Unreliable Avon Reps

soolin

donnac2558 wrote: »

Avon have been losing money for many years. Hence selling off Liz Earle to Coty. People today do not want to wait three weeks for their products. They are ordering online, arrives quickly no hassle.

I did wonder why they are now at the cheaper end of the market. When I was younger Avon was expensive compared to high street prices, we used to think Avon was a luxury brand, something to give as a present. Now it is as cheap as a supermarket own brand. I have been buying reAlly lovely body cream, 250ml bottles which are 4 for £5 less any discount codes that they send. Getting that cheap did make me wonder if there were money issues.

anmarj

I got something off Avon for my wee ones Christmas, I had a text off her saying it was ready and asked if she could come around Saturday. I texted back to say we were not available until later in afternoon, due to other commitments, she turned up just as hubby coming out to collect me from work, and had to empty my wee one piggy bank to pay her, as we did not have time to get to cash machine to get the money, don't think she was impressed with the 10pences!

Ezmondino

ThumbRemote wrote: »

Maybe the younger generation aren't lazy, maybe they're just not stupid. After all, why on earth would anyone get involved with an outdated model of door-to-door selling, potentially for way below minimum wage or even ending up losing their own money doing so? Given that you can buy the stuff online, or just shop in Superdrug, Boots, a supermarket or anywhere else, your customer base is pretty much people who remember Avon from the 1980s.

For the vast majority of people being an Avon rep is a mugs game. That's why they don't do it for long.

Yeap. My young (ish ) wife did it for a while. Lucky to make pennies quite frankly, total waste of time. I'm amazed the business, as it is, is still around. It'll have to go online only eventually I would have thought as the next generation get older.

rockiedog

Ive recently seen Avon ladies in my local High Street selling Avon, under a big pink awning, with lots of people looking and buying. Is this way they're going now?

Stevie_Palimo

I would say that they are enticed to join Avon with the streets are paved with gold sales patter and after accepting the job find they are indeed paved with chewing gum instead, Hence the high staff turnover within this fledgling Company.

donnac2558

I know someone who used to do it. You pay for everything, catalogues, you used to get 5 free and pay for the rest. Now I think its one or two at most. You paid for the paper bags with Avon on them. Each size is a different price as well. If you want testers to show customers proper colours or smells you pay for those.

The Body Shop and Liz Earle both do home sales these days.

Nodding_Donkey

ThumbRemote wrote: »

If the world isn't exactly as you want it, blame the younger generation.

Maybe the younger generation aren't lazy, maybe they're just not stupid. After all, why on earth would anyone get involved with an outdated model of door-to-door selling, potentially for way below minimum wage or even ending up losing their own money doing so? Given that you can buy the stuff online, or just shop in Superdrug, Boots, a supermarket or anywhere else, your customer base is pretty much people who remember Avon from the 1980s.

For the vast majority of people being an Avon rep is a mugs game. That's why they don't do it for long.

Exactly, you can re-brand something as Multi-level Marketing but it's still pyramid selling i.e. you need to recruit others to earn a decent income.

HappyMJ

To make decent money at Avon you need to work HARD. To make £20 you need to sell £100 worth of stock so if your average order is £20 you need to find 5 customers which might take you 4 hours. Then you've got costs that come out of that. It's quite hard work.

Petra_70

Ezmondino wrote: »

Yeap. My young (ish ) wife did it for a while. Lucky to make pennies quite frankly, total waste of time. I'm amazed the business, as it is, is still around. It'll have to go online only eventually I would have thought as the next generation get older.

Stevie_Palimo wrote: »

I would say that they are enticed to join Avon with the streets are paved with gold sales patter and after accepting the job find they are indeed paved with chewing gum instead, Hence the high staff turnover within this fledgling Company.

Do you now what fledgling means?

"a person or organization that is immature, inexperienced, or underdeveloped."

You have used the wrong noun. Avon is 130 years old!

Also, I disagree with what people are saying about it being a waste of time and you can't make money from it. In the area my friend lives in, (a village of 450 properties with half the people over 60,) they had a rep who often got 200-300 orders a month from this village alone, sometimes totalling £2.5K to £3.5K, sometimes much more. She made a killing. I think with many people being elderly, many were not on the internet, and so it was a treat for them to have an Avon lady. She did it for 12 years (up to last year) when she moved out of the area.

I can understand people not having much success in a chavvy rough area, but in upper working class suburbs and middle class areas like villages, I would think they would have some success.

So it really depends. I think it's a generalisation to say nobody can make money from it.

HappyMJ wrote: »

To make decent money at Avon you need to work HARD. To make £20 you need to sell £100 worth of stock so if your average order is £20 you need to find 5 customers which might take you 4 hours. Then you've got costs that come out of that. It's quite hard work.

5 hours to find 4 customers? :huh:

Maybe if they all live 20 miles from one another.

timbstoke

If there's a string of reps in your area and none are lasting, it may be that their "next level" is overly pushy. My partner does Avon, and she's always been adamant that she has no interest in distributing books or having a territory - she leaves books behind the bar in our local, and collects the orders when we go for a drink on a Friday evening, delivering orders back to the pub when they arrive a week later. Even so, she used to regularly get calls asking if she could try and sell more.