Monat Business Opportunity Review – Wise to Join Or Not?

Someone has presented you with the Monat business opportunity, promising charming products, and a lucrative income outlook, but what is it really all about? Can you make money through their distributorship program? I’m glad you asked because that’s what we’ll be discussing in this extensive review. So hold that thought for a minute as we go through the nitty-gritty details. 

What is Monat?

Monat Global is a haircare company, founded in Miami, Florida that works to put together a myriad of hair products. It produces a wide range of hair products from shampoos, to conditioners, and serums among others. In 2019, the company performed a scale-up by introducing a new skincare line for women and there’s even a product range for pets.

Most of their products help to address various hair issues such as breakage and thinness and provide other hair care benefits like scalp rejuvenation. The company also prides itself on the use of non-toxic substances and cruelty-free methods for the production of natural and healthy products that are safe for human use.

Typically, a company would have its products available in retail stores where regular customers could walk in and purchase. This is, however, not the case for Monat as they drive sales using the MLM business model. 

This involves the recruitment of distributors, referred to as Market Partners, who would buy the products from the company and then distribute them directly to customers. While at it, they also benefit from sales generated by partners recruited under them. 

In October 2014, Monat emerged as the first hair company to use the direct selling approach. It has since experienced exponential growth, hiring about 400+ employees, 500,000 independent distributors, and garnering around 1 million repeated clients as of 2018. Their services have spread throughout the US, Canada, UK, and just recently in Ireland, and Poland.

At its core, the company aims to provide good quality hair care products for consumers. Yet, like any other MLMs, it also advocates the potential of money-making through network marketing and that’s what we’ll be reviewing for the rest of the article. 

Monat Distributorship – How Does it Work?

To join the Monat Business Opportunity, you will sign up after which you will be needed to activate your membership by purchasing one of the 4 available packages. The Starter Kit, going for $99, will be suitable for starting. This pack involves 35 sample sachets as well as training and marketing materials for guidance. 

This fee is one-off even though you will be required to make an annual payment of $19.95 to keep your membership active. You could also upgrade to a higher membership plan at any time. 

This will cost you more, ranging anywhere from $199 to $649. In general, the higher the package plan, the more samples, and full-sized products you’ll get.

(1) Profit from Retail Sales

The most obvious way to earn through Monat is by making direct sales of the products you invest in from the membership plan. Typically, the more sales you convert, the more money you will make. This fact holds even more weight in this situation since your commission rate directly depends on your sales volume and the type of customers who buy from you.

For example, for every VIP customer (people who sign up to become a Monat member) sales you make, the commission is 15%. If you sell to retail customers, the earning is much higher between 30% to 40% commission.

(2) Recruitment Benefits

Being an MLM, another earning opportunity with Monat is by recruiting other representatives as your downline. This can greatly expand your earning potential in the form of personal volumes, active lines, group volumes, and so on. That means you can earn commissions from your recruits’ sales as well as their personal referrals. 

The company is good at incentivizing this process. For example, you’ll be rewarded with a $60 bonus for recruiting four new VIP customers in a given month. If any of them sign up to become a distributor under you, you can earn anywhere between $50 to $230 depending on the product pack they purchased to start their business. 

Beyond that, there’s the uni-level bonuses, generation bonuses, rank advancement bonuses, and many levels more. To reach out to a wider audience, Monat distributors utilize mostly social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for their marketing activities. 

Some of them may also approach professionals like beauticians, hairdressers, and barbers where the products can be seen by potential customers. If all these rhymes with you, then promoting Monat can be advantageous from a business point of view. 

The Advantages of Selling Monat

(1) An Upward Trend

When searching for a profitable niche, I’m a big advocate of going after something that isn’t only popular but also has an upward trend behaviour. One may argue it’s just a fad, but hey, if there’s money to be made on the table, why not take it, right? 

According to Google Trend, Monat gained popularity sometime in 2016 in the US and has expanded its brand name online since. It reflects that users are getting to know the name and possibly buying the products as well. 

(2) Evergreen Products

Hair and skincare products are part of the evergreen beauty niche. So long as the spending power allows, coupled with the desire to look good, consumers will always search and compare brands to find the right product.  

(3) Purchase at discounts

As a Market Partner, you can get hold of hair care products at discounted prices. Even though they are meant for resale, you can also keep some for your own personal use.

(4) High retail profit 

30% in commission is a lot of retail profit to make in comparison to selling Herbalife (also another MLM company) that pays slightly lower at 25%. Even most hair care affiliate programs, if you join affiliate marketing, only offer within the range of 5% to 20% in sales commissions. 

The Disadvantages of Selling Monat

So what could possibly go wrong when it comes to selling Monat? Some of these facts may go against you.  

(1) (Fairly) Expensive Starter Packs

The most basic kit aside, the rest of the product packs are fairly pricey even after discounts. The reason being, they actually come in full range full-sized products, not so much for your own consumption but rather for customer trial or purchase. In other words, it’s mandatory to keep an inventory with no guarantee that you will earn back your money or get refunds if you’re unable to sell them. 

If you know anything about marketing, possessing a large stock without a concrete plan on how to sell them can be a risky business in the long run. 

(2) Pricy Products

Whether it’s hair care or skincare, Monat is generally pricier than most ranges out there. To add to the challenge, they can only be bought through distributors. For some, it seems ludicrous that you actually need to know somebody in order to buy a bottle of shampoo while similar products can be easily purchased online at a lesser price point. 

(3) Bad Reputation 

Despite its quality reassurance, there have been numerous complaints about the side effects of using Monat’s hair care products, resulting in ruined hair, severe hair fall, itchy, and reddening of the scalp. Meanwhile, on the administrative side, customer service is said to be slow and payments are being deducted from the members without their knowledge. 

It’s understandable that allergy symptoms and customer satisfaction are subjective issues but with more than 30% negative reviews on Trustpilot, it makes the company more sketchy than what it claims. 

(4) Is Monat a Ponzi Scheme?

While trying to digest the rather complicated compensation plan, I bump into this info. Besides sales commissions, notice that an X number of bonuses is awarded for every newly sponsored distributor. In other words, you get paid to recruit downlines. 

Now, let’s take a look at the definition of a Ponzi scheme by the US government; 

Can you see the similarity between the two? No matter how you try to paraphrase, the meaning is the same. It’s considered an unethical business practice from a legal perspective because it only benefits the top earners while the bottom tiers, newbies like you, struggle. 

Such schemes are notorious for wasting people’s time and money so don’t be surprised if friends and family shy away when you try to promote the brand. All of us know too well what the outcome is going to be. 

So, Is Monat a Good Business Opportunity? 

There’s no harm trying as long as you’re aware of the risks. If the product has worked well for you, why not share it with others and earn some lucrative commissions along the way. But just like any networking company, your success with Monat is determined by how fast you climb the ranks. Each level has very demanding requirements in terms of sales and recruitments, taking into account the pros and cons that I’ve just mentioned. If you’re struggling like most 90% of MLMers do, then it’s better to move onto something else. 

Try this – How about creating an online business, in any type of niche (not just haircare) that doesn’t require any inventory stocking or recruiting? You can start for free and run your business for as low as $1/day. Sounds interesting? Head over to my recommended training platform to learn more. If you’ve anything to share in regards to Monat or similar companies, we would love to hear your thoughts in the comment space down below.