Arbonne International is another company that offers lucrative schemes for earning money and living a prosperous life. Like many others, it runs a cosmetics retail business that shelters its main network marketing venture.
But is Arbonne any different from its peers? Let’s find out!
What is Arbonne?
Arbonne International LLC was started as a cosmetic company in 1980 by a Norwegian entrepreneur, Petter Mørck. Petter, who used to work in the Norwegian skincare industry, where he felt that the quality of products was below par.
He decided to open up his own enterprise and did the same after he shifted to Arbon, Switzerland in 1975. The name Arbonne proudly represents that village.
Arbonne’s first office was officially set up in Utah in 1980 and then in California in 1984. Petter Mørck’s vision was to make Arbonne a place where people could flourish and on similar lines, the company has been guided by the principles of empowerment, sustainability, and transparency.
Today, Arbonne has a network of more than 20,000 employees — more than double the number of business owners. Arbonne operates across 6 nations namely, Australia, Canada, Poland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States where it claims to be the top brand for beauty products, healthcare, and nutritional products!
Just like any other network marketing company, this beauty products selling company operates on the infamous commission-based business model. Individuals registered with the company called Arbonne Independent Consultants (Arbonne rep) or as a Preferred Client aggressively recruit new members into the platform and gain decent incentives/passive income for the same.
Not only for the recruitments but the incentives are gained on every sale made by the recruit.
Every recruit has to purchase a certain amount of products for successful registration in the company. This can be considered as a hidden fee charged by the company for registration. Moreover, the primary task of a new joinee is to sell the products purchased to any other person so that the recruit can recover the money spent.
Ironically, the recruit who makes nothing in this trade despite putting his sweat and blood into becomes the source of the handsome permanent commission for his recruiter.
Is Arbonne A Pyramid Scheme?
Arbonne uses the pyramid scheme for attracting individuals to its business — where when one climbs the pyramid, the number of individuals earning money increases and as we move down, the number of people doing hard work and facing losses increases.
The pyramid scheme is a deceitful strategy in which people working under an individual are sources of revenue for that individual and the individual himself, is a money-maker for someone else.
Like any other multilevel marketing firm, Arbonne pays its recruiters for connecting more and more people so that the opportunity of looting money indirectly increases. So clever is the way of influencing these company agents that even the least interested people fall into their trap and regret later!
But, there are always doubts springing up like, “Is Arbonne a scam?”, “Is Arbonne legit?”. Let’s answer them!
Though the pyramid scheme is banned in many countries, companies like Arbonne have their own methods to benefit from it. More than 400 Arbonne reviews can be found on Glassdoor, out of which around 300 complain about the scams being run by the company.
Not just that, there have been many legal complaints against Arbonne, this being one of the examples of it.
Leaving aside the few loyal associates of the company who may actually be minting money, none comes forward to advocate for Arbonne’s brand value. Arbonne’s primary source of revenue is the hidden fee it charges from the individuals who join the company!
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What is Arbonne’s Business Model?
Arbonne’s business model is based on MLM, network marketing, and the crooked Arbonne pyramid scheme. The company does not own any physical retail store and all its sales happen through the website, social media, or through business owners in the network.
The company’s main focus is on implementing the pyramid model effectively and expanding its network.
Like Amway, Forever Living, Oriflame, and many more MLM brands, Arbonne operates in a similar manner, with the reality of being a network marketing company, beneath the mask of a popular cosmetics brand.
More than 90% of the recruits are never able to recover their joining fee and end up leaving the company, exasperated. A company that not only plays with the money of innocent people but also emotionally harasses them is good for nothing.
Arbonne’s business model has always been a bane for any individual who has joined the organization, especially after its early years of settlement in the market.
Reports claim that in any network marketing company implementing an illegal pyramid scheme, the only possibility of earning well lies within the top 5 tiers of the pyramid. The ones at the bottom are mere machines doing as they are being instructed to. When a single sale is made, apart from the seller, every member of the chain receives a certain amount of profit depending on his level in the chain.
Such is the wasteful business model of this age-old company!
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Is Arbonne A MLM Company?
Most definitely, yes. Multilevel marketing involves the promotion of a brand’s products among disparate tiers of its own network. Individuals who heard the word from their seniors, propagate the same among their own networks from where the chain continues till the very last person of the network.
Undoubtedly, Arbonne being an MLM company benefits from the same model. According to Vice, during the lockdown days, Arbonne’s army of network marketers got so overwhelmed with making money that they hoaxed people with unrealistic schemes. Arbonne products were openly marketed as a cure for Covid. People were forced to buy such products considering their own and family’s well-being.
Matters had aggravated to such an extent that in April 2020, the FTC had to issue a warning to the company in which it pointed out the exact quotes of company-related individuals involved in advertising products wrongly.
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How Much Do Arbonne Consultants Make?
At Arbonne, regardless of the flowery schemes they propose to fool us, spending comes before earning. According to different sources, we get to know that a consultant has to spend at least $18000 annually, to make some money at Arbonne. Their own earnings data clearly showcases the inability of maximum folks to monetize their so-called business. Nearly 10% of the total members are able to make any money. This can be startling but this is the reality.
Although the company has offices across 6 countries, the story remains the same everywhere. Even those who earn, are not satisfied with their performance, given the time and effort they spend. The majority of the consultants have below-par earnings i.e. the amount is below the minimum wage. There have been cases where the up-line pays the down-line from his own incentives to motivate them to keep working.
There is no exact figure an individual earns over a period of time. Despite putting in money, time, and effort, an individual is hardly able to grow in this environment. Given the investment made by a person over here was applied in any other venture, the results would have been far better and relieving.
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Is Working For Arbonne Worth It?
After reading till here, the answer must have become quite obvious. No, never, in any situation in life. If earning money would be the goal, there are numerous simpler ways to achieve it rather than wasting countless efforts and time on a futile activity like network marketing. Not just Arbonne, but any pyramid company is a gone case to work for.
After all, which progressive company would ask one to pay a fee to work for that company?
Even if the fee is paid, there is no guarantee of receiving any returns in the future. All they have to offer is their virtual support for encouragement and their sympathy for disappointment. Constant pressure from the recruiter (up-line) for generating sales and the mental pressure of losing hard-earned money are the two regular accompaniments of this job for any individual.
Several reports like this, are easily available on the internet for commoners to understand the disadvantages of joining this MLM company. Sufferers have shared their painful experiences on multiple platforms to alarm others from being trapped in such fraud schemes related to direct sales. Their so-called consultants are middlemen in disguise who only care about their cut from the sales made by their downline.
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The lust of money and fame can be damaging to one’s life. Innocent individuals get fooled by the cunning tactics of the agents of companies like Arbonne MLM and end up repenting later on. Though the level of awareness among the people about such fraudulent companies is much higher than before, just for the sake of making easy money online people get easily tricked by them.