How Much Does Shipt Pay?

Have you ever thought about delivering groceries to earn some extra income? Shipt is one of my favorite driver apps because you don’t put as much wear and tear on your vehicle compared to others such as Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash. But, how much does Shipt actually pay their drivers in 2020?

In this post we’re going to take a look at what Shipt is, how it works, how much drivers can make, and much more.

What is Shipt?

With the coronavirus raging on throughout 2020, the desire for people to not leave their homes and have their groceries delivered has increased 10x. This is where Shipt and similar services such as Instacart come into play.

For a marginal fee, you can order your groceries online from your local grocery store, and someone will go grab the items you ordered and deliver them right to your doorstep. Having been acquired by Target in 2017, Shipt has been growing at a rapid pace each and every year, adding more drivers and more customers in more markets.

The people who deliver the groceries are called Shipt Shoppers, and I’ve been signed up with Shipt going on two years now. As with other gig economy jobs, with Shipt you get to set your own schedule, so if you ever want to make a few extra bucks on the weekend, all you have to do is login and see what’s available. You also get a free membership, so if you ever feel like having somebody get groceries for you, you can.

How Much Can Shipt Shoppers Make?

This is going to vary widely by driver, but I’d say on average, you can expect to make around $20/hour. Obviously the more shops you do and the quicker you become, the more money you’re going to make. In the Shipt Facebook groups you’ll consistenly hear people talking about how much they’re making on a weekly basis.

Usually the better drivers are making around $1,000 – $1,500 per week, while the part-time drivers and people just starting out are making anywhere from $200 – $500 per week. A lot of this is going to depend on your metro and how many shops are available to deliver. Personally, I would make anywhere from $250 – $400 per week. Nothing earth shattering, but enough income to give me a little extra spend money for things I wanted or needed.

If you’re dedicated and disciplined though, there’s no reason why you can’t make four figures per month with just Shipt, working just a few hours per week.

What is it Like Being a Driver for Shipt?

Now that you know what Shipt is, let’s take a look at how it works and what it’s like being a driver. To be honest, Shipt is one of the easier apps to use and my favorite out of all of the other driver apps that I’ve used. The reason is because there isn’t a lot of wear and tear put on your car, time fly’s when you’re shopping, and you can make some pretty good cash in a short amount of time.

All you have to do is login to the app and you can either put yourself on the schedule so that Shipt can work you into the rotation, or you can just see what’s available for open orders and choose a high-paying order, or a couple of small, quick orders.

Schedule vs Open Metro

I tend to prefer going with the open orders because there are usually some nice promo orders that haven’t been scooped up, but I think it primarily comes down to personal preference and how often you plan on using the app.

I know for most drivers that do Shipt on a regular basis, they prefer going on the schedule because once your stats are built up, you can get the preferred, high ticket orders. When you’re just starting out though, or you don’t take a lot of orders on a regular basis, being on the schedule will often leave you with less than ideal orders.

During busy times though, there are almost always an abundance of open metro orders to choose from. This is where I like to find some good promo orders that I can do in 45 minutes to an hour. Here’s a look at a promo order that was available on a Monday night at 8:30pm:

So, as you can see, you can bank an easy $26 – $30 for just that one order. There’s a range because the price will vary some depending on what items are available when you shop the order. Also, keep in mind that this pay does not include tip.

Tips

Tips vary quite a bit from week to week, but from my experience, you should expect to be tipped on roughly 30 – 40% of your orders. While I would obviously like it to be higher, I think this is about on par if not slightly higher than other delivery app gigs. Plus, they’re usually tipping on larger dollar amounts, so the tips tend to be bigger than say Uber or DoorDash.

Tips for New Shipt Shoppers

While being a Shipt Shopper sounds easy, it can actually get pretty overwhelming in the beginning if you’re not careful. So, to make sure you don’t fall into some of the same traps as I did, here are a few tips to take to heart if you’re just starting out.

Start Slow

My first day with Shipt I went in guns blazing and failed miserably! I scheduled three back to back orders, figuring an hour would be plenty of time to finish the order and move onto the next one. Wrong! While an hour is plenty of time after you’ve been doing it for awhile, when you’re first starting out, you want to give yourself plenty of extra time to complete the order.

This means showing up well before your one hour window starts, so that you can plan for any issues that arise during your shop. Trust me, there will be issues. One of the biggest issues is not knowing where things are located. Finding your way around each isle can be a nightmare and very time consuming when you’re just starting out.

The other thing is customer substitutions. If some items on the list aren’t in stock, you’re going to have to text the customer to see what they want to replace it with. This takes time, especially if they aren’t quick to respond.

This is why when you’re staring out, you should never schedule more than one shop at a time. Get at least 10-15 shops under your belt before you begin claiming multiple shops. Otherwise you could end up like me and have three late deliveries on your first day!

Excellent Customer Service

Great customer service with Shipt is almost mandatory because so much of your score and ability to stay with Shipt and get good shops when you’re on schedule is based on the scores that customers leave you. This is why customer service is more important with Shipt than with other delivery apps.

Whenever you’re shopping with a customer, you want to keep a few things in mind:

Be responsive – make sure you’re updating the customer when you arrive, are checking out, and are on your way.
Be polite – sometimes customers can be frustrating and get on your last nerve, but you need to keep your cool because one false move can really hurt your score
Be on time – Not only does being on time affect your score, but customers like it when you show up towards the beginning of the one hour window. So, try and time it so that you’re delivering their groceries within the first 30 minutes of the delivery window
Get cold items last – cold items can melt, especially in summer, so plan your shops so that you’re getting the frozen foods last
Send pictures if you’re not sure – anytime I’m not sure if I have the right item or substituion, I’ll take a picture and text it to the customer so that they can verify if it’s the right one. This also helps when you’re trying to explain what substitutions are available to pick from

Pay Attention to Your Score

Your Shipt Shopper rating is huge! Not only can it have an impact on the quality of order you get, but if your score gets too low, you’ll get an email that you’re no longer a shopper.

The rating is based out of 5 and it factors in customer feedback, on-time deliveries, and acceptance rate. The acceptance rate is one you need to keep an eye on. If you turn down too many small orders it will negatively affect your rating as a shopper. So, if you decide to put yourself on the schedule, be prepared to accept some less than stellar orders in the beginning.

As you get more orders under your belt and continue to have a high acceptance rate and on-time record, you’ll start getting some of the better offers with higher pay.

Overall though, your score is extremely important. Try and keep it above 4.8 at all times so that you don’t have to stress about getting removed as a shopper.

Track Your Mileage

Whenever you’re Shipt Shopping, you want to track your mileage so that you can write it off at the end of the year. Use an app and catalog your receipts for gas and how many miles you’re putting on the car while you’re working so that you can write it off come tax time.

Being an independent contractor, it’s important to keep track of all of your expenses because it can have a huge impact on the amount of taxes you have to pay. Mileage and wear and tear on your car will be one of the biggest deductibles you’ll have all year.

Conclusion

Shipt is an excellent side hustle to make some extra cash. Whether you’re looking to make a couple hundred bucks a week, or you want to make a few thousand per month, you have that possibility with Shipt. So, if you want to make over $20/hr and grab some groceries, give Shipt a try.