Some Things to Know Before You Sell Avon
82
An Honest Look
Selling Avon was a fun and broadening experience, but there are some things I wish I had known before I started. If you are thinking about going into business for yourself either full time or as a sideline, read this hub before you make your decision.
You Will Have to Buy Your Own Catalogs
You cannot sell face to face without handing out catalogs. The catalogs are basically your storefront--they explain what's for sale and for what price. I was spending between $12 and $20 a month just for the brochures. This cuts down on your profit margin, and if you don't make any sales that month, you're losing money.
Processing Fee
There is an added 75 cent per customer processing fee that is tacked on to each and every order you take. Avon "shares" this fee with the representative, charging half and letting you keep the other half. Customers who think a price is a price are sometimes surprised and/or offended when there is an extra fee added on. After a while I stopped charging this fee and paid it myself because I didn't think it was a fair and good business practice to surprise them with such fees. Since Avon allows their reps a large amount of freedom in the realm of giving discounts to their customers and friends, I simply discounted the amount of the fee from my profits and kept quiet about it.
Headache Returns Policy
Under Avon's rules you must accept returns from customers. This is good for the customer, yes, but bad for the representative. Case and point: someone ordered a pair of shoes that were of unusual taste. That is, not many other folks would like them. Furthermore, they were in the customer's size, so not everyone else could wear them even if they would. This customer then decides that she doesn't want them, and I have to accept them back and give her a refund. Now here's the ugly part: I had to pay the shipping myself to return them to Avon, which meant I was now in the hole again for this order. I got my money back for the product, but the shipping to get it back to them cost half what the product had cost. Avon strongly encourages reps to sell returned items to someone else who wants them (if it's not something like a used lipstick that cannot be resold). But now you know the rest of the story. If you can't resell it, you're going to eat the cost.
Roach Boxes
The boxes in which the products arrived were made of corrugated cardboard. After I had gained some experience with this, I would empty the box right away when it came and not let it enter my house or sit overnight indoors. The reason? Baby roaches would come out of the corrugated sides. I'm not joking. Now, I know the corporation doesn't have much say over the individual nitty gritty details of each and every warehouse, and I know warehouses have bugs. It just annoys me that I pay top dollar for some of this stuff, and it comes in a smelly box full of bugs. The products were well wrapped and guaranteed to be good, but it didn't help my image of them to have to deal with this issue.
Conclusion
In conclusion I would like to make it clear that I'm not against Avon as a corporation. I absolutely love their makeup. Some of their jewelry turns green (more honesty, sorry), but their makeup is the best I've ever used. It's hypoallergenic and comes in many useful formats and colors. It brings out the makeup artist in all of us to have such high quality tools as their professional brushes and their natural mineral blends. The training CD ROM that I bought from them and completed taught me many useful tips and tricks about makeup and skin care, and I'm not sorry I did the courses. My recommendation to you is, if you want to buy some of their excellent products, shop at their website and forget about being a representative. Or if you want to sell Avon, be aware of the difficulties and be ready to face the challenges. You're going to need a large customer base to make any money at it.
vote upvote downshareprintflag
- Useful (5)
- Funny (1)
- Awesome
- Beautiful
- Interesting (1)
CommentsLoading...
Pollyanna:
Sweet Honesty is my favorite scent! Also good is Night Magic. The former makes me sneeze; the latter doesn't.
I like musk which the Night Magic reminds me of but it's just a little too heavy for me and the SH is light, I usually spray it down my back anyway so I don't get but a hint of odor. I wrote a hub on it, lol. In fact someone bought me the whole shebang of Night Magic for Christmas but I will pass it on for the next female birthday, so no big deal.
You are so right here. I wish I had known the changes they did in the 10 years I had between the time that I had to quit and this time around. If you have to send anything back it is NOT free like they tell you. There is a charge of just over $4.00. The point that they triy to make that it is teams is absurd. I have found it is more competition within the district then teams. I wil continue to stay in the business only because that was the only way that I could afford to get Christmas gifts this year.
Lady Guinevere: Sorry to hear of your rough experience. I agree with you about the competition. It is supposed to be teamwork but it doesn't always end up that way.
Pollyanna: If you think Night Magic is too strong, I should warn you not to open any samples of 007 Bond Girl!
Oh and the new one: Outspoken. They say it did really well in the UK, but anyone who sampled it here didn't like it. It is strong. I accidentally rubbed my fingers across the new Imari and it smells pretty good.
I also wrote some articles on Avon products as well.
Wow! Good to know about Avon. Surprising stuff here. Very glad you shared this. Thanks. :-)
vocalcoach: You're certainly welcome. I want people to be able to make informed decisions. Thanks for dropping by!
Great hub! I sold Avon when I was in high school and it had its good and bad points! I agree - the beauty products are great!
Thank you, Elle. I am glad I tried it. I learned some things. :)
hi im with avon but i just wanted to know because they said that i get 25% of the money from what i sale but how do i take it 25%from the people once they pay me and send the rest to avon or do i send the full amount to avon and they give me money or check im confused
katherine:
You will receive an invoice from Avon telling you how much you owe them. You only pay the amount on the invoice. Anything you receive above and beyond what you are billed becomes your profit.
I never made any profit, because I gave people discounts in the form of paying for their taxes and fees, and what little was left was invested in the purchase of more catalogs.
Good luck on your venture!
Avon is ridiculious!!!! I ordered something and returned it! It cost me $4.00...for something I didn't even get. I could've just threw $4.00 out the window, and the rep was kinda rude. She said what happend, you don't have the money?...........Please, Avon is still tacky, and old fashioned.
Lynn: Sorry to hear about your bad experience. In spite of the difficulties I've had, Avon still offers some amazing products. It's just hard for a rep to make any money at it.
WOW...sorry those of you have had bad experiences. I've been in just under a year, made Unit Leader and President's Club and I LOVE this job! I've been fortunate I guess, as I have not only not had these issues but I'm making money and having a blast.
Lynn - sounds like you had a bad rep. My customers get top notch customer service from me. Even on returns, a smile and full refund and then a small gift from me for their inconvenience.
I would like to ask a question representing the a mans point of view , I have grown up around a family of ALL women who love AVON's Products . Which lead me to want to sell AVON due to the fact I now Serve at a local restaurant and family and friends( Customer Base). My approach to this is like any business venture I encounter (the countless that are out here) I do numbers, research and also look at blogs like this one. Now, here is my question ,I am about to invest in a 3000$ Intergraded marketing strategy for my business a mailing list, alternate website, Cards,(not from Avon they are very prices) ,Brochures, Promos..etc. Do you think that that will dramatically boost my sells not to mention the leg work I am doing at work ? I figure they make the price so low to make selling AVON for everyone. Honestly the truth is my rep seems to forget a lot of things for her age and I think she knows I can make her money so she continues to stay in contact. SELLING AVON IS NOT FOR EVERY the Price is but some either lack the motivation to hit the ground running so to speak or just do not have the lines of income to invest like myself .Nevertheless, I feel that with a background in modeling and make up (family biz) I as a single man no kids can do this. Just looking for some feed back on this subject .
Thank You
Des L
Des:
Men can and do sell Avon. Be careful about printing brochures. You may not legally use the Avon logo without their expressed permission. Also be careful about selling by an alternate website. Avon wants you to pay to sell on THEIR website. You have to pay them about $15.00 a month to sell online, whether or not you make any sales.
Glad I don't sell it anymore. I did for years than stopped. I just wasn't making enough from it. If you want samples for customers it's to much but I did buy them. I would also just not charge some fees. I also gave very good customer service in the dead of winter in snow storms. Finally said that is enough. We live in a rural area so it took lots of gas. Good Hub.
Moonlake: Delivery is a major issue. If the person who orders from you is a neighbor or a coworker it's not so bad because you have many chances to hand it over to them. I disabled the option (at least you can do that) to let people order from the website and request ME for delivery because I simply did not have the time to drive long and far after work.
I sell Avon and I just read that they charge you $15 for using their website. Is that true? I received my invoice and everything said free but when I looked at the total it said it was $15.65 I had no idea they charged for that.
To sell as a rep from the Avon website you will pay about $7.50 per campaign. Each campaign lasts two weeks, so your invoice sounds about right.
I am currently selling Avon but have a issue my bank took the money automatically out for other bills and now I'm terrified I will o to jail because I can't pay them what I owe do you have any advice please.i don't know what to do it will take me months to pay it off
It is recommended that when you first begin your Avon business you set up a separate bank account and use it just for Avon. Also you won't be able to sell the next campaign until the previous campaign is paid off. You might want to discuss this with your regional manager, or maybe you can call Avon's toll free number and negotiate setting up a payment plan to get things all paid up.
Pollyannalana 16 months ago
You are so right, they make it really hard to sell and to start you got like 40% but for years now, you get more profit on some things than another and I just washed my hands of them and there were a few things of theirs I really loved but we know most who sell it are going to use up all our profit or a lot anyway buying for ourselves and there are just too many things out there just as good and much less expensive. (I do love their Sweet Honesty!)