Historical Timeline & Milestones

Shopper Anonymous was set up in Perth, Western Australia in 1995 by Jonathan Winchester as a result of visiting local supermarkets and being frustrated by the customer service. Jonathan approached some independent storeowners who agreed to trial his product.

1997

• June
  Expanded into the Eastern States of Australia.

1999

• March
  Expanded into New Zealand, after winning the biggest mystery shopping contract on the Island.

2001

• September
  Hits a key milestone of servicing 600 businesses every month.

2002

• May
  Became the first mystery shopping company in Australia to mystery shop a whole town!
• Geraldton in Western Australia received Government funding in a bid to improve the town’s service levels. The project was enormously successful.

2004

• Shopper Anonymous New Zealand is sold.

2005

• April
  Jonathan, Debbie Winchester and their three children returned to the UK and placed the Australian business under management.
• June
  Shopper Anonymous UK was established.
• October
  Shopper Anonymous Australia was sold to the management team.
• Jempsons, thought to be one of the best independent supermarkets in the world, began to use Shopper Anonymous UK for their mystery shopping.

2006

• August
  Shopper Anonymous UK began its journey to become the most dynamic mystery shopping business in the UK.

2007

• February
  To much acclaim Shopper Anonymous UK conducted a full mystery shop on Horsham retailers, culminating in the retailer of the year award for the town.
• Mystery shopped Horsham for the Snapshot project. It was our first UK town. The winning store La Viva saw turnover lift by 17%.
• March
  Won the Booths Supermarket contract throughout the North West of England.
• August
  Shopper Anonymous UK, working with Business Link, mystery shopped Chichester—the first City to be mystery shopped in the South East.
• November
  Guildford and Dorking were mystery shopped with raving press reviews and numerous service improvements in both towns.

2008

• January
  Shopper Anonymous UK completes work on its franchise model and becomes a proud member of the British Franchise Association (BFA).
• June
  Graham Seymour heads up Shopper Anonymous UK’s first franchise in Kent.
• September
  Mystery shopped the Kent City of Canterbury—gaining media coverage on the BBC as a result.
• October
  Completed another successful town project by mystery shopping the retailers in the Adur region.

2009

• February
  Shopper Anonymous UK starts to work with Willows Farm Village, the largest independent farm park in the UK.
• April
  Begins comprehensive mystery shopping programme with Rother District Council. One of few councils to measure their service standards.
• May
  Become members of the Fine Food Guild.
• June
  Jim Smith becomes the second Shopper Anonymous UK franchisee in Surrey.
• August
  Appointed as preferred supplier for the mystery shopping of Hastings under the Custom Eyes programme.