Ruby Ribbon MLM Review: Is Ruby Ribbon a Scam?

Welcome to my Ruby Ribbon MLM review

You probably came to this page because you wonder if Ruby Ribbon 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 Ruby Ribbon and after reading it you’ll know exactly if you should give it a chance.

What is Ruby Ribbon?

Ruby Ribbon is a multi-level marketing company that distributes and manufactures sports and casual clothing for women. Their “flagship” product would be their shapewear.

Anna Zornosa founded Ruby Ribbon in 2011 with the mission to support women with real comfort, confidence, and opportunity.

Ruby Ribbon Headquarters is based in Burlingame, California, United States. They have been featured in publications such as Today and Forbes.

How does Ruby Ribbon work?

Ruby Ribbon is a company that distributes fitness and casual apparel. Instead of directly selling it 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 was 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 which you can order at wholesale price (25% discount) 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.

How to join Ruby Ribbon

You have to be introduced by a member and after that, you can sign-up through the website. After that, you have to purchase one of their starters pack called:

• Try it, $59
• Dive in, $129

Each of these enrollment packages contains:

• Personal website
• Business supplies
• Essential look book
• Seasonal look book

The biggest difference between both starter kits is that with Dive in you’ll get a $200 product credit.

You’ll go through their training after which you’re ready to start selling products and recruit people.

Is Ruby Ribbon 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, Ruby Ribbon cant be classified as a pyramid scheme from a legal perspective. Ruby Ribbon sells products and has given people a method to make money without recruiting people.

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

Who can benefit from Ruby Ribbon?

Who could benefit from joining Ruby Ribbon:

• Expert salesmen
• Expert recruiters
• People that want to use Ruby Ribbon products for themselves.
• People located in The United States
• People that are older than 18

Who shouldn’t join Ruby Ribbon:

• People that hate sales jobs.
• People that hate recruiting
• People that expect to earn passive income

Ruby Ribbon products

A good MLM should have quality products that you can sell so I thought it was appropriate to look at what they offer. Ruby Ribbon is a clothing company geared towards women that has seasonal collections.

Ruby Ribbon Collections are made to complement women’s natural curves which is why they focus on distributing shapewear.

Each of these collections sells products such as lingerie, leggings, swimwear, tanks, layers, sports bras, and tops.

The price range on some of these products is insanely high compared to other companies.

An example of such a product is the Ruby Ribbon Cami.

The Ruby Rose Cami’s can be considered the flagship product of Ruby Rose but it’s so much more expensive than those of other companies that I wonder if you’d have any luck selling these.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Products have tangible benefits
  Some of these MLM companies sell products of which you don’t know if they’ll benefit you until you use them. An example of this is essential oils. Its never been concluded from a scientific perspective that they work which limits you in promoting their benefits. Ruby Ribbon has the advantage with their products that what you see is what you get. People know exactly what they’re buying.
• It’s a young MLM company
  Some MLM companies have independent sellers around every corner which makes it hard to find people to recruit and sell products to. Ruby Ribbon is a relatively young company which means there will be more opportunities to find people that haven’t heard of Savvi.

Cons

• Expensive products
  The Ruby Ribbon products sold are insanely expensive making them hard to sell to others. I can imagine Stylists having a lot of trouble with getting rid of the products they purchased with the goal of reselling.
• You have to pay to play
  You have to purchase a specific amount of Ruby Ribbon products to stay eligible for earning commissions and bonuses. The same applies to getting commissions based on your downlines. The higher the rank, the more you have to purchase.
• There is nothing unique about Ruby Ribbon
  The clothing collections are very expensive and it has not a single feature that can justify the prices.

Ruby Ribbon Compensation Plan

Ruby Ribbon can be considered a traditional MLM when you look at their compensation plan. You either re-sell their products for profit or you can recruit people and receive residual income, climb up the ranks, and earn bonuses.

In total there are 6 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%

Stylist
Associate Director
Director
Associate Vice President
Vice President 
Executive Vice President

How much does it cost to start a Ruby Ribbon “business”?

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

Like a lot of MLM compensation plans, the Ruby Ribbon 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 Ruby Ribbon business is a minimum of $59 by purchasing their basic starter kit.

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

To be eligible to earn commission you must sell a minimum PV of $300 (Products with a total value of $300) in that given month.

Team ranks also have a minimum number of products that you have to purchase as you can see in the picture below.

Add to that your starter kit and it will cost at least $359 in the first month and after that, $300 every month.

How much can you earn with Ruby Ribbon?

At first, I couldn’t find any document showing actual numbers of how much people are making as Stylist for Ruby Ribbon on their website but luckily after some digging, I found an income disclosure.

The truth is if you want to join Ruby Ribbon to earn a full-time income passively you might want to look for other make-money opportunities. The average US income is somewhere around $51,916.27.

On average less than 0.8% of all stylists are earning that much money according to this earning disclaimer. What you also have to keep in mind is that this income disclaimer is based on income, not profit.

The higher you’re up the ranks, the more you have to invest financially to stay eligible to earn money.

You could argue that the low percentages have to do with how young the company is. The problem with that is the MLM companies that have been around for 50 years share similar numbers. 

source: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/central.html

Technically, 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. 

This income disclaimer gives a good idea of where that limit is.

Why aren’t people earning decent money with MLM companies like Ruby Ribbon?

I have summed up the reasons why it’s hard to make money with Ruby Ribbon and MLM companies in general into 3 points.

1. MLM’s are often associated with pyramid schemes
MLM’s 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 commissions
You’re only eligible for bonuses and commissions if you buy their products. 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

Ruby Ribbon Reviews, Opinions, and Ratings

To keep this as objective as possible I wanted to look at what others had to say about Ruby Ribbon. Here are the opinions of a YouTube Reviewer.

Most of the people reviewing Ruby Ribbon are consultants but I did find a few people that weren’t. They raised some interesting points.

The people in this video might be a bit harsh on Ruby Ribbon but I do agree with some of their points. 

She does a great job of portraying how many products you have to sell on a monthly basis and how challenging it is.

I also took a look at what the bloggers had to say about Ruby Ribbon as an MLM company.

Most bloggers don’t consider Ruby Ribbon a pyramid scheme but they don’t think it’s a great idea to join them.

Start-up costs are too expensive and it’s hard to succeed because of the price of the products, the monthly fee, and the reputation of MLM companies.

My Personal Take

I don’t think Ruby Ribbon is a scam but I do think it’s a bad business opportunity for 99% of people trying to earn some extra income.

It’s normal that when you go on an entrepreneurial endeavor you’ll encounter some roadblocks but in this case, you’ve to overcome every roadblock you can imagine.

If you think you could overcome:

• Overpriced products of which cheaper alternatives can be found with a 5-minute Google search.
• The bad reputation that the MLM model has
• The monthly fees you have to pay just stay eligible for commissions.

Then you might have a shot at succeeding with Ruby Ribbons. 

The only people I could imagine succeeding with this MLM are expert salesmen and recruiters. 

That being said, I wouldn’t feel comfortable recommending this “business opportunity” to anyone.

Verdict

Is Ruby Ribbon a scam? No but it isn’t a good business opportunity either. In my opinion, the deck is stacked against you and their income disclaimer proves that. 

Ruby Ribbon Alternative: How to earn commissions without recruiting or selling products

Let’s be honest unless you’re very skilled at selling and recruiting, MLM’s 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 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 Matilda Jane leave a comment. 

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

That’s all for today. 

See you at my next post!