Is Amway a Scam
Scam or not, Amway is one of the longest surviving MLMs. Is it a scam? Amway products are good so if it is not a scam, can you make good money, now?
A quick guide through the Amway business without too much unnecessary detail.
Can you still make money as an Amway distributor? That depends on several factors. We show you what works and what maybe does not.
If the idea of building a business of your own is attractive to you and you are uncomfortable meeting people and selling to them, perhaps another way is to go for affiliate marketing?
Is Amway a Scam, a Short Summary
Amway is an MLM company with several companies in the group. If they are all a scam, then it is a big one.
They sell a wide range of home usage products through their MLM or network marketing scheme. As a business it is very successful and there is no sign of a scam.
They also own manufacturing and hotel businesses. Most scams have no viable product.
Product Name: Amway
Website: www.Amway.com / www.amwayglobal.com / WWW.Amway.co.uk
Price: Varies depending on country and entry level.
Owner: Alticor, run by the DeVos and VanAndel families.
Ranking: As an MLM 85/100 – For making money:40/100
Amway Overview
Amway was founded in 1959 and rebranded as Alticor in 2006.
It is one of the largest MLM companies in the world and if it was a scam, someone would have realised by now.
Amway owns Manufacturing and hotel businesses and offers a range of products through their network marketing program. “Network marketing” is the same as Multi-Level Marketing.
If you would like to understand more about MLMs, read this guide: “MLMs-What Are They?”
Amway has a proclaimed culture of health and wellbeing for everybody. Their initial products were claimed to be the first biodegradable cleaning products sold through network marketing.
Although the products are not a scam, perhaps the selling methods are questionable.
What is Amway About
Amway has a large collection of brands under its wing.
Amway sells skincare, make-up and health care supplements.
Amway products do have a reputation as being high quality.
They are often sold in large sizes and are not cheap, although this is not a scam, it does mean they save a lot of money on packaging and the customer is obliged to buy in these large sizes of product.
Amway products are for men and women and general domestic use.
Amway has its own manufacturers and in fact incorporates several other businesses.
In the States, Amway has Nutrilite amongst its group. This is one of the leading brands of health products in the world. These are possibly overpriced but overpricing is not a scam.
Amway has presence in well over 35 countries, including the USA and the UK.
In the United States Amway has the following brands in its group.
In the UK, there are several more:
The Amway websites also have a lot of information regarding Amway itself and about how you can establish yourself as a part of the network of distributors.
What Does Amway Do?
Amway began by selling cleaning products, they still do that.
Amway is not just an MLM structure, they have sponsorships of Sports groups, hotels and manufacturing businesses.
If you are considering joining Amway, you can learn a lot from the information on their websites. I am sure you will see that they are not a scam, fly-by-night company.
Amway distributors are trained to persuade family and friends to buy the products and then get the same people to become distributors themselves.
The new distributors will obviously get a discount on the Amway products they buy.
They are then pressurised into recruiting more people into the Amway organisation. This is where the complaints begin. People will often buy Amway products from friends and neighbours but the products are sold in such large bulk amounts, they have enough to last them a year or more; therefore, they do not need to reorder very often.
The prices, of the Amway products are not cheap and similar products can often be obtained at lower prices than Amway’s. This is not a scam.
This can lead to a level of dissatisfaction amongst customers and distributors.
The principle behind many Amway products is that people re-order when they have run out. This gives a good repeat business. Few scams do this.
The Good in Amway
- Amway has excellent products
- A wide range of products means that Amway can supply quite a lot of customers purchasing needs.
- The support and training in Amway are very good
- Amway is a brand that a lot of people have heard of.
- There are situations where being the “go to” person for Amway in a large business can make this work. If you work daily with a large group of people.
- You can make money in Amway, if you are careful and hard working.
- Repeat business in Amway products means satisfied customers come back for refills and replacements. People do not re-order scam products so Amway products must be good.
The Bad in Amway
- It is difficult to earn more than a little extra pocket money in Amway.
- You will need to work very hard in Amway to build your network or downline.
- In Amway, like most MLMs, recruiting new people to your network is a necessity to increase your income.
- The Amway products are often in large quantities or sizes. It is almost like buying wholesale. This means the repeat business is slow to come around.
- You will quickly “saturate” your circle of friends and family with Amway products, so necessitating recruitment to keep your business running.
- Amway products are expensive for what they are. They are good but there are often equivalents of the same quality in high street stores or on the internet, often cheaper.
- You will have to carry a stock of Amway products.
- This system is not a scam but it does put pressure on the member to recruit new people and use large quantities of Amway products themselves.
(I personally prefer affiliate marketing where I carry no stock and can steadily expand my business without any recruitment.)
Who is Amway for?
As I said earlier, if you are a person in large organisation who has daily contact with a lot of people, you could become a distributor for Amway and gradually increase your business.
I have known people who have built up a repeat business of Amway products and declined to recruit. It is possible but takes a long time and the money is low to begin with.
If you are prepared to fill your home with Amway products, and tell a lot of people what you are doing, you might succeed.
Who is the product Not for?
Amway is not ideal as a business to make a lot of money. You will not make much in the short term.
If you are shy or a person who does not have a large circle of friends, it can be difficult to get the recruiting off the ground. Most people say “no thank-you.”
You need to be confident and prepared to become a user of the Amway products.
The majority of people who start an Amway business fail or give up. There are statistics all over the place but I am not sure of their credibility, so I will not quote exact percentages.
Tools and Training in Amway
Apart from the person who introduces you, there is a lot of training and support in Amway. They have been in the direct selling business for a long time and really know what they are doing.
There will be a lot of pressure, on you, to recruit because that is the way most people in Amway make money.
Scam companies rarely give relevant support and assistance to distributors, so Amway is definitely doing the right thing.
Support in Amway
You will get a lot of support from the person who introduces you to Amway. It is in their interest to support and encourage you because they make a small profit on everything that you sell.
There is plenty of Amway support for building a business and building your network.
There are books on Network Marketing and plenty of YouTube clips explaining the various parts of the business.
Pricing and Upsells in Amway
This does vary a bit because there are different levels you can enter the Amway business.
Unlike Scams, there are no hidden upsells or tricks to make you buy fast track access to big money.
By the time you have bought in some stock and got yourself set up to run your Amway business, you will probably have to spend around $500 This partly depends on what products you choose to sell.
This why I prefer internet marketing with no stock to sell and no recruiting, but that is my personal choice.
Product Name: Amway
Website: www.Amway.com / www.amwayglobal.com / WWW.Amway.co.uk
Price: Varies depending on country and entry level.
Owner: Alticor, run by the DeVos and VanAndel families.
Ranking: As an MLM 85/100 – For making money:40/100
Balance Pros and Cons
If I was to start an MLM business today, I would probably give Amway a go.
I do not like the pressure to recruit and the monthly targets which are achievable in the early days but get more challenging along the way.
I do not like being obliged to fill my home with Amway products so that I achieve my personal purchase targets each month.
Amway, Scam or not
Amway is definitely not a scam. There are plenty of products to sell.
There are training and support and business training to help you succeed.
Verdict: Is Amway Recommended or Not?
I do not recommend Amway because I believe that Network marketing and MLMs are no longer the best way to make a living.
If you are going down the route of MLMs, then Amway is one of the best.
This review is my personal opinion based on some years of experience and a lot of really excellent training. I have made mistakes and I have learnt some expensive lessons.
If you have experience of working in MLMs, especially Amway, please do leave me a comment. We welcome honest views of all kinds.
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Hi
Amway, Amway, I say this because many years ago I was an Amway Rep and I spent more on products and training than I made.
I went to many training sessions which were good.
In saying this MLM Amway was not for me then and back then they were not online so maybe today it is a lot better.
But I am still not feeling it.
One good thing about being an Amway Rep is that I now know that it is not for me and that MLM may not be the route to success for me either.
Also the experience taught me a lot so that is a good thing. I have also found that there are many other ways to become successful and I prefer online and affiliate marketing.
Thank you for the informative and useful inforamtion
Jennifer
Thanks Jennifer.
You speak from experience and that is good.
Perhaps these experiences help us in other ways, to learn something about ourselves, for example?
I sincerely believe that
1. The future retail is through affiliate marketing
2. MLMs have to have an online presence to survive.
Amway is one of the bigger MLMs so if they are online now, the others will follow.
Interesting, I have never heard of this company, but I appreciate your review! I find that most MLMs aren’t really scams, and most of the products they’re trying to sell are actually good products. There are just (in my opinion) two problems with them: the first is the phony claims that you can EASILY make it a full-time income–anyone who has joined an MLM as a seller knows it’s not easy. Possible? Sure…but nowhere near easy! The second problem is the price–because of the structure of an MLM, there are several people that receive a commission off of your purchase. That means you might be buying one tube of mascara, but a ton of people need to make some money off of that, so it’s marked up like crazy. It may be a good product, but they’re wayyyy overpriced.
Thanks Holly. You have nailed it in one, well two.
I do believe that if MLMs focussed more on reducing the price of their products and distributors made their money from the products, not recruiting, MLMs would be radically more successful.
I joined an MLM many years ago selling a machine that produced instant Gin and Tonic, Vodka and Lime and above all else, filtered and fizzy filtered water. It produced 2 kinds of beer as well.
The cylinders of concentrate were reasonable and lasted a long time and people loved the filtered water.
I had 5 orders in a week and the factory burned down and the company went bust.
The machine was based on the Soda Stream principle.
I have never found another MLM which produced a decent income based on selling product.
You are right, most of the products are good quality. The MLM companies produce their own stats that show that most of their distributors never earn any money, so there is a flaw in the system.
Still, Amway is one of the oldest and, I believe, the first to go with household consumables.
Hi HappyB! I have a sister-in-law who just moved to the US from Germany. She is going thru the immigration process and trying to find her roots here. Employment has been a challenge for her to find, so I’ve been recommending direct sales to her. I know you can make good money with direct sales. I’d heard of Amway several times before, but I was concerned about whether they were actually a good program for an insider. Your review gave me some things to think about, but have you seen their compensation plan? Also, I didn’t see where you mentioned all of the product categories they sell. I saw the skincare, hotels, and cleaning supplies, but is this all?
Hi Tiffany. You are right, I did not mention all the products they sell. It also varies form country to country. They had a range of home insurance at one time, for example. There are also changes in the air so check their websites in the States for the ;latest offering.
I do not want to put you off but Amway products need a circle of acquaintances and friends to help you get started. Most people begin with the consumables, toiletries etc and there is a need for a customers to help you get going.
How are her language skills? She will need to be quite fluent in English unless she is selling to other German speakers.
I assume you are supporting her in such a difficult time, which is kind of you.
I do not know the job/ employment situation in the US as well as here in the UK. Here I would be advising someone to look at starting up as a self-employed person in an area which she has some knowledge and experience in.
Good luck with it and I hope you get things sorted out for her.