Avon was once considered a great way for stay at home moms to make some extra money in their own time. Selling home delivered cosmetics from catalogues, was a great business model. It offered people the convenience of shopping from home, and allowed representatives to earn a living without venturing too far from their local neighborhood. Unfortunately Avon has not kept up with the times

Shopping from home is no longer a unique value added service. Thanks to the internet and companies like Amazon, there is very little we can't buy from home and have delivered within a few days. Avon's catalogue model is not competitive in the modern market.

It is possible to buy Avon online. Their website offers customers the option to purchase either 'directly from Avon', or 'with a local online representative'. Avon members can become 'online representatives' buy paying Avon extra fees. This will provide them with their own referral link so their customers can buy from them online.

The problem with being an online representative, is that Avon still requires you to deliver the goods to your customers. This means that unlike other online businesses, you will only be able to sell to customers who live within delivery distance of your home. You can't use the internet to promote your Avon business to new customers from all over the world. This is perhaps why most webpages run by Avon Representatives are designed to recruit new members, not to sell product.

If customers buy directly from Avon, they will pay the same price for the products. Avon will keep the commission instead of allowing a sales representative to earn it. This means that unless online representatives ensure that their customers use their specific links, it is possible that they will lose commission because of direct purchases. This means that instead of supporting members, Avon is competing with their own representatives for online sales.

Does Avon Help You Promote Your Business?

Avon does not do any marketing to the public. This task is delegated to the army of Avon Representatives. There is a wide range of promotional brochures and other marketing tools, but like the website, they all come at an additional cost to the Representatives. If you decide to become an Avon Representative, then you will be able to purchase products at wholesale prices, but will need to depend on your sponsor for any additional support.

Before you join Avon, you should ensure that you have a sponsor who is already successful, and can show that they are supporting their team. The 'upline' will be your main source of knowledge and support. For example if you join Avon through a website, it is quite likely that you will never meet your sponsor in person, and will probably not get a lot of support. Essentially you will be working on your own from from day one.

Why Do Avon Representatives Want to Recruit You?

If you speak to a current Avon Representative, they will do their very best to convince you to sign up and become an Avon Representative. They will parrot all the standard MLM claims about why Avon 'is the key to your future financial freedom'. It's unlikely that they will mention the fact that they are currently earning less than $25 per week from this 'key to financial freedom'. This does not mean that they are intentionally lying. Most active MLM members believe the that they are on the path to financial freedom, despite the fact that they are losing money!

According to the indoctrination, the key to success with Avon is in becoming a sales leader and recruiting new Avon Representatives. You earn income when your recruits make sales, so in theory, the more you recruit, the more you can earn. Avon Representatives want you to join their team so that they can make money from your sales. To be more precise, they are recruiting you to try and reverse their losses.

Avon Representatives are taught that recruiting new members is the key to success, ironically, the more they recruit, the less likely they are to succeed. The MLM model used by Avon, encourages constant recruiting of new Representatives with no regard to the existing market. When companies hire new salespeople, it's usually in response to a marketing strategy. They are either trying to grow into new areas, or they are reacting to strong demand from customers.

MLMs could learn something from the corporate world. As a corporate sales representative you'd be allocated an area or a specific product, or even given a portfolio of customers to look after. As an Avon Representative, you are selling the exact same products as all the other Avon Reps, and it's possible that they will competing with you for the same customers.