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May 10, 2024
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When it comes to gig work, delivery driving is a very popular choice, but with so many delivery services out there, it can be hard to choose the best one to work for.
To help you narrow down your options, we’re breaking down what it’s like to drive for Shipt, a delivery app that’s owned by Target.
Is Shipt worth it compared to the other, similar apps out there, such as Instacart, DoorDash, and Amazon Flex? Read our full review to find out.
As mentioned, Shipt is a delivery service owned by Target. It boasts same-day delivery of groceries and household items, such as clothing and beauty products. Customers pay a monthly or annual membership fee and are able to place orders from a variety of retailers.
This means that as a gig worker for Shipt, you won’t just deliver from Target—you may also pick up packages from stores that partner with them, such as 7-Eleven, Best Buy, Costco, Safeway, and Walgreens. You can see the full list of the 100+ businesses Shipt partners with on their website.
There are two ways you can work for Shipt:
Note: If you sign up for Shipt as a shopper and later decide you want to be a driver, it may be possible to switch, although it isn’t guaranteed (it depends on whether there’s a need for more drivers in your area). However, if you sign up as a driver first, you generally cannot become a shopper if you change your mind.
If you’re a Shipt shopper, you’ll set your availability in the app ahead of time. During your scheduled shift, you’ll claim orders as they pop up in the app.
Once you claim an order, drive to the store promptly so you have plenty of time to shop. If an item on the customer’s shopping list is unavailable, you can ask a store associate for help or substitute the item with something similar. The Shipt app lets you communicate with the customer if you have any questions.
When you have all the requested items in your cart, head to the checkout area. The process for checking out might differ depending on the order, but the app will walk you through all the steps; just follow the prompts.
Let the customer know you’re on the way with their order, then drive to their location. The app will provide a GPS-enabled map with directions.
Once you’ve delivered the order, mark it as complete in the app. After that, you’ll be free to accept another gig.
As a Shipt driver, you won’t actually enter stores to pick up items. You’ll drive to retail outlets near you and pick up packages.
You’ll start each trip by reserving your route. You can view your estimated pay, the number of stops you’ll have to complete, and other information before you accept a route.
When it’s time for your shift, drive to the appointed location and load all the packages into your vehicle. As you drive along your route, you’ll stop and deliver each package to its destination.
The app will provide an optimized path and give you step-by-step directions to help you efficiently deliver all of the packages. The app’s route is just a suggestion; you don’t have to follow it exactly or deliver the items in the order Shipt lists them in. 3
When you drop off each package, you’ll be required to take a photo as proof of delivery, even if the customer comes outside and takes it directly from you. 4
If any packages were undeliverable (e.g., you couldn’t get into the customer’s apartment complex), return them to the location the app directs you to. 5 Once your route is complete, you can claim another set of packages.
On average, Shipt shoppers make about $20 per hour, which is more or less in line with what other delivery driver apps offer.
There’s some evidence that drivers make more than shoppers. Several sources claim that shoppers make around $17 per hour, whereas Shipt drivers may make about $22 per hour. However, those are just rough estimates, and they might not be accurate in your area.
Shipt itself claims that its workers made an average of $25–$35 per hour in 2021. 6 That’s probably on the optimistic side; the company behind Gridwise, an app that helps delivery and rideshare drivers track their earnings, claims that in the first quarter of 2022, Shipt workers made an average of $17.92 per hour. 7
As a Shipt driver, you’ll have fairly sizable expenses (gas, etc.), which will eat into your earnings. We’ll talk more about that further down in this review.
Several factors contribute to your earnings on Shipt:
Shipt offers two ways to get paid. We’ve listed them in the table below:
| Option | When you’ll get paid | Associated fees | Requirements |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct deposit | Weekly every Friday (for work completed the previous Monday through Sunday) | None | Link a personal bank account |
| Instant Payout | Within an hour of your payout request (limited to three times per day or $500 per day) | $0.49 per transaction | Agree to the Stripe Connect terms Have had at least one weekly payout already Have a linked debit card on file |
Shipt operates in at least 47 states. It’s not available in Alaska or West Virginia, and probably isn’t currently available in Wyoming, either, although there’s conflicting information on their site about that.
A footnote at the bottom of the page listing the cities they operate in claims they’re not available in Wyoming, but Jackson, WY is listed as one of their same-day delivery areas on that same page. However, clicking the link for Jackson returns an error page.
In the balance, it seems unlikely that you can drive for Shipt in Wyoming, and we haven’t been able to find any reports of people doing so. We reached out to Shipt for clarification and did not receive a response.
Before you apply to work for Shipt as a shopper or driver, make sure you meet these requirements:
You’ll also have to undergo a background check conducted by Checkr. This is standard for delivery and rideshare apps, most of which use the same company.
Most people will pass Shipt’s background check. You’ll only have trouble if you have serious criminal offenses (i.e., felonies) or major driving violations (DUIs) on your record. Don’t worry if you have minor vehicular offenses, such as speeding tickets. Those won’t be enough to disqualify you.
That said, we’ve heard anecdotes from several drivers suggesting that Checkr isn’t always reliable. There’s a low but nonzero chance that they’ll confuse you with someone with a similar name or your background check will stall out for other mysterious reasons. If this happens, try contacting Shipt’s support team and asking for help with your application.
To get started, go to the Shipt shopper or Shipt driver page, depending on which role you’d rather perform. Click the “Sign up now” button and let the site guide you through the application process.
Again, make sure you’re certain about which role you’d like, since you might not be able to switch later (especially if you become a driver).
When you sign up, be ready to provide:
Once you’ve signed up and submitted your application, you’ll get a confirmation email or notification in the app. The Shipt team will contact you if they need shoppers or drivers in your area.
Before you actually start driving, you’ll need to download the Shipt shopper app. You can do so using the buttons below.
To decide if working for Shipt is worth it or not for you, there are a couple things you should keep in mind:
We’ll look at both of these questions below.
You may be excited by the prospect of earning around $20 per hour with Shipt, but unfortunately, you won’t actually pocket all of that cash. Driving your own car and running your own business—which is essentially what you’re doing when you work for a gig app—comes with certain costs that Shipt won’t pay for you.
We can’t tell you exactly how much you’ll spend on business expenses, as that will depend on gas prices, your vehicle’s fuel efficiency, and other factors, but in general, it’s best practice to set aside the following in your budget:
After these expenses eat up 35% of your revenue, you’ll be left with 65%. That will turn your gross hourly earnings of $20 into just $13.
This is a slight oversimplification; many of your business expenses can be written off as tax deductions, including mileage, which the IRS currently allows you to write off at a rate of $0.655 per mile, as of May 2024. 9 This will allow you to recoup some of those costs.
Still, your actual profit from this side hustle will probably be comparable to what you’d be able to make from most entry-level jobs (e.g., in retail). To put things into context, $13 per hour is significantly higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25, but it’s below the minimum wage in 14 states and the District of Columbia, as of February 2024. 10
It’s worth noting that all drive-based gigs have similar expense ratios (no driving-based gig apps pay for gas or any of your other major costs). Shipt is in step with its competitors in this respect. Whether it’s ultimately worth it is up to you.
For our series of reviews of delivery gig apps, we talked to several experienced drivers. They shared their thoughts on what courier/delivery work is like (this applies to all apps in this space, not just Shipt):
To get a clearer idea of what sets Shipt apart and whether it’s worth it or not, we looked at reports from actual drivers from across the internet. Here’s what gig workers think about the app:
One user on Reddit has mostly positive things to say about Shipt, although they emphasize that they only use it on a part-time basis and think that driving full time sounds too stressful.
They note that Shipt has its bad days, “like any job,” but that as a parent who needs to be able to provide childcare on short notice, the flexibility can’t be beat. They suggest that they had trouble making enough money in the beginning, but that they eventually figured out the best times to drive in their area.
Several other Redditors in that thread also speak positively of Shipt’s preferred shopper system, which allows customers to prioritize you to take their orders in the future.
If you accumulate a roster of regulars, driving for Shipt can be surprisingly rewarding. You’ll have the sense that you’re really making people’s lives easier. (People who add you as a preferred shopper may be more likely to tip well, too.)
In another thread, the sentiment toward Shipt is considerably more negative. Several users complain that Shipt has declined since several popular retailers (including Best Buy) stopped using them, and one declares that the app isn’t “worth the time, energy, gas, and mileage.”
Another Redditor claims that Shipt will send you above-average offers at first, “for your first 10 orders,” and then reduce either the volume, the pay, or both.
This is a claim that we’ve seen several people make about delivery apps in general (not just Shipt)—that they incentivize drivers with lots of solid offers in the beginning and then taper off once they’re established.
This user offers an interesting suggestion for making Shipt worth it: “build a tip map and track the good and bad customers.” If you keep track of who tips well, you may be able to push your hourly earnings on Shipt higher, although that’s a lot of work (and might mean rejecting a lot of orders).
More than a few Shipt drivers have horror stories about the app’s rating system.
Like many apps, Shipt allows customers to rate their delivery drivers on a scale of 1 through 5. All drivers must maintain an average rating of at least 4.7 (as well as a 90% on-time delivery rate). Dropping below this score can lead to Shipt deactivating your account.
The problem is that customers may sometimes rate you poorly for factors outside your control, like a store not having an item they requested. Some customers also don’t understand that any rating below 5 counts as “poor” and give scores of 4 stars to drivers they’re perfectly happy with.
This can make driving on the app more stressful than it’s worth. A few unfairly bad scores can bring your Shipt side hustle to an abrupt and ignominious end.
Shipt maintains a form that allows drivers to request forgiveness for unfair ratings, but many drivers allege that the app’s support team is unresponsive and that it’s difficult to get anyone to investigate your case.
Overall, the online sentiment toward Shipt is mixed. Many people claim that there simply aren’t enough worthwhile offers on the app these days to justify the stress and effort, but, as one Redditor notes, this can be seasonal. For instance, they suggest that in January, there’s a post-holiday “hangover” when fewer people feel like buying things.
They—and many other people—also point out that whether Shipt is worth it depends on your “metro,” or where you’re driving. In some cities, Shipt has made significant inroads, whereas in others, it’s a relatively minor player in the delivery scene, and most people use other apps, such as Instacart.
The only way to tell what Shipt will be like in your city is to give it a try. The good news is, that’s very easy to do, provided you have a car.
Signing up for Shipt doesn’t require making any sort of ongoing commitment, so you can try the app for a few days or weeks and either stick with it or give it up, depending on whether or not it’s working out for you.
There’s also no rule that says you have to only drive for Shipt. If you want, you can also download other delivery apps—DoorDash, Instacart, and Uber Eats are all popular choices—and accept orders from whichever one happens to be paying more at any given moment.
“Multi-apping” like this is perfectly legal, doesn’t violate any of these companies’ terms of service, and is arguably the best way to make money with Shipt, as well as its competitors.
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