Amway has reported a slight decrease in sales for 2017, hitting $8.3 billion, a 2% decrease on 2016 sales, and 25% down on the 2013 high of $11.8 billion.
A global increase of 3% in the second half of 2017 however, led by China and the US, has Amway confident that 2018 will see Amway rebounding to sales increases.
Amway China remains the largest market, accounting for over a third of revenue.
Primarily due to the weakening Chinese economy and unfavourable exchange rates, Amway’s revenues dropped to $9.5 billion in 2015. 70% of the top 20 markets saw growth, including, notably, Amway’s oldest market, the United States. Older markets such as South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Malaysia also experienced growth, as did Latin America.
No figures were reported for Western Europe or Australasia. Russian media reported a 5% drop in that market.
The top 10 markets for Amway in 2015 were China, South Korea, United States, Japan, Thailand, Russia, Taiwan, Malaysia, India, and Ukraine.
Carl Miller in the comments shared this recent info from Amway North America –
What a remarkable year!
The Americas region lead the Enterprise in growth and will close the year with double-digit growth in 13 out of 15 markets, becoming the fastest-growing region in Amway. In partnership with you, we achieved record high numbers of Platinums and first-year Platinum requalifiers in all three subregions, in addition to major increases in average IBO income and the number of Diamonds.
In November, Amway North America (ANA) impressively marked 15 consecutive months of growth and higher IBO productivity. In addition, launches of Artistry® Men and Hydra-V and the Nutrilite Restage were all well received.
Latin America Spanish (LAS) saw 24% growth and celebrated the 30th anniversary of Panama – Amway’s first country in Latin America – and the 25th anniversary of Mexico. LAS also saw the successful launches of Satinique and Artistry® Color, and Little Bits™ was introduced in four countries.
Brazil exceeded sales and COI targets for the second year in a row – its best results in over a decade! The subregion also achieved its highest Platinum count in 10 years and awarded its first-time ever Triple Diamond pin. Additionally, Amway Brazil was the proud sponsor of the NBA Global Games in Rio with the Orlando Magic. The highlight was the community outreach event where Amway and NBA Cares donated a new basketball court to the children of Comunidade Cruzada São Sebastião.
The Americas region also had the honor of Dr. Sam visiting all three subregions to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Nutrilite. We rounded out the year with a focus on a Founders’ Fundamental – Family – when more than 7,700 IBOs and their guests from across the region gathered together in the Amway Center in Orlando to celebrate Family Day.
Alone, each of these accomplishments is impressive. Together, they are a testament of achievement few, if any, companies in our industry can match. Above all, they reflect the immense leadership and hard work that you bring to your Amway™ business every day. We are stronger because of your dedication. I am very grateful for your efforts and very proud of your performance.
As you look back over the year, I hope that you’ll take great pride in your accomplishments.
My sincere best wishes to you and your families for the holidays. I am excited about the future and confident that, together, we are entering the new year strongly positioned, renewed in spirit and determination, and prepared for more progress and success.
Have a blessed holiday season and a prosperous, healthy, and happy new year.
Best,
Candace Matthews
Thanks for the tip, Carl!
I’ve just finished reading The Nutrilite Story by Dr Sam Rehnborg. What a great read! It not only tells of the origins of Nutrilite and Amway, but the entire multi-level marketing industry and the nutrition and nutritional supplements industry. It’s fascinating, and the life story of Carl Rehnborg is worthy of a movie – more than once I was close to tears, a classic story of someone getting knocked down and getting back up again and again in the pursuit of their dreams.
It’s available on your tablet, phone or PC as an ebook for kindle from Amazon or for nook from Barnes and Noble. Recommended!
Back in 2009 I wrote a post Let’s Talk About Tools Part I, beginning a conversation about an area that has been of some controversy in the Amway world – the promotion and sale of Business Support Materials or BSM. After a mere 5 year break I’m finally here to talk about Part II – Do Diamonds make most of their money from selling tools?
Just today I saw a claim from an MLM critic that (in 2004) “the best of the best (Diamonds) were earning $250k/yr, but only $60,000 from sales/downline sales.”
He was claiming that while Amway Diamonds and above were making more than $250,000/yr, only about $60,000 of that was from the sale of Amway products through their network – the rest from the sale of “tools” – books, CDs, and seminar tickets. It’s not an unusual claim. Amway critic “Joecool” regularly makes similar claims, and former IBO Scott Johnson (aka Tex) is absolutely obsessed with the idea, commenting about “Stop the Amway Tool Scam” on virtually any news article or website that mentions Amway.
So is there any truth to this claim? As I point out in Part I, successful Amway IBOs can and do earn money from (1) the production and resale of training products and services to Amway organisations (2) the sale and distribution of tools through one’s own downline and (3) by selling their services as professional speakers.
So how much do they make?
Several years ago I and a number of other Amway bloggers were invited to participate in a panel discussion with Amway staff. One of the invitees was the tool-profit obsessed Scott Johnson, so I decided to see if I could get some hard data and information about how much Diamonds made from BSM sales. I emailed all the various “support organisations” I could find contact information for, including Britt WorldWide (BWW), eFinity, INA, Network 21, Yager Internet Services and others to see if they would share some information. Unfortunately only one of them was willing. For confidentiality reasons I won’t name them, but they’re a very significant and large group.
For this company, qualified Amway Platinums and above could earn a monthly volume rebate on the BSM purchased by their Amway organisation. CDs for example sold for a retail price of $7. However, just like with Amway, there was an increasing discount (paid as a rebate) for larger volumes, as follows –
| Volume | Rebate ($US) |
| 0-499 | 0 |
| 500-999 | 0.50 |
| 1000-1999 | 0.75 |
| 2000-3999 | 1.00 |
| 4000-5999 | 1.20 |
| 6000-7999 | 1.40 |
| 8000-9999 | 1.60 |
| 10000-14999 | 1.80 |
| 15000-19999 | 2.00 |
| 20000-29999 | 2.20 |
A similar rebate scale works for tickets to seminars. For example, qualified Emeralds and above earned the following rebates on tickets to major Weekend Seminars –
| Volume | Rebate ($US) |
| 0-49 | 0 |
| 50-149 | 5.00 |
| 150-249 | 10.00 |
| 250-499 | 15.00 |
| 500+ | 20.00 |
The schedule works like the bonus brackets of Amway, so a Diamond earing at the “WES 250” bracket would most likely be “paying out” of their bonus to at least a couple of Emeralds. A Founders Platinum with a volume rebate of 75 cents might be paying out 50 or even 75 cents of that to another downline Platinum.
In addition this organisation pays speakers to present at major functions. Airfaires, hotels, and a per diem for expenses are paid, along with a speakers fee. This fee averages about $3250.
Now, just like with Amway, there are huge differences between organisations. A Diamond can have 6 platinums all in the US, or thousands of platinums spread around the world. So there can be huge differences in their Amway income, and huge differences in the volume of BSM materials they move through their organisation. But how does the BSM income compare to Amway income?
Well, in 2007 the average North American Emerald earned around $70,000 from Amway.
The average North American Emerald in this organisation in 2007 earned around $7,000 from BSM rebates and speakers fees combined.
The average Emerald had “system” or “tool” income of around 10% of their Amway income.
In 2007 the average North American Diamond earned around $155,000 from Amway.
The average North American Diamond in this organisation in 2007 earned around $23,000 from BSM rebates and speakers fees combined.
The average Diamond had “system” or “tool” income of around 15% of their Amway income.
Now, this data is now 7+ years old and it’s important to note a few things. First of all, different BSM companies calculate their rebate systems in different ways. I’m told for example that in the past some BSM companies paid their rebates not based on volume, but based on the pin level they had achieved. So someone who had qualified Diamond received the Diamond rebate level – even if their volumes had dropped and they were no longer qualifying as an Amway Diamond.
Different groups also have different numbers of CDs and meetings they encouraged their groups to attend. I’ve heard of groups that encouraged the members to buy as many as 10 CDs a week. Others are 4 or 5 a month. Obviously if you’re selling a lot more CDs then you’re making a lot more money from this income source. Similarly some speakers are far more in demand (or have far more personal desire) to be on the speaking circuit, and this earn more from that income source. There are also other differences in how the profits (if any) of the production companies are used and/or distributed.
So yes, some Diamonds, in some organisations may earn more from their BSM related activites than from Amway. But this is unusual, not the norm!
Furthermore, in 2007/2008 Amway implemented a whole new accreditation system for companies that supplied BSM to Amway IBOs. As part of this Amway required the companies to allow an independent marketing firm to study their compensation plans for fairness and Amway’s approval. Many changes had to be made – including moving from an “pin level” based rebate to a volume rebate. On top of that, Amway also drastically increased a range of bonuses. In 2007 the average Diamond earned around $155,000. In 2014 the figure is over $600,000.
In the past, cases of Amway Diamonds and above earning more from “tools” and “the system” than from Amway occurred but were not common. In 2014 it’s virtually non-existent.
No, in general Diamonds do not make more money from tools than from Amway.
Professor Ing Jiří Jindra, CSc. is a Full Professor at the University of Economics, Prague, in the Czech Republic, with nearly 100 academic papers published in peer-reviewed academic journals. A few years ago he was interviewed and asked what he thought about Amway. A new Czech blog, Amway Fakta, has posted a video of the interview with English captions. Have a listen (or read! don’t forget to press the CC button to get the english subtitles) to what a expert says about the Amway business.
Thanks for the great work, Amway Fakta!
