Melaleuca is an MLM company that sells green home and personal care products. The products are not bad, and I’ve used them before! However, the company and its advocates have a weird obsession about not wanting to be called an MLM.
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In my opinion, it definitely is a multi-level marketing company, but before you fire up your keyboard for the comment section please read my whole Melaleuca review to see why I’m saying, “Yeah, it’s actually MLM guys.”
The main reason people say it’s not an MLM is because you “don’t sell products”. What they don’t understand, is that the membership you sell is the product.
Melaleuca Review
Melaleuca is a very secretive organization. Product prices not listed on the website, a full compensation plan is not linked, and they deny being an MLM company. Their independent business representatives attitudes give the company a bad name.
There are many green product companies out there which have much more transparent policies, and are not associated with the negativity stereotypes of direct sales and MLM. That’s why I prefer to promote affiliate products instead.
What Are Melaleuca Products?
Melaleuca sells natural and eco-friendly cleaning, skincare, and health products. They have a wide range of products, including:
- shower cleaner
- tooth paste
- furniture polish
- laundry stain remover
- tea tree oil
- shampoo
- lip balm
- vitamins
- fiber
- tub & tile cleaner
- …many more!
You can purchase Melaleuca products on Amazon (not affiliate link) from their Amazon store. I’d love to show you some of these products, but Melaleuca has attempted to take down this page multiple times with copyright claims, so I won’t be able to show you their products.
According to their website, they have over 400 products, but you can’t actually read about the products on their website.
Join The Melaleuca Shopping Club Instead!
What is featured very prominently on their website is that you should become a member of the shopping club. The only problem is, you can only become a member if someone refers you to the company.
Thank you for your interest in Melaleuca. Every Melaleuca Member is referred by another member. To learn how you can become a Melaleuca Preferred Member, contact the person who referred you to this site.
In other words, you cannot join unless you have a sponsor, referrer, team leader, whatever you want to call it.
I find it strange that they claim to focus on the products (not recruiting), yet at the same time, they seem to be paying much more attention to the team building aspect, just like MLM companies! As a potential customer, I’d like to know whats inside the products and how much they cost! How can I compare them with other brands?
How Does Melaleuca Work?
Since you can just purchase Melaleuca products on Amazon or Ebay, if you’re wondering how Melaleuca works, you’re probably wondering about the business building aspect. In other words, how do you make money with Melaleuca?
There are some details about how to earn money with Melaleuca on their income statistics disclosure. However, the stats haven’t been updated since 2018, so it’s unclear if they are still accurate.
Typical of multi-level marketing companies, there are many “levels” of selling Melaleuca products.
- Product Advocates
- Business Builder (Director 1-2)
- Director 3-9
- Senior Director
- Executive Director
- National Director
- Corporate Director
As a product advocate, you are simply selling a couple products to people you know. As a business builder, you are still just selling products, but doing it more seriously.
Once you get into Director level 3+, the multi-level aspect kicks in. You will be required to recruit team leaders who will then have their own teams which operate under your team.
Those who have reached these leadership statuses have not only invested enough time to refer several customers, but they have also helped some of those customers start a business and become Marketing Executives. Those Marketing Executives have, in turn, referred additional customers who purchase Melaleuca products each month.
How Much Money Can You Make With Melaleuca?
According to their income disclosure from 2018, Directors level 1-2 earn an average of about $2,000 per year with 8 customers. As far as I understand it, that means, to add $160 to your monthly household income, you’d need to be selling Melaleuca products to eight people.
However, the average earnings of a company might not give you the entire picture of what’s going on. Median income is much more revealing, but they don’t tell us that.
Why use median income instead of average income?
The classic example is that there are ten people in a room who each earn $1 per day. Bill Gates walks in, and he earns $1,000,000 per day. The average income of the group jumps to $91,000. The median is still $1.
Regardless, it does appear that you can make up to $39,987 (according to their report) as a Director level 1 or 2, without any recruiting at all. They do not say how many customers you’d need to achieve that kind of income, but they do say it’s done with 8-16 Personal Customers, and 8-75 Active Customers. They don’t tell us the difference between Active and Personal customers, so there may be some kind of auto-ship involved there, but that’s just a guess.
Is Melaleuca An MLM?
There seems to be some controversy as to whether or not Melaleuca is an MLM. Honestly, I don’t really understand how it could not be considered one. There are so many similarities, it’s indistinguishable.
You get paid commissions based on recruiting people who want to build their teams, and so on. You market products, and get paid on multiple levels.
Multi. Level. Marketing.
There are also many other similarities as explained in this video from an actual ATTORNEY that has tons of experience and knowledge about MLMs.
Note: They are also part of the DSA (along with Amway and other network marketing companies)! The DSA is an organization that many network marketing companies rely on to (often unsuccessfully) distance themselves from pyramid schemes.
Though people use different terms, and like to be pedantic about the differences, as far as I’m concerned, direct sales, network marketing, and multi-level marketing are all the same thing. Pyramid schemes are a little different, in that they are strictly defined as “having no product”, but there are plenty of similarities, which is why MLM companies often get accused of being pyramids schemes.
Even big, well-know MLMs like herbalife and Mary Kay are regularly accused of this.
The idea that Melaleuca is not an MLM seems to be rooted in how the products are sold. Apparently, you pay to join the Shopping Club, but do not purchase products from the person who invited you. You purchase from the manufacturer. In other words, you are paying to be part of a club, like Costco. This was the same pitch from Wake Up Now, which is a now defunct MLM company.
My response to this is:
- I can go to Costco and become a member any time I want without a referral.
- Nobody is paid to recruit for Costco memberships
- If I think Costco is a scam, there’s no army of Costco advocates who get pissed off at me
I’m not even kidding with number 3. It was shocking to see the level of rudeness and from Melaleuca members on ANY blog post or video that say anything negative about the company. Full post from The MLM Attorney, with comments included!
- Product doesn’t work? You’re using it wrong.
- Company is MLM? You are an idiot.
- Didn’t make money? Don’t blame us for your failure
- Products not green enough? You have wrong information
A sure sign that Melaleuca is an MLM is that the members are rabid advocates, and have almost a cult-like mentality, where they just can’t let it go.
Melaleuca published a little PDF called Here’s Where We Draw The Line. In my opinion, they conflate. a few different concepts. They emphasize that customers are not required to “invest” (With Melaleuca there is no “investment.” ), but what they fail to distinguish is that buying the products is not part of the money making aspect of the company. The folks who make the money are the ones selling the membership.
Sure, you can purchase products without being a distributor yourself. That part I completely understand. But the top sellers and income earners of the company are managing teams of people who are also selling memberships. The MLM aspect isn’t about the products, it’s about the memberships they’re selling and the downline building you must do to be successful.
Melaleuca Reviews
Melaleuca reviews are all over the place. Some are amazing, some are terrible. They currently have an A+ rating with the BBB, but they also have a lot list of complaints.
Some people love it, some people hate it. Whether or not you choose to join the company will depend on your goals. If you would like to be able to purchase green cleaning and health products as part of a membership club, then this could be a good company to join.
If you would like to earn money, then this is not a company that I would personally recommend.
How To Turn Green Living Into An Online Business
Melaleuca Review
Products
Business Opportunity
Final Review
If you love green products and want to live an eco-friendly, healthy lifestyle, that’s awesome. If you want to share that passion with other people and make money doing it, you can definitely do that.
Personally, I think you'd be better off starting an online business so that you can reach millions of people, instead of just your local friends and family.
By starting an independent website and linking to products, you can get paid for each one sold. Publish reviews of the products you love, and get paid to help people live green and healthy! You can recommend products from Target, Walmart, and many small companies that have affiliate programs. In fact, you could even recommend Melaleuca products which are sold on Amazon.com.
This strategy makes much more sense long term because you'll have full control over your website, instead of being locked in as a member of a single company, and limiting yourself to what type of products or services you can promote.
MLM Critic & Author: Nathaniell
What's up ladies and dudes! Great to finally meet you, and I hope you enjoyed this post. I have to be honest though. I'm not a big fan of MLM. Tried it. Hated it.
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Chris
Melaleuca is only a MLM if you’re using your own loose definition of MLM. But if we’re talking about MLM as defined by federal law, your conclusion is flat-out false.
The Federal Trade Commission says explicitly that “in multilevel marketing, individuals sell products to the public.”
https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/multilevel-marketing
Melaleuca representatives do not sell products to the end consumer. They are not “distributors”. So Melaleuca fails the single most defining factor of a MLM.
This makes Melaleuca very different than a traditional MLM like Herbalife, which encourages distributors to buy large amounts of inventory *specifically* for sale to the public. Virtually all of the MLM horror stories you hear involve people who bought large inventories that they couldn’t sell. Melaleuca actively discourages that kind of practice.
The Idaho State Journal explained it very clearly: “Melaleuca does not follow the practices or behaviors associated with MLM companies. With Melaleuca, there is only a single transaction: between the company and the end consumer.”
http://www.idahostatejournal.com/news/local/melaleuca-marks-three-decades-in-business/article_3f6682b0-7ae3-590c-b284-f7e7f0271d6e.html
Go ahead and call me brainwashed, indoctrinated, whatever … but what you can’t call me is wrong.
Nathaniell
OK, I’ll bite. So you ONLY get paid for selling products? You don’t get paid for your recruits getting into the company or for products they sell? This guy seems to think it’s an multi-level opportunity: http://www.screencast.com/t/7Z8YnIAFKcaX
Jason
Uh, you quote an article from the Idaho State Journal. Do think that was solid investigative journalism? Is that quote really something an unbiased reporter would have written? Or do you wonder—even just a little—if Mr. Vandersloot’s team was behind it? (Don’t wonder: they were).
Melaheads arguments are like Chevy saying “the only successful car companies are the ones that (here they put in their own rules here). We’re the only ones who do that, so there are no other successful car companies!” Cute. Silly, but cute.
Just because you say organization and leadership instead of downline and upline, doesn’t mean you invented something. Most of your buddies in DSA do basically the same things you do. Guys, illegal MLMs get shut down all the time! Amway, Herbalife, Mary Kay, Advocare, Usana, Nuskin… If they’re still around, they’re legal. Maybe they’re not nice, or it’s hard to make money there, or their reps are slimy, but if you think Mela is all nice, easy to make money and no of your reps are slimy, you’re nuts.
Here’s a suggestion: Recognize it’s not 1985 and “MLM” isn’t a dirty word. Then say “we’re the best MLM out there”! People would respect you a little bit more and you’d stop being the joke of the industry. Just a thought.
James Hoekstra
Actually no, he doesn’t get paid on anything he sells in Melaleuca as the policies in place strictly forbid that. And if he doesn’t get paid for selling products (as it is not allowed), then he won’t reap any benefit of getting others into the business to sell products (as it’s not allowed).
There is no multi-levels of distribution. It is straight from manufacturer to consumer.
Ayerim
I went to a Melaleuca meeting that was adverstised as a aromatherapy class. I studied LPN nursing, and was astonished at the false information, exageration and some utterly innacurate medical advice being given. It was like a cult of ignorance. The products are quite over priced, unless they are super astonishing products.
Kathryn
Thank you! I have an old work colleague who sells this and is constantly promoting false information that I (also an LPN 😉 ) called her out on and now she’s all upset because I’m making her look bad because she’s spouting false misleading information
Scott Allen
Melaleuca is a consumer driver market system (CDM), not a multi-level market system. I personally don’t deal with Melaleuca, but I am a journalist and a business minor, so I’m intrigued by anything related to these issues. Here is what I found, that might help you understand it better.
The differences between CDM and MLM are many. At first glance, there are some similarities. Both use word of mouth marketing. Commissions on both are paid on multiple referral generations. Both do presentations for people, and both are in the Home Based Business market. But that is where the similarities end.
In MLMs the monthly reorder rates normally achieve 10 – 25%. CDM can document a 95% reorder rate. In MLMs, 95% of those in are business builders, 5% are customers. In CDM, 88% are customers, and only 12% are actively pursuing business. In MLM, there is usually one or a few products are over hyped and usually could not compete in the market based on performance, price and value.
People therefore are recruited on the money opportunity. People are “in it to win it.” There is generally not enough value to hold a customer long term. With the high cost to “get in” and up front loading of product, this usually amounts to legalized laundering at the cost of the person signing up. In CDM there are MANY products competing directly in the marketplace on price, performance and value. (Melaleuca boasts over 350 products.)
This results in a customer driven model instead of the recruiting driven model of MLM. What this means is when you are doing business under CDM, everyone truly is your potential customer. You are competing with a company and business model that is product and customer driven. THOUSANDS of former MLMers now build successful businesses with CDM.
Additionally, MLMs cause people to re-order in bulk and have an inventory on hand. With Melaleuca, you order from them directly and don’t have to keep an inventory in your home. I’ve interview many Melaleuca customers, ex-customers and a few corporate directors, and have gotten my information from people and online. Let me know if you have any questions.
-Hope this helps
Nathaniell
“Consumer Driver Market System” sounds like a made up word to describe MLMs that don’t want to be described as MLMs. Kind of like people call a company “Direct Sales” when it’s just MLM or Network Marketing or whatever you want to call it.
Jason
Thanks, Scott. But you’re describing MLM’s from 20 or more years ago…
With the Internet, MLM’s stopped making you have inventories years ago. You just buy what you want from the companies app or online store (some oldtimers actually use the phone number) and it gets shipped to you. If you share your experience with someone else and they buy from the company, most (all?) companies pay commissions. More customers buying more means more commissions.
It’s true most MLM’s want you to be a fired up salesperson, but Herbalife, Vemma, etc. have taught us that customers is the only way to go. THAT is one thing Melalueca has locked down.
Nathaniell
Many companies still do require you be on autoship to be “active”.
Jennifer
Nathaniell, I typically don’t comment on things like this, but I’d like to chime in on this one. As not only a member of Wealthy Affiliate, but also Melaleuca, I’m frustrated by your post. It sure seems to me that many Wealthy Affiliate members conduct reviews to tear other business ventures down simply to promote a product they’re looking to make money off of. Want to get the perspective of how Melaleuca really works? I’m happy to enlighten you for a more balanced review.
Nathaniell
You are frustrated that my opinion is different that your? That’s a bummer. What I’ve written in here is how I see it. I think that the fact you think YOUR opinion is more “balanced” than mine is pretty silly. I can appreciate that you disagree with me here, but I’m kinda tired of Malaleuca people commenting here trying to prove me wrong. The more they do, the more it proves me right.
The difference between Wealthy Affiliate and Malaleuca is that in WA, you can focus on your own business and not worry what anyone else is doing. In Malaeuca, a little old blogger like myself can get under your skin just by sharing an opinion you disagree with. There are negative reviews or comments about Wealthy Affiliate out there, but I don’t waste my time commenting on them or worrying about what they say. They don’t affect my business. You should consider adopting a similar policy.
Jennifer Pritchard
Nope not frustrated that your opinion is different. Frustrated that you didn’t even bother to get both sides of the equation because you’re too focused on making affiliate sales to give a balanced review. And did I say my opinion is balanced? I’m clearly of the opinion that Melaleuca is not MLM and has helped millions of lives. However, I’m not the one writing reviews about things I have no experience with. How can you write a “balanced” review when you’ve never even had first hand experience with the company?
When people post uneducated false reviews that hit the first page of google, it does have an affect on one’s business. You are right about one thing though…I’ve wasted way too much time reading this, and commenting. Will reconsider my policies of conducting my business, and make sure never to follow your posts again. Thanks.
Nathaniell
This is what you said: “I’m happy to enlighten you for a more balanced review”.
I believe my review is honest, balanced, and true. It’s my opinion. Obviously yours is different. You can say whatever you want in the comments, and I’ll publish it. Geeze, I already did that. I don’t know how I can be more balanced.
For information regarding how I can write a review of a company I’ve never sold the products from, please see my post about writing reviews of products you don’t own.
In fact, I would say that my UNBIASED, researched, well-thought-out opinion is more valid that someone who is inside the company trying to sell the products and has been indoctrinated into MLM thought control. Of course, no one can get away from personal bias, because we all have different life experiences, so I guess objectively speaking, I do have biases just because I’m an individual.
I mean, the internet is full of opinions. Why does mine trouble you so much?
ken
https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=esZVmBoDIbKAquj0icssEQ
Melaleuca CEO Frank VanderSloot Denies to Lead a MLM Company –
” It is my belief, “Frank VanderSloot’s Melaleuca inc., is a illegal pyramid scheme.
I’m calling on our federal government for unbiased judicial review and protections, ‘ Summary of penalties sanctions and terminations actions as well as new consumer protection laws. (250m)
“Be mindful and careful on who you’re pitching what.”~KK
Here’s what Melaleuca is AS I SEE IT!
If participants must recruit and buy products to be successful, or if the pay plan’s primary rewards are for building a downline, it should be considered a recruitment-driven MLM, and hence an illegal pyramid scheme. √≡ Melaleuca “NoRecruitNoPay™
√Recruitment-driven MLM – an MLM with a compensation plan that rewards primarily distributors who recruit huge downlines, and is therefore a product-based pyramid scheme.
My motivation? (1)Consumer Protection. (2) Common law. (3)Constitutional law. (4) A Reckoning.
#NoRecruitNoPay™ #FearNoMore™ “The Billion Dollar Question Remains? How Do They Get Away With It?” ~KK #ObamaAdministrationCabinet KK© 2015-2016 All Rights Reserved
https://www.google.com/search?q=is+melaleuca+a+mlm [Not MLM? Gte Real!] #DoJ
Aimee
I’m sorry, but Melaleuca isn’t MLM, its not even listed on an MLM site. You clearly haven’t looked into it and bring fully informed about the company and how they work, which is shameful on your part because you are getting unbiased and false information on all aspects of the company, and their products. You can’t write a review on something you have zero knowledge about, which makes this review totally invalid! There is policies, just like there is policies all around the world from schools to banks, it is against policy to say the name publically.. Leave it at that, not interested.. Fine! But before you know absolutely EVERYTHING about the company, eat your words. 🙂
Nathaniell
I think this post is very well researched. It took you 30 seconds to tear it down and say I don’t know what I’m talking about but I actually took a bit of time to do research and form an opinion here. But go ahead and keep doing Malaleuca. I’m sure you’re happy, as you seem to be fully indoctrinated.
Warren C.
If it has webbed feet, and it quacks and waddles . . .
Fundamental questions:
• Can I have customers in my [company] group? (Or “team,” “organization,” “downline,” etc.)
• Can I make money when customers in my organization shop at [company]?
• Do I need to make a minimum monthly purchase to qualify for [company] bonuses, commissions, etc.?
• Am I encouraged to help any interested customers build a [company] business for themselves?
• Is there some kind of pay matrix specific to [company]? (Binary, unilevel, forced-growth, hybrid, etc.)
If any—ANY!—of the above answers are “yes,” you . . . might be in an MLM.