has become one of largest delivery apps in the US now that it is a part of Target.

Here’s how Shipt works: Customers use the Shipt app to order delivery from local stores, and Shipt shoppers go to stores to shop & deliver the order.

If you’ve ever thought about becoming a shopper for Shipt, here’s how to get started, and what you can expect from your new shopping gig.

Article contents

• What is Shipt, and what do shoppers do?
• Shopper requirements
• How much do shoppers get paid?
• The application process to become a shopper
• What it’s like to be a shopper: Gig overview
• Shipt vs other delivery apps

What is Shipt?

Shipt is a same-day delivery platform that allows customers to order items from local stores and have them delivered by Shipt shoppers.

Shipt customers pay a monthly membership fee for the service—currently $10.99/month or $99/year—and Shipt also makes money by adding a markup on items.

What do Shipt shoppers do?

Shipt shoppers visit stores to pick out the items and deliver the order to customers.

• Set scheduled hours at least 24 hours before you want to work
• Orders are offered to you based on your scheduled hours
• Order pay is based on estimated time, number of items, and more
• Go to the store and shop for items, guided by the Shipt app
• Pay for the order with a Shipt card
• After checkout, navigate to the customer and drop off the order
• Average pay is $16/hour – $27/hour

How much do Shipt shoppers make?

The average pay for Shipt shoppers is approximately $16 to $27 per active hour. Shoppers are paid for each completed order—not hourly.

The payout for each order is calculated using an ‘effort-based’ model that accounts for the estimated time, number of items, estimated drive time, and other factors.

Before you accept an order, you are able to see the estimated payout, store location, number of items, and the total estimated delivery time.

Tips are NOT included in the estimate, but customers can add a tip after the order is completed.

Shipt uses a system called the “Shipt Earnings Standard” to ensure that every order pays at least $16 per active hour.

In cities with higher cost of living, the earnings standard can climb as high as $27 per hour.

So if the local earnings standard is $16 per hour and an order is estimated to take 30 minutes from start to finish, the offer pay from Ship will be around $8.

Promo pay is a pay bump added to orders that need additional incentive to be quickly delivered. Promo pay is included in the pay estimate on the offer card, and the final payout will show exactly how much the promo pay was.

How shoppers get paid

Shoppers are paid once each week via direct deposit, typically on Friday. You can also choose to instantly cash out your earnings any time you want for a 49 cent fee.

How to become a Shipt shopper: The application process

Start the process by completing the Shipt Shopper application. You will have to fill out basic information like: Your name, your age, the vehicle you own, and whether you meet other basic requirements.

You will be asked to consent to a background check completed by Chekr that looks at your criminal history.

If you are accepted and if Shipt is ready to onboard new applicants in your market, you will receive a welcome kit contains the Shipt prepaid card and a t-shirt.

At this point you will be able to sign into the Shipt shopper app and begin scheduling shifts.

Shipt offers online training videos that cover the gig in details. Set aside around 45 minutes to an hour to watch the training material.

How long does the application process take? The total process can take as little as a few days, but may take longer if Shipt doesn’t immediately need new shoppers in your area.

Issues with the background check process can also cause delays. Stay in touch with Shipt and Checkr support to follow up on your application.

What is it like to be a Shipt shopper? Gig overview

The life of a Shipt shopper consists of: Scheduling shifts, selecting orders, completing deliveries, then getting paid.

Scheduling shifts

Use the app to select delivery windows where you will be available to shop. You can set your schedule up to 7 days in advance.

After you set your schedule, you will begin to get offers for orders that will take place during your scheduled windows.

You might think: Why not schedule yourself for tons of hours but only accept orders when it’s convenient for you?

Here’s why you need to shop during your scheduled hours: You can be removed from upcoming delivery windows if you don’t shop during your scheduled hours.

Managing order offers

After you set up scheduled hours you will begin to see new order offers that will take place during scheduled hours.

The offers will come as push notifications, or as popups at the bottom of the app. You have 60 seconds to claim the offer.

Order offers show the store where the order will take place, estimated pay, estimated completion time, and the number of items.

After you accept an offer, it will be entered into your current schedule. You will be able to keep track and manage all of your delivery windows and accepted offers.

You can only accept two offers for one scheduled hour. After you have 2 offers for an hour, you won’t receive any more offers for that delivery window anymore.

When an order isn’t claimed, it will show up in the Open Metro area of the app. At that point, any shopper will be able to view and accept the order.

Other order types

For most deliveries you will shop for items, pay for the order, and deliver to the customer.

There are also other order types that you may run into that are different than the typical order.

With delivery only orders, you simply pick up the completed order from a store and deliver it to the customer.

For prepaid orders, you will shop for the items but you won’t have to pay for the order with your card.

On shop only orders, you shop for the items and then hand off the order directly to a customer who will meet you at the store. No payment necessary.

Shopping for items

The Shipt Shopper app displays the items that need to be picked up, along with aisle numbers where the items can be found.

Shipt partners with select local stores, and each partnered store is very closely detailed in the app.

Customers pay for orders based on the items listed in the app, so shoppers have to carefully track each and every item and update the in-app list if a substitution is made, or if an item can’t be picked up.

Once all items are picked up, shoppers pay for the order using a pre-paid Shipt card.

Order substitutions — It’s fairly common that substitutions have to be made when specific items are out of stock.

Customers have three choices for their substitution preference: Choose for me, Do not sub, and contact me.

• Choose for me — Customer is OK with substitutions and does not need to be contacted about them. Use your best judgement to find similar items
• Do not sub — Customers don’t want substitutions and don’t wish to be contacted about items not in stock
• Contact me — Customer must be contacted for every substitution. Use the app to message customers

Dropping off the order

After you pay for the order, use your preferred navigation app to drive to the customer, and drop off the order based on customer preference.

You will meet some customers at the door, and some will choose a drop off order, which is a no-contact delivery.

The Shipt rating system

There are two important ratings for shoppers: The star rating, and the on-time rating

For the star rating, customers are asked to rate shoppers on a 1 to 5 star scale. Your rating is a rolling average of past ratings. The app will show your all-time rating, and your last 50 ratings.

Customers can rate two things separately: Their overall Shipt order, and shopper performance. That means that a customers can give the shopper a perfect rating even if something went wrong with the overall order.

Customers can also select from feedback options to give shoppers more detail about their experience. They can leave feedback on communication, attention to detail, substitutions, and more.

The on-time rating measures how often you deliver your orders within the expected delivery window. It’s important to maintain a 90% on-time rating.

Deactivation: Your account can be deactivated if you don’t maintain a 90% on-time rating, or if you fall beneath a 4.7 star rating.

How Shipt compares to other delivery apps

There are lots of delivery gigs out there. How does Shipt stack up?

Shipt vs Instacart

One main difference between Instacart and Shipt is that Instacart shoppers don’t need to schedule hours in advance. You can sign on and accept orders whenever you want, and sign out when you’re done.

Pay for both apps works out to be similar: Instacart shopper pay ranges from $10–$30 per hour, and Shipt shopper pay is around $15–$27 per hour.

Both apps let you know how much your pay will be before you accept the order, but Instacart includes tip info in the upfront info. Shipt doesn’t give you any clues as to how much the customer tip will be. The ability to filter out non-tipping customers is valuable a perk for Instacart shoppers.

Scheduling for Shipt is additional administrative work, but those who prefer Shipt over Instacart like that you can build up your work in advance. With Instacart, you have to wait around and hope that orders come in.

• What it’s like to be an Instacart Shopper

Shipt vs Uber Eats & DoorDash

The pay for Shipt shoppers is similar to on-demand delivery apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats.

Uber Eats and DoorDash drivers make around $10 – $20 per hour. See our full articles on Uber Eats pay and DoorDash pay.

One advantage of Shipt and other grocery delivery apps is that they have the potential for larger tips and bigger payouts because the average order total is higher, and many customers choose to tip based on a percentage of the order.

A food delivery might only cost a customer $20–$30, so tips may be around $5. A large grocery delivery can be $100 or more, so generous customers who tip a percentage of the order may leave a $10–$20 tip.

One potential downside of Shipt vs food delivery is that Shipt involves more walking, communication, and judgement calls than food delivery apps.

Shoppers will have to become very familiar with store layouts and learn to be efficient shoppers, which uses up more mental bandwidth than picking up a delivery bag from a restaurant counter.

If you’re interested in Shipt, check out these delivery gigs too

• DoorDash – On-demand food delivery
• Uber Eats – On-demand food delivery
• Instacart – Grocery delivery
• Amazon Flex – Package delivery
• goPuff – On-demand convenience delivery