Gurgaon-based Grass Roots India is one of the companies that provides services to telecom, banking companies and food chains on their products and staff, using ‘mystery shopping' as a tool to measure the quality of retail service or gather specific information.

Armed with real-time feedback, it also helps retailers improve their performance by providing a range of tools, training and professional advice.

Apart from housewives and young girls, male customers can also join the league of ‘mystery shoppers' a concept popular in the US that has entered India recently. Once you register online with the agencies, you are paid to try out services and offers according to your profile and preferences.

"In a country like ours, where lot of women are home-makers, mystery shopping will help them in providing a helping hand in the home income," Grass Roots India Managing Director Samhita Rao said.

"What we pay to our ‘mystery shoppers' varies on the nature of the assignment. They can easily earn from Rs 25,000 to Rs 1,00,000 annually by meticulously evaluating the business and filling an online feedback," she said.

There are, in fact, many big companies especially retail chains, malls which hire the services of companies to provide feedback relating to their sales staff and product ranges, price and quality of items from "genuine buyers" especially housewives.