It appears to me that Amway sales globally have been tanking. Amway peaked at 11.8 billion in 2013 and has decreased each year, coming in at 8.6 billion in 2017. That's about a 25% decrease over 5 years. This is something that Amway IBOs used to enjoy bragging about but with a slowdown in foreign expansion, we are seeing sales drop significantly. I believe Amway is reaching market saturation with their products and reputation and the big declines back up what I believe to be true.
Many IBOs and Amway defenders claim that Amway products are simply the "best". Some even go so far as to call Amway product superior to big box retailer's products. In the past, some unbiased reviews (including consumer reports) of Amway products compared to name brand had some Amway goods rated as average, some were very expensive, and some were satisfactory. Of course, quality is subjective and it certainly seems that whether or not one is an IBO determines that quality.
But here's the definitive question. If Amway products are so good, why do former IBOs rarely continue to buy them? I mean Amway sales would continue to climb steadily each year if former IBOs kept buying products. And here's another angle on all of this. If some former IBOs do purchase Amway goods, I would bet that they do not purchase 100 PV or more each month as they do when they are IBOs. It would appear that uplines are able to manipulate or create an artificial demand for Amway products among the active IBOs. This is a point of contention between Amway defenders and Amway critics because an artificial demand toes the line on legality issues.
There are tens of millions of former IBOs. There are probably less than 200 qualified diamonds in the US. I believe there are more lottery winners than qualified diamonds. But if there are tens of millions of former IBOs and hundreds of thousands of current IBOs why aren't the Amway sales consistently growing? I believe it's because Amway IBOs are the primary consumers of Amway products and former IBOs are not. And because information is easily available on the internet, prospects who are approached an easily google up Joecool's blog or other sites full of information and make an informed decision. I believe that is partly why sales are down, because recruitment and sponsoring of new IBOs is down.
So if Amway products have such great value, why don't most former IBOs continue to purchase them?
Several years ago, the commentator David Brear called all MLM products "wampum." This was a brilliant comparison. American Indians used "wampum" as a medium of exchange, but in itself it had no intrinsic value (wampum was simply shell beads, strung on threads to make a patterned belt).
ReplyDeleteAmway products, like all MLM products, are nothing but exchange mechanisms to give a cover for what is essentially a pyramid recruitment scam. IBOs exchange Amway products for the sole purpose of attaining a certain PV level. They do not usually sell the stuff, the way a drugstore sells the products on its shelves for a profit. Can Amway products actually be used and consumed? Yeah, of course. But that is NOT their primary purpose.
So it follows that anyone who quits Amway will probably no longer purchase Amway products. Why should they? The products are simply exchange mechanisms that prop up the Amway business, which at base is nothing but endless recruitment of new IBOs.