ShopandScan is a market research company from TNS. Members of the Shop and Scan panel recieve a mini barcode scanner, which they call 'The Clicker.' With this you simply scan the person's name who did the shopping, what shop you were in, how much you spent, then the barcode of each item you bought. It's easy to use, you simply press the button, aim it at the barcode, a ed light appears and it 'beeps' to show it's scanned. Very simple. To connect the clicker to your PC, you are supplied with a cable which requires a serial port. However you can request a USB cable if your PC doesn't have a spare serial port. The USB cable has a serial connector on it to enable you to connect the original cable to it. Then you simply go to their website and click on 'Transmit your Barcodes' and you're done!

When you join Shop and Scan you are enrolled onto their rewards programme. Each week when you submit your barcodes onto their website, you recieve 1,000 points. If you don't submit any barcodes you won't get your weekly points. On weeks where I have forgotten to scan, I had an automated telephone call from them reminding me to transmit my barcodes, as well as an e-mail! When you reach 10,000 points you can get a £10 voucher.
They have a huge list of vouchers to choose from ranging from the High Street to Entertainment and Leisure. If you go to the shopandscan.com website you can see the whole list there.
When I first joined and transmitted my barcodes I was given 10,000 points as a welcome bonus, this enabled me to get my first £10 voucher straight away!
The voucher's arrive quite quickly, they give an estimate on the website and they usually arrive before that estimate, about a week or so.

Shop and Scan occasionally send out surveys to your e-mail inbox and offer points as a reward, I have done one in the past that got me 1,000, and a couple of shorter ones getting me 500 points each. This year over Christmas they have offered us 3,000 points each week instead of the usual 1,000 as a thankyou for scanning during the busy christmas period.

On the shop and scan website there is also the newsletter. Here you can find the prize winners. Each week there is a prize draw for everyone who transmits, the winner recieves £100's worth of reward points. There is also a Monthly Prize draw which has 5 winners. You have to check this reward section yourself to see if you have won and call them to claim your prize. I haven't won anything yet, but membership numbers close to mine have so I've been unlucky! There is also 'Quiz Time.' Each newsletter brings a different sort of quiz which can range from crossword puzzles to sudoku. You have to e-mail the answers to them and 5 entries win another £100's worth of points.

I've found shopandscan very easy to do, and the rewards process very simple.
If you are interested in joining you have to sign up at volunteer4panels.com, at the bottom mention you are interested in joining Shop and Scan then you have to wait patiently for them to get in touch. It took me 2-3 months to hear from them I think, so you could be in for a wait.