Shipt

What is Shipt?

Shipt is a grocery delivery platform that enlists freelancers to shop for and deliver groceries to consumers. The site works with Target stores, so you can be picking up anything from salad to sheets.

(This post may contain affiliate links. Read our full affiliate policy here.)

How it works

Freelancers who want to work for this platform, sign up and show that they meet the site’s requirements — basically that you’re old enough to work; have a working vehicle, driver’s license and smart phone. You also must be able to lift at least 45 pounds without accommodation.

You determine when you work by simply turning on the Shipt app. Once accepted, the site will send you delivery orders when you’re working. Each delivery will show what you’ll earn and where you’re going. You can decide whether or not to accept or ignore a delivery.

Shipt review:

Like many of the delivery platforms, Shipt started out saying you’ll get paid generously — as much as $22 per hour. But these projections factored in tips, which are not guaranteed.

The hourly rate also relies on you being able to shop extremely quickly and efficiently.That’s also a long shot because you’re buying someone else’s groceries and must contact them if a particular item isn’t available to see if they want to substitute.

The site doesn’t even make these claims any more. Instead, it emphasizes work flexibility and notes that Shipt shoppers can get perks, like discounts on insurance and phone plans.

What it’s really like

Shoppers complain that they spend half of their time frantically text-messaging customers to ask about viable substitutions. Naturally, that makes it challenging to complete the shop in the allotted hour. In rural areas, shoppers also complain about transportation time. Being late or cranky can get you a bad review. Even marginal reviews can get you booted from the platform.

After accounting for gas, wear and tear on your car and possible parking expenses, the net pay is likely to slightly exceed minimum wage.

However, the site sometimes pays bonuses and at certain times of the year, when demand is brisk, shoppers can actually earn decent money.

Recommendations

If you’re not relying on this income, you can pick and choose orders and make out okay. If you’re driving anyway, you sign up with other delivery apps simultaneously, so you have more jobs to pick and choose from. That’s what we’ recommend for people who do want to make money with deliveries. Sign up here, but also with Uber Eats, DoorDash and GrubHub. You can sign up with Shipt here.

You can find almost identical shopping jobs with Instacart. (Sign up with Instacart here.)

If you love shopping and driving, also check out Dumpling, which helps you run your own personal shopping business and can be a much better deal for people who want to do this for a living.

What their users say:

(from Indeed)

Once you claim an order and are committed to the delivery window, an array of orders in your area show up, all with the same time windows that didn’t show up otherwise. It’s great in the beginning when your jobs are fed to you but afterwards the system feels like it purposely pits shoppers against one another so that the pay can be structured unfavorably lower. And the rating system in place does exactly that. There is no transparency with the amount or quality of orders coming through. And there is no safety measures In place for where you’re delivering to.

No bonus, no bueno

I started before the holidays this year. Lots of routes available, lots of bonuses. Was making great $$$$, but after the start of the year, work dried up as did incentives. Too many drivers and not enough routes.

Shipt USED to be one of the best companies to work for! The fair competition, disclosure in expectation compensation and time used to be clear. After shoppers helped Shipt to grow in 2020, giving them record breaking profits, they lowered “shopper” pay by an average of 78% and deleted the clear formula for pay. Customer and veteran shoppers alike have left because of these changes. Since the average order pay is now less than $20 (for orders that can take 3 hours to shop, organize and drive to deliver). I wouldn’t ever get excited about a job who would cut the pay of the people actually making the money.

Hard to make a living

Maybe this gig would be good in a bigger city, but in Tucson it’s really challenging to make a living wage. On top of that, they never changed our pay to match the price of everything going up. I don’t think they care about their employees like they advertise they do. Much of the time, people tip nothing at all or just a few bucks. We heavily rely on tips because our base pay is so low. At this point, I do a delivery or two to help pay for gas when I’m running errands, but I don’t rely on it for income at all.

Gotta be desperate

This is a job for when you are desperate. Sure, you may have a few good runs, but in the long run you will make no more than $13/hr, if that – before expenses. This is doing single orders. Doing double orders produces higher rate of pay however it is very stressful and not worth the stress and depreciation of your car, period.

Substitution woes

Low net pay

* updated 1/18/2023