How Much Shipt Shoppers Make in 2024 [3 Real-World Examples]

Before you apply for a new job, you'll usually want to know how much it pays.

But there’s no way to know how much you’ll make as a Shipt Shopper before you start. That’s because Shipt isn’t a job, it’s a business venture. When you work for Shipt, you’ll be working as a self-employed independent contractor, and you’ll be running your own delivery business.

As of 2022, Shipt set new earnings standards that say that all orders will pay at least $16/hour. However, that doesn’t always work out in reality, so you can’t bank on it. 

Just like any other business, your profits will vary depending on a variety of factors, some of which are in your control, and others that are unpredictable and up to chance. All together, these include supply, demand, your strategy, regional market variations, and luck. 

That said, you can get a general idea of your income/profit potential by doing some market research, including understanding how the gig works and reading about other Shipt Shoppers’ experiences. 

We’ve done all that market research for you: in this post, you’ll learn what factors affect your earnings, and we’ll give you case studies from three real Shipt Shoppers.

Shipt’s payment structure

Before we get into your earning potential, it’s important to understand how Shipt structures your pay. 

Shipt pays per order, not hourly. Your pay is broken into three parts: base pay, tips, and bonuses. 

Base pay is the amount that Shipt pays you for completing orders and deliveries. When you receive an order, the base pay will show up as the order’s “estimated pay” and will be presented as a range (e.g., $14-16).  

Tips are self-explanatory — they’re the money that customers give you at their discretion. You get to keep 100% of the tips you earn. 

Promos are available on orders that have been sitting in the queue for a while and haven’t been picked up by a Shopper. James Tuliano, who has been working with Shipt since 2020, says, “promo pay is a guaranteed dollar amount added to the base pay. Promo pay depends on how long the order has been sitting. It can be as little as a couple dollars, but I've seen it go as high as $20 extra.”

Bonuses include various promotions that Shipt runs from time to time, during which you’ll have some extra money added to your base pay. 

For example, James says, “one active bonus running today for me is to shop 3 Target Shop and Deliver orders, without promo, for $15 extra, between the hours of 2:00 PM - 9:00 PM.”

For every order, the formula for your earnings is:

Earnings = Base Pay + Tips + Promos + Bonuses

Shipt pays you either weekly via direct deposit or up to once per day if you opt for payment via instant cash out instead. For more information on how Shipt’s payment process works, check out our full post on the topic. 

How much you can make with Shipt

Even though you can’t accurately estimate your earnings before you start working with Shipt, you can get an idea for the range that you can expect to fall in. So, let’s start by taking a look at the extremes of that spectrum.

The highest paid Shipt Shopper

Although there’s no way to know for sure, Robert “RJ” Woldhuis is likely the highest paid Shipt Shopper. In 2020, Woldhuis made $100,280 shopping for Shipt. 

How’d he do it? Woldhuis attributes his success to his focus on customer service. He went above and beyond to provide a great experience for his customers, going so far as to dress up in extravagant outfits and costumes just to put a smile on his customers’ faces when they saw him at their doors. 

He also always shopped for multiple orders at a time and would map out his trajectory through the store before he went in to improve efficiency. Catherine Meyers, who has been doing Shipt for two years, attests to the success of this strategy: “this is what works best for me in terms of maximizing pay and minimizing driving. I take two-order bundles and add on whatever is available on the home screen if it makes sense with the direction I'm headed.”

But some of his success came down to luck: he started doing Shipt during the beginning of the pandemic, when demand for grocery delivery was particularly high and there were more orders than there were Shoppers. Plus, Woldhuis lived in a dense area, which meant the distances between stores and customers were particularly short.

Catherine agrees that the pandemic was likely a significant factor in Woldhuis’s earnings.“Pay is still good, but not nearly what it was during the pandemic,” she says. 

Woldhuis’s success is an anomaly. You should not expect to earn anywhere near this amount of money with Shipt. Nonetheless, his story demonstrates how a variety of factors, like supply, demand, regional variation, luck, and business strategy all come together to influence earnings. 

The lowest paid Shipt Shopper

Shipt introduced a new pay structure in 2022 that guaranteed no order anywhere across the country would pay less than $16/hour as part of the new Shipt Earnings Standard. In some markets with particularly high costs of living, Shipt said the minimum earnings would be up to $27. 

Going by Shipt’s own earnings standard, that should mean that the lowest you can go is $16/hour. However, whether this actually works out in practice is not for certain — some Shoppers report that they’re earning less per hour than the standard supposedly guarantees them. 

James Tuliano, who has been working with Shipt since 2020, says, “keep in mind that this is active hours. When you are working for Shipt, you are not constantly shopping and delivering an order — you sometimes need to wait for those orders to come through, which lowers your real-life hourly pay.”

Average Shipt pay

By now, we’ve seen what are likely the high and low bounds of Shipt pay, and we’ve seen that those aren’t always helpful when it comes to determining how much you can earn with Shipt. 

What about the average then? Unfortunately, there’s not enough data out there to give an accurate picture of average Shipt earnings. If you look online, you’ll see lots of claims about what the average Shipt pay is, but those should be taken with a grain of salt. 

That said, most sources say that the average Shipt pay is around $16-20/hour. Again, this figure shouldn’t be trusted in itself, but, alongside the Shipt Earnings Standard, it can give you a general idea of what a reasonable expectation is. 

If you’re in California, Prop 22 changes everything

In 2020, California passed Proposition 22, which exempted ridesharing and delivery apps (Shipt, Instacart, Uber, etc.) from the regulations of another bill (AB-5) and allowed them to continue classifying their workers as independent contractors. As part of the exemption, the state said that the companies must guarantee minimum earnings and provide other benefits to workers. 

Thanks to Prop 22, if you’re a Shipt Shopper or Driver in California, you’re guaranteed:

• 120% of the local minimum wage for all all the time you spend between accepting and completing a delivery
• Additional compensation of $0.35/mile (this rate changes every year)
• A healthcare stipend that totals either 82% (if you average 25 hours/week or more during a quarter) or 41% (if you average between 15 and 25 hours/week during a quarter) of the average cost of a bronze plan. 

For our purposes here, we’ll ignore the healthcare stipend (check out our post on getting health insurance with Shipt for more info on how that works). 

Given California’s $16/hour minimum wage, Shipt Shoppers and Drivers within the state will be guaranteed at least $19.20/hour. On top of that, you’ll also receive $0.35/mile for every mile you drive on the job. That can go a long way when it comes to paying for gas. 

Estimating daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly pay

Now that we have some hourly figures in hand, let’s see what that comes out to across different time periods. For these estimates, we’ll stick with Shipt’s $16/hour earnings standard.

Full-time:

• Daily (8 hours/day): $128/day
• Weekly (40 hours/week): $640/week
• Monthly (ignoring holidays): $2,560/month
• Yearly (ignoring holidays): $30,720/year

Part-time:

• Daily (4 hours/day): $64/day
• Weekly (20 hours/week): $320/week
• Monthly (ignoring holidays): $1,280/month
• Yearly (ignoring holidays): $15,360/year

How self-employment affects pay

When you work with Shipt, you’re classed as a self-employed independent contractor. That means that Shipt won’t withhold any taxes for you, you’ll need to pay self-employment taxes, you won’t be paid a salary, you won’t receive any benefits, and you (arguably) won’t have the same income reliability that you would as an employee.

When it comes to pay, the most relevant pieces of this are those related to taxes and income reliability. Unfortunately, self-employed people are taxed at a higher rate than employees. So, if you’re trying to figure out what your take home pay will be, make sure you factor in the 15.3% self-employment tax. As an employee, your employer would pay for half that amount (7.65%), but as an independent contractor you have to foot the whole bill.  

The bright side is that independent contractors can use tax write-offs to lower their tax burdens somewhat. Taxes are a complex subject, so make sure to check out our full post on how taxes work with Shipt for more info. 

As far as reliability is concerned, independent contractors don’t have a stable job to rely on. No one will give you constant work — you have to go out and find it yourself. In some ways, that can be viewed as less stable than a traditional job. 

But depending on how you look at it, you can also consider it even more reliable. Employees can be fired at any time and will need to start their job search from scratch, while independent contractors typically have a base of several clients, so if one drops out suddenly, they have others to rely on. 

As a Shipt Shopper, Shipt is one of your clients, and you can work for others, like Instacart, DoorDash, and UberEats, at the same time. That way, even if you get deactivated on Shipt or the company suddenly goes out of business, your income stream won’t disappear completely. 

Other factors that affect your pay

Your earnings will be affected primarily by three factors: regional variation (including supply and demand), your skill and business strategy, and pure luck.

Regional variation and supply and demand

Most experienced Shipt Shoppers and Drivers will tell you that how much you earn with Shipt greatly depends on the area that you’re working in. Some of this comes from the cost of living and pricing in your area: if you shop or drive in an area with a higher cost of living, you’re likely to receive higher tips, and your base pay will be higher. 

Additionally, if you live in a very dense area, the distances between your customers and the stores will be shorter, meaning you can save money on mileage and complete orders more quickly, which allows you to take more orders and earn more. 

The other part is supply and demand. Your earnings are a function of how many orders you complete, and you can only take as many orders as are offered to you. If you’re in an area with high demand (lots of customers that want to place Shipt orders), you’ll have lots of offers available, and you can earn more money. The opposite is true if you’re in a low-demand area.

However, demand isn’t the only factor — you also need to think about how many other Shipt Shoppers and Drivers there are in your region (that’s the supply). If there’s a lot of demand but also a lot of competition (supply), your competition will take more orders, leaving fewer for you. 

You can see this relationship in the graph below:

The ideal situation is to work in a city with high demand and low supply. But, of course, you can’t always just pick up and move, so you’ll likely need to make do with what you have.

Business strategy and skill

We saw earlier how Robert “RJ” Woldhuis was able to earn far above the norm thanks, in part, to his unique business strategies. 

To be successful with Shipt, you won’t necessarily need to wear costumes like Woldhuis, but you should have some type of strategy. For example, you should have rules for yourself that determine which orders to accept and reject so that you don’t get stuck with low-paying offers. 

You’ll also need to have customer service, driving, and (if you’re a Shopper) produce selection skills. Being punctual, friendly, and getting your customers’ orders right (including picking the best produce) will earn you bigger tips, earn you bonuses through the Shipt Summit Seeker rewards program, and customers will be more likely to select you as one of their preferred Shoppers, which will give you priority for their next orders. 

Succeeding within Shipt’s Preferred Shopper program is very important as far as earnings are concerned, and to do that, you’ll need great customer service. James says, “I think most Shipt Shoppers would agree that a majority of the money comes from building up a network of preferred customers and doing a majority of your shopping for them. Unlike DoorDash or Uber, Shipt is a long game. You need to spend time building up your client list because then you will have a consistent stream of orders that you know will give high tips. The more experienced you are at Shipt, the less orders you take from the open metro (aka random orders up for grabs).”

So, how do you provide service that’s good enough to become a preferred Shopper? Catherine has some tips: 

“What gets me good ratings and preferred Shopper requests is sending a hello message, letting the customer know when I'm leaving the store, messaging about any preferred replacements WITH photos, good bagging, and picking good products. Lots of people care about dented boxes or iffy labels for some reason, so I do my best to pick the most picture-perfect groceries possible, and this has good results.”

Luck

If the word “luck” sounds too superstitious to you, you can think of this simply as chance. Sometimes, no matter how good the conditions are and how skilled you are, things just won’t go your way. It’s always possible that you’ll have a really bad week where the Shipt app will glitch out, then your car will break down, and someone will report your account for no good reason, which will get you temporarily suspended from the platform. 

Unfortunately, some of this is simply out of your control. However, you can always mitigate the chances of these eventualities occurring by taking relevant measures, like getting your car serviced regularly and treating your customers well.

One of the best things you can do to “maximize your luck” is to multi-app, which means being on several different platforms at once. For example, you can be registered on Shipt, DoorDash, Lyft, and Uber all at the same time. That way, if business is slow on Shipt, you can swap over to DoorDash, where demand might be higher that day. Successful businesses usually have multiple customers, not just one, so if you want to be successful, you should too.

3 Earnings Examples from Shipt Shoppers and Drivers

With that background information in place, let’s take a look at some real-world case studies from our Gig Pros. 

A note before we start: the following numbers are our Gig Pros’ best estimates of their earnings and shouldn’t be taken as exact representations of their real earnings. There is a large margin of error here, and estimating each of these individual items can lead to a different number than estimating overall earnings. Plus, we’re using the IRS’s standard mileage rate to calculate expenses, and that number itself is an estimate. We’ll note those discrepancies where relevant. 

Catherine

Catherine Meyers is a full-time student and has been doing Shipt for two years. She has earned approximately $8,000 in that time. Here are the numbers she provided:

• Average Base Pay: $14 
• Average Tip: $17 
• Average Deliveries Per Hour: 2 
• Hours Worked Per Day: 2
• Days Worked Per Year: 100
• Miles Driven Per Workday: 45

Based on the above numbers, Catherine’s average hourly earnings work out to $46.93/hour, which nets her $93.86/day, or $9,386/year. 

However, when Catherine estimates her overall earnings instead of estimating the individual factors, she puts her average earnings at $38-42/hour on normal weeks, and $25/hour on slower weeks. 

James

James Tuliano has been shopping for Shipt since 2020, which he does alongside his full-time office job. Here’s what his earnings look like:

• Average Base Pay: $11
• Average Tip: $10
• Average Deliveries Per Hour: 2
• Hours Worked Per Day: 3
• Days Worked Per Year: 150
• Miles Driven Per Workday: 30

From the above numbers, James earns $35.30/hour, which comes out to $105.90/day, or $15,885/year. 

Once again, there is some discrepancy between the estimated individual factors above and James’s overall earnings estimate. He says that $35.30/hour is fairly accurate if we assume that he’s doing back-to-back orders, but that it doesn’t always work out that way. He estimates that his hourly earnings come out to $20-25/hour when taking all other factors into account.  

Joshua

Joshua Merritt has three years of experience working with Shipt and continues to do so part time in addition to his full-time job. His earnings shake out as follows:

• Average Base Pay: $16
• Average Tip: $20
• Average Deliveries Per Hour: 1
• Hours Worked Per Day: 4
• Days Worked Per Year: 75
• Miles Driven Per Workday: 40

Based on these numbers, Joshua’s earnings come to $29.30/hour, which works out to $117.20/day, and $8,790. 

Is Shipt Worth It?

Whether Shipt is worth it for you is a personal choice. For many, the flexibility and freedom that Shipt provides is worth the risks and inconveniences that come along with gig work. Plus, building up a list of Preferred Shoppers, improving your rating, and growing your business can be truly satisfying in itself. 

If you’re debating whether Shipt makes sense for you, start by figuring out what your overarching goals are: how does Shipt fit into your financial plan? Are you trying to make a full-time income from gig work? Or are you trying to earn some extra cash part time? From there, take the factors that we’ve discussed above and see how they fit into that plan. 

To truly get an accurate picture of what working with Shipt will look like financially, you’ll need to try it out for yourself. Luckily, you can sign up for Shipt without making any commitments. The signup process is quick and easy, and you can try out a few orders to see how you like it. If it’s not working for you, you can simply stop using it, no questions asked. 

Catherine says, “I was off Shipt for about six months when school was difficult, and it's very easy to pick it back up again as needed.”

Get started

Can you see yourself as a Shipt Shopper or Driver? Read about the differences or apply now to get on the road and start earning.