Contents
What Is Market America?
The company was established way back in ’92 by one James Ridinger. James had previously worked in the multi-level marketing industry.
Basically, Market America is an online retailer. You could think of it as Amazon.com or QVC. The company claims to provide more than 35 million product and service offerings and these vary from books and videos to other products including home supplies.
Also, they have their own line of more than 2500 products that are Market America-branded which include Ultimate Aloe Juice and their Isotonix range of products.
Market America also has Partner Stores like Best Buy, Apple, Target, Victoria’s Secret, Nike, Barnes & Noble and Bloomingdales. It currently employs more than 200 staffs in its Greensboro, N.C. facility.
It also claims to have over 600 employees globally including in its international operations of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Austria and Canada.
You can also check out the step-by-step training that helps me earn over $10,000+ per month working from home.
How Do You Make Money With Market America?
The company charges members one-time setup fee of $130, $20 monthly fee and a yearly fee of $99.95.
The charges are for, among other things, a web portal giving distributors instant internet presence as well as the ability to earn commissions on the more than 35 million products that the company deals with.
In order to become a distributor, one of the requirements is to buy a product selection worth $500-$1,100 according your product choices.
There are basically two ways through which you can earn money. The first one is through the Management Performance Compensation Plan, MCPC.
Under the plan, the company claims that customers benefit from retail sales as well as by managing Business Development Centers (BDC), achieved by sponsoring 2 distributors.
Because it follows binary plan, a customer will earn commission weekly according to sales of the lower side. Customers of the company, it is claimed, can start earning on a weekly basis after generating $3,600 for each DBC.
Distributors are able to create as many Business Development Centers as they can. This, the company says, is to ensure that there is no cap to the income that a customer can get.
Customers can also get 35 per cent cash back for any purchases made in the company’s portal. Also, they will get 0.5 per cent cash back from sales that their downlines make.
Market America claims that its MCPC compensation model is the industry-best. However, you will have to really work your socks off to recruit people into your downline and market the business a lot.
Pros
Theoretically speaking, you can actually make some money with the program. But it is not as easy as the company will have you believe. You need to work hard and recruit several people in your downline.
Again, you only earn if the people in your downline make sales and the cash back is very low at just 0.5 %. My view however, is that there are higher chances of you losing the money that you paid than gaining it.
Cons
• Their products and services are too highly priced
The company marks up pricing of their products a bit highly, which makes selling them really difficult. Also, it makes recruiting others on your downline very difficult.
As if that is not enough, they also do not adequately promote their products and also don’t encourage their sales representatives to do so. This makes it quite difficult for a distributor to make any meaningful sales.
The only alternative that you are left with is to go after your customers through meetings or individually. But it does not end there. You also have to convince the few that you have got to bring other people in and so on.
• Prohibitive investment costs
There is a lot of money that you have to invest in the business. A lot of people have complained that they invested 20k or 30k into the company and could not even earn 10 per cent of their investment.
• Misleading information
The company and its reps use convincing tactics to make prospects believe that it will be immensely profitable to shop online. But the reality is that there is nearly zero chance of that ever happening.
Also, they mislead prospects that they will need to recruit only two people and start making money. The truth however is that one must be able to recruit 50 people is they are to get a return on their investment.
Are There Any Issues With It?
The biggest issue with Market America is that it requires huge capital investment but does not pay. In fact, there are chances that you may just lose the money you invest rather than get it back.
The company also makes it more difficult for distributors to sell by not adequately promoting their products. The net result is that it is even more difficult to recruit people in your downline.
What Are Others Saying Around The Web?
Louisa on 22nd February 2014, said:
“These guys are running illegal pyramid scheme and I wonder why they are not being shut down. Can you imagine needing armed security while standing in front of your residential home?
These people have screwed so many people and they fear those can kill them. That is why they can’t do without extra security measures.”
Final Thoughts:
Market America, like any other MLM company out there, is not an easy way to earn money online. You have to sell their products and it is really difficult because they don’t promote them.
It also requires a big investment from your part, and there is very little chance that you can ever recoup your investment. The only people you can sell to are the people you know but many other people would not buy the products easily.
I would not recommend MA or any other MLM company.
There are a lot of other ways to make money online without having to do face-to-face selling.
Believe it or not you can get started for next to nothing and develop an online business that gets customers coming to you – without you having to hold a single meeting, contact your family or friends or even have to call a single person, your online business does all the heavy lifting for you.
Want to learn how I make a full-time living online with such a business?
Then check out my number 1 training program Wealthy Affiliate.
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Jamie
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Nice review of MA , I looked into it a few years back and glad now I did not sign up for it. WA is truly a great community to build an online business. Again great write up about it.
Rolland
Hello, I am a freshman in college and I got tricked into signing up for Market America (Shop.com to e more specific).
I was told by a friend that he was running a business where he sold products online and wanted me to meet up with him to give my opinion. Arriving to the meeting place, I meet with my friend and someone else he invited to the meeting. The man goes on to tell me about Shop.com and how it’s free and everyone you recruit somehow gets paid the same amount. During the talk, he hands me his laptop, suggesting I make an account so he can “further explain” how the website works.
About an hour and a half of that he tells me of a convention they’re having and bids his farewells. With them gne I decided to actually take the time to look into what Shop.com is just to find out that it is a type of MLM.
I told the man that I didnt want to ho to the convention then tried to delete my account only to find there is no option for it. I don’t believe I will be charged if I just leave it alone but I want to be sure ad to terminate the account.