I've today come across yet again an Amway critic claiming that Amway/Quixtar North American sales have declined in the last 15 years. I suspect this Myth comes about because Amway in North America used to report their sales data as "estimated retail sales", ie as if the products had been sold at recommended retail price (RRP). The reality is that a lot of products are not sold at RRP – IBOs either use them themselves or may sell at less than RRP. Today, Amway, Quixtar, and Alticor report their sales as actual sales, ie the price the products were sold to IBOs at.

So what's the truth about sales growth?

In 199 Amway reported global estimated retail sales of $2.2 billion. In today's reporting terms that's approximately $1.7 billion. Adjusting for inflation, it's $2.4 billion.

In 25 Amway reported global sales of $6.4 billion. So, even accounting for inflation, that's 167% growth globally.

Now, that's not just North America, Amway was in 2 countries in 199, and googling shows Japan alone did half a billion, so, inflation adjusted, $1.7 billion was North America plus 17 other markets, compared with North America doing $1.1 billion alone in 25. A decline in sales would require the combined sales of those 17 other markets to be less than $6 million. Highly unlikely!

Or another way of looking at it –

In 1995 DeVos reportedly said North America accounted for 3% of Amway sales. In 199 it would probably have been higher, and today it is obviously lower Around 17%), but if we take that 3% figure it would be $72 million in sales in 199 (that's adjusted for inflation and in today's reporting terms). This would mean North American sales have grown 53% in the last 15 years.

Now, North America probably accounted for a bit more than 3% of sales in 1995, but not enough to go from 53% growth to "no growth" as some claim.

Myth BUSTED

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