Is The Body Shop At Home A Legit MLM or Pyramid Scheme?

Welcome to my The Body Shop At Home  MLM Review.

You probably came to this page because you wonder if the Body Shop At Home MLM program is a scam or legit?

No need to worry you’re in the right place for the answers to these questions.

Over the last few years, I’ve been busy creating reviews about all kinds of online products.

Some turned out to be fake others were legit ways to make money online but in the process, I learned how to spot scams.

In this post, I’ll show you absolutely everything you need to know about The Body Shop At Home and after reading it you’ll know exactly if you should give it a chance.

The Body Shop At Home MLM Review Overview

Name: The body shop
Website: thebodyshop.com
Founder: Dame Anita Roddick
Product Type: Body Care, Makeup MLM Programs
Earning Potential: Low
Price: Minimum of $29
Rating: 

Summary:
The Body Shop At Home is The MLM program of The Body Shop a business that sells Body, Face, Hair, Makeup, and Fragrance products. The Body Shop At Home is a legit MLM company but unless you start recruiting you’ll barely earn anything.

The problem with this is that the financial risk skyrockets the moment you start recruiting. They have high-quality products but I wouldn’t recommend this to people that want to earn a decent side income.
Similar to:
Younique MLM program, OneHope Wine MLM program, MaryKay MLM program, Amsoil MLM program, Savvi MLM Program, Trades of Hope MLM program
Recommended: No

What is The body shop at home?

The Body Shop is a company that distributes Body, hair, makeup, and fragrance products. The Body Shop was founded by Dame Anita Roddick in 1976. 

She opened her first store in Brighton, England but the headquarters eventually moved to Watersmead, Littlehampton, West Sussex, BN17 6LS, the United Kingdom where it currently resides.

The Body Shop has stores all over the world and the MLM program and has launched more than 1000 products. Since Anita Roddick’s death, the company has been owned by multiple companies such as L’oreal and the Brazilian cosmetic company Natura.

How does “The body shop at home” work?

In short, The Body Shop At Home distributes and sells body care, makeup, and makeup-related products. Aside from selling the products directly to consumers, they have chosen to use the MLM model which gives you the choice to earn money by:

• Selling the products for a commission
• Recruiting people to earn bonuses.

What is MLM?

MLM (a.k.a network marketing or direct selling) stands for multi-level marketing.

According to Wikipedia, multi-level marketing is a marketing strategy for the sale of products or services where the revenue is derived from a non-salaried workforce.

As a part of this workforce, you sell the products from the company, and/or you recruit people to do the same thing. This group of people you recruit will work under you and is referred to as your downline.

The bigger your downline is the more money you can earn passively (technically speaking) because you’re getting paid a percentage based on the performance of your downline.

This also means the person that recruited you which is called your upline is making money based on your performance.

The act of recruiting turns an MLM company into a pyramid-shaped organization where the first people to join make the most and are on the top of the pyramid and those last to join are at the bottom.

Source: Wikipedia

MLMs have been around for a long time. There are Multi-level marketing companies active today that were founded in the 1950s. MLM has a lot in common with pyramid schemes which is why scammers often use MLM to disguise their pyramid scheme.

Is it absolutely necessary to recruit people? No.

You can also stick to just selling products that you can order and re-sell to make a profit. This is easier said than done for multiple reasons which are why most members try to recruit others so they can earn more money.

Is The Body Shop an MLM? 

Yes. The Body Shop is indeed a multi-level marketing company because it possesses these 4 things. 

• A method for distributing through an independent workforce.
•  A compensation plan that rewards selling their products.
• The capability of recruiting people and getting compensated based on the member and their team's joint performance.
• The capability to earn money based on the performance of multiple “generations”.

These are the key ingredients in determining if a company can be considered an MLM company.

How to join The Body Shop At Home MLM

You have to be introduced by a member or you can sign-up through the website.  The next step is to purchase a starter kit. The Body Shop At Home provides its members with the starter kit at the cost of $29 or the business kit at the cost of $59. 

Both starter kits contain their best-selling products and resources to start your business however the business kit is a more expanded version of the normal starter kit.

Is The body shop at home a pyramid scheme?

To answer this question we need to know what a pyramid scheme is.

What is a pyramid scheme?

A pyramid scheme is a type of scam where people are promised money for joining the scheme and recruiting other people. No selling of a product or service is involved whatsoever.

So you might be wondering where the money comes from?

The people that join are expected to pay a one-time fee and in exchange for that, they get a percentage of the fee of everyone they recruit after that.

The problem is from a mathematical standpoint it’s impossible for everyone to make money because you simply run out of people.

Take a look at this picture below showing how it’s impossible for everyone to earn money.

Source: Wikipedia

As you can see, in this pyramid model it’s required to recruit 6 people. You’ll notice from the 12th level and further, it’s not possible anymore for everyone to earn money.

The 2.2 Billion people on the 12th level need 13.1 billion recruits in total for them all to make money which is more people than there are currently on Earth.

Looking at the description of what a pyramid scheme is, The Body Shop At Home MLM program can’t be classified as a pyramid scheme from a legal perspective. 

The Body Shop At Home has given people a method to make money without recruiting people. How much you’ll be earning just by selling wine is a different story.

That being said, there definitely is something a bit sketchy going on. Read below to find out what I mean.

Who can benefit from The Body Shop At Home?

Who would benefit from joining The Body Shop At Home MLM program:

• Expert salesmen
• Expert recruiters
• Wine lovers

Who shouldn’t join The Body Shop At Home MLM program:

• People that hate sales jobs.
• People that hate recruiting
• People that don’t have the budget for it
• People that expect to earn passive income

The Body Shop at Home products

This post is mostly for people trying to earn money with The Body Shop At Home but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look at the products it sells. An MLM program is only as good as the products it offers.

The Body Shop At Home provides people with multiple types of products such as Hair, Body, Face, Fragrances, and makeup. The product prices range between $5 and $25.

When it comes to the price of the majority of the products they seem to be aligned with the rest of the market.

Here are a few of their best sellers:

The products are very affordable but because the price per product is so low. This can have a negative effect on your earning potential because you need to sell a lot of products to earn a decent income.

The products themselves are of good quality. Overall the majority of “The Body Shop” customers have had a positive experience with the brand.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• The Body Shop At Home products have tangible benefits
  Unlike MLM’s that sell essential oils you know exactly what you’re getting and how it works. This makes it easier to sell to people.
• The Body Shop At Home knows how to handle adversity
  It has proven to be a stable company that even survived the last financial crisis. 
• You can stay a member without accumulating PCV
  Your account isn’t deactivated when you don’t fulfill your monthly quota. You won’t be eligible to earn a commission but you don’t have to purchase the starters kit again to become a member.
• High Commission rates
  You start at a commission rate of 20% which is high compared to a lot of other companies.

Cons

• Products and commission rate imbalance
  The Body Shop At Home has a high commission rate but because of the low prices of their products, you won’t earn much just by selling products.
• You have to pay to play high level
  You have to invest a minimum of $29 just to become a member but to earn a decent income you have to recruit which comes with quotas that go up to purchasing +1000 points (which in most MLMs is atleast $1) of products a year.
• A lot of competition
  The Body Shop is known worldwide and has a lot of consultants everywhere. The competition is going to make it hard to consistently sell all the products you accumulate.

The Body Shop At Home Compensation Plan

The Body Shop At Home can be considered a traditional MLM when you look at their compensation plan. You either re-sell their products for a commission or you can recruit people and receive residual income, climb up the ranks, and earn bonuses.

In total there are 8 ranks that all come with their benefits such as getting a higher commission percentage of all your sales starting at 20% to a max of 40%

• Consultant 
• Beauty Consultant
• Star Beauty Consultant
• Silver Leader
• Gold Leader
• Platinum Leader 
• Ruby Group Leader
• Double Ruby Group Leader

Earnings and bonuses in the compensation plan are based on your ranks and the points you accumulate. 

For those that aren’t familiar with points let me explain what it’s all about. 

In the majority of MLM companies, they don’t express the value of a product in valuta such as dollars, pounds, euros, etc. 

They assign points to every product. 

A part of qualifying for specific ranks is accumulating ( fancy word for purchasing) products to get points.

How much money 1 point is worth is decided by the MLM themselves which can be frustrating because they can strip or decrease the number of points assigned to a product. 

You could sell $200 worth of products and get 200 points and the next year they could change it so that $200 is worth 100 points. 

Ways to make money with the Body Shop At Home

There isn’t a lot of information available to the general public but luckily, I’ve come across some people that were willing to fill in some gaps regarding the MLM Program.

Earnings at The Body Shop come in 4 different forms. 

• Perks and Benefits
•  Commissions
• Rewards
•  Bonuses

How much does it cost to start a Body Shop At Home “business”?

This question can be answered by looking at the compensation plan.

Like a lot of MLM compensation plans, the Body Shop At Home compensation plan is confusing at first sight. This is why I’m going to only share with you the most important aspects.

The initial cost for starting a Body Shop At Home business is $29 or $59 for 1 of the 2 starter kits. After that, you pay a monthly fee of $9,95 for your website.

By paying the initial costs you get the rank of Consultant.

According to the Body Shop At Home compensation plan, you become a Consultant when you accumulate between $0 and $124 worth of products. Accumulating simply means ordering the products that are going to be sold.

In summary, to start your business (and start earning) it’ll cost you a minimum of $38,95 and after that, you’ll have to spend money on products that you’ll have to sell for a commission.

This only applies to remaining in the lowest rank. The higher ranks that can earn residual income will require you to accumulate more products to stay at that rank.

How much can you earn with The Body Shop At Home?

The commission rate starts at 20% which is decent and becomes higher every time you increase rank. 

In theory, the sky is the limit but in reality, we know because of factors such as your ability to recruit, your competition, and the performance of your downlines there’s is often a limit. 

Unfortunately, The Body Shop At Home doesn’t have a public earnings disclaimer that we could use to find out how much Wine advisors are earning but I do see it shares the same “handicaps” most MLM companies have which prevents members from earning decent money.

Why aren’t people earning decent money with MLM companies like The Body Shop At Home?

I have summed up the reasons why it’s hard to make decent money with The Body Shop At Home and MLM companies in general into 3 points. TBSH suffers the first 2 points.

1. MLMs are often associated with pyramid schemes
MLMs have a pyramid recruiting structure that you often have to join to be able to make decent money or at the very least not lose money. The problem is a lot of pyramid schemes disguise themselves as MLM programs making it difficult to differentiate the two.

This is the biggest problem why most distributors have a difficult time recruiting people. The moment people hear about how you can make money by recruiting people red flags appear in most people’s minds.

2. You have to consistently invest your money to earn decent commissions
The bigger the bonuses the more product you have to buy. You do get discounts but if you can’t sell the products I can see you easily fall into a financial deficit (which happens to the majority of MLMs).

3. The price of the product often isn’t aligned with the market

It’s hard for a multi-level marketer to sell products because most MLM products tend to be a lot more expensive than similar products sold by non-MLM companies. This means even if you’re really good at recruiting your downline still needs to sell those same expensive products for you to make decent money.

You can see that translate in these statistics I found about Multi-level Marketing.

• Nearly half (47%) of MLM participants reported that they lost money.
• One in four (27%) MLM participants reported that they broke even (made no money).
• MLM participants are 7% more likely to declare bankruptcy during their lifetime.
• Direct sales have risen 79% in the last decade, but MLM participants continue to lose money.
• 90 – 99% of distributors in multilevel marketing only receive a couple of hundred dollars commission per year.
• Out of 33,000 interviewed, 90 people made enough money to cover costs in building their business.
• 50% of the people who start a network marketing enterprise abandoned it in the first year.

Sources:
FTC
AARP
Jobsinmarketing.io

My Personal Take

The Body Shop at Home can’t be considered a traditional pyramid scheme from a legal perspective. 

The Body Shop has its own traditional retail model aside from its MLM program that offers the product for the same retail price. Knowing that I can’t really say people are being pushed towards recruiting.

This is a good thing and a bad thing at the same time. At a commission rate of 20%, you almost earn nothing per product you sell. This makes it hard to earn a decent income. 

I don’t think people are making any money with The Body Shop At Home. 

The fact that they haven’t published an income disclaimer adds to my suspicion that most people aren’t earning money.

That doesn’t mean it’s not a legitimate MLM. The truth is most members that join an MLM program lose money there are more than enough statistics to prove that. 

The Body Shop is also not putting any guarantees for income in their marketing so I can’t call it a scam. 

To be honest, the only people I can imagine succeeding with this MLM program are extremely skilled recruiters, salesmen, and influencers with huge audiences.

I think this is a legitimate MLM.

That being said, I wouldn’t recommend joining The Body Shop At Home MLM program. 

There are other methods with higher earning potential and less financial risk that you can use to earn money online.

Verdict

Is The Body Shop At Home A MLM or A Pyramid scheme?

The Body Shop is a legitimate MLM company with quality products. Unfortunately, the earning potential of the MLM program is low and comes with a lot of risk. This is why I can’t recommend joining the program.

The Body Shop At Home Alternative

Let’s be honest unless you’re very skilled at selling and recruiting, MLMs seem like a bad deal.

What if I said to you there’s a method to make money online that doesn’t require you to recruit people or resell products?

Sound like a better option for most right?!

If you want to make money online from anywhere including your own home I recommend looking into affiliate marketing.

I think this method is a better option for most people because you can earn just as much as with multi-level marketing but you don’t have to bother people to join your downline.

There is no need to dig yourself into a financial hole of $1600 without knowing if you can succeed and you aren’t required to sell a minimum of products to stay eligible for commissions.

I learned how to do affiliate marketing with the help of a step-by-step beginners course on an affiliate marketing training platform called Wealthy Affiliate.

Interested in doing the same? Learn more about the training platform and try out their FREE starters course.

If you have experience with MLM companies like The Body Shop leave a comment.

I’d love to hear what you think about it.

That’s all for today.

See you at my next post!

FacebookTwitterEmailDeel