Is Shaklee A Scam?

Someone introduced Shaklee products and the business opportunity, so you searched online to know “Is Shaklee A Scam?” Am I Right? If yes, you’ve come to the right place.

In my Shaklee review, I will cover the below topics to help you make up your mind.

  • What Is Shaklee?
  • Shaklee Product Lines
  • How To Make Money With Shaklee?
  • Shaklee Compensation Plan
  • Shaklee 2021 Income Disclosure
  • Who Is Shaklee For?
  • Is Shaklee A Scam?

You will have enough information to make a better decision. Without further ado, let’s get started!

Disclaimer: As the owner of Smileaffiliatesuccess.com, I have tracked down special deals for products, tools, and services mentioned herein. When you click my affiliate links on this page to make a purchase, I may get a small commission, and you will get a great bargain. This is a win-win advantage for both of us.

What is Shaklee?

-Summary of Shaklee-

Product Name: Shaklee
Founders: founded by Forrest Shaklee in 1956
Product Type: Wellness, personal care MLM(Multi-level marketing)
Price: $49.95 Sign-up fee + $49.95-$169 starter kit + monthly 100PV
Recommend: No

Shaklee is a wellness and personal care MLM company that sells premium vitamins, nutrition supplements, clean beauty, and green home products. It also offers a business plan for every distributor to make money.

Shaklee was a chiropractor & nutritionist, and he created his first vitamin label with “Shaklee’s Vitalized Minerals” in 1915. Later in 1956, he founded Shaklee with his two sons to manufacture nutritional supplements.

After 64-year operations, Shaklee became a global company that runs the business in 7 countries, including the USA, Canada, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, and Taiwan. Besides the famous nutrition supplements, Shaklee offers weight-loss, beauty, and household products.

What’s inside Shaklee?

Shaklee products and the business plan!

Shaklee has more than 200+ products on the website, but I won’t go through each item. I will only list the products I want to purchase for personal use or promote them to anyone around me.

Product Lines

  • Nutrition: Vitamins, multivitamins, protein shakes, prenatal nutrition, etc.
  • Healthy Weight: Weight-loss kits, tea, snack bars, metabolic boost, etc.
  • Beauty: Serum, cleanser, toner, moisturizer, mascara, BB cream, body wash, etc.
  • Sports: performance enhancement supplements
  • Green Home: all-purpose cleaners, cleaning tools, water filter & related, etc.
Shaklee Products

For more details about Shaklee products, you are welcome to check them HERE.

How To Make Money With Shaklee?

There are two ways to make money with any MLMs, and Shaklee is no exception.

  1. Sell Shaklee products to earn retail commissions
  2. Recruit more people under you and hit group sales for extra bonuses

You don’t make money by recruitment but by the sales you and your downlines made. This is the difference between calling it a pyramid scheme and a legit MLM business.

Getting Started

There are four types of Shaklee memberships. The first two are regular memberships where you buy the products for personal use, while the last two are for people who like to build a business with Shaklee.

Shaklee Memberships

Level 01: FREE membership

In level 01, you can buy Shaklee products at retail prices, and the retail prices are the most expensive ones. You are prohibited from promoting Shaklee products unless you become a distributor.

Level 02: Member $19.95

When you become a member and pay $19.95 monthly, you can enjoy a 15% discount on your order placements. But, you still cannot promote Shaklee.

Level 03: Distributor $49.95

Once you pay $49.95, you can promote Shaklee and start earning the commissions. The minimum requirement for all distributors is to sell(or buy) 100PV worth of product per month.

Level 04: Distributor with Starter Kit

Now, you have a starter kit and build a home office to showcase Shaklee products to your friends, family, and neighbors. Now, we can calculate the total cost of becoming a Distributor with a Starter Kit for the first year.

  • Sign-up fee $49.95
  • Starter Kit $49.95-$169
  • Monthly 100PV to stay active($100*12=$1,200)
  • A personal website service $14.95*9 months(free for the first three months)=$134.55

The best is you pay $1,434.45, while the worst is $1,543.5. Other costs are not included, such as additional training, gas, travel, and miscellaneous expenses needed for your wine business. If we count everything in, the actual cost must be higher than my calculation here.

Shaklee Compensation Plan

Shaklee calls its compensation plan “Shaklee Dream Plan” The official compensation plan has 52 pages to explain everything, which makes people headache reading it.

But I’ve made things easier for you today, and those are the basics you need to know before you start with Shaklee.

  • Retail Commissions: You sell Shaklee products at retail prices and only pay for the wholesale price. The price differential becomes your commissions.
  • Personal Group Bonuses: When you start to have downlines in your organization, you earn a personal group bonus once you and your team hit a target group sales.
  • Leadership Bonuses: Once you reach director levels and start to develop other directors in your organization, you earn a monthly bonus on the volume of each business leader up to six generations under you, depending on your ranks.
  • Others: Exotic luxury trips, Car bonuses, etc.

For more details of the Shaklee Dream Plan, you are welcome to check it HERE.

How Much Do You Need to Sell to Stay Active?

If you sign up as a distributor, the minimum requirement to stay active is to have at least a $100 PV of Shaklee products each month.

It sounds like not much, but you would probably purchase for yourself if you cannot sell $100 products. Meaning you will have a stockpiling issue at your place.

Shaklee Ranking

There are 12 rankings with Shaklee. You start as a distributor and achieve some requirements to climb the ladder.

Typically, the higher the ranks, the more you must achieve to maintain your status.

What I Liked About Shaklee

TOP#1 The Longevity

After reviewing many MLMs, I prefer to choose those who have run businesses for over 50 years.

It doesn’t mean MLMs that only exist a few years are inferior, or you won’t make any money with them. I am trying to choose safer options and avoid any potential bankruptcy.

TOP#2 A+ Rating on BBB

Shaklee gets an A+ rating on BBB. BBB stands for Better Business Bureau.

It has customers’ feedback on the products, refund policy, customer services, or the membership cancellation process. So, I suggest you check this website before joining Shaklee.

Ugly Truth About Shaklee

TOP#1 Shaklee 2021 Income Disclosure

Shaklee 2021 income disclosure tells us some interesting numbers. You must read them before signing up.

  • 36.0% earned $797
  • 38.7% earned $1,391
  • Director earned $12,558
  • Top 1% earned decent money

Most people will likely stay at distributor ranking, so can you imagine you only make $797 for a whole year? The numbers are before expenses, and you might end up losing money…

I won’t suggest my readers quit their jobs to become a Shaklee distributor since it’s far from enough to support your daily expense, let alone support the entire family.

TOP#2 A Competitive & Saturated Market

When it comes to health and wellness products, you must have your preferred brands that flash through your mind. It’s an evergreen topic that people talk about all the time, so you never run out of brands to make your purchase.

I’ve reviewed tons of MLMs that offer similar products; name a few here:

Who’s Shaklee For?

Anyone who likes eco-friendly products, homemakers, or people who like nutrition supplements.

There is no harm in joining Shaklee if you are good at presenting, marketing, and recruiting. If you are shy & introverted like me, you must find other ways to make money.

Can You Make Money Selling Shaklee?

Yes, you can make money with Shaklee. This article said that only 1% of people could succeed in any MLM business, so you’d better prepare.

MLM-Pyramid

Can you take the low income in the first few years and climb the ladder to Director or above? If yes, just go for it. If not, let me show you my alternative in one minute.

Is Shaklee A Scam?

No, Shaklee is not a scam. It has legitimate products and a dream plan to make you live healthier and make money simultaneously. But, if you ask me whether I will sign up to become a Shaklee distributor, I will say, “No!”

  • First of all, the low-income potential, it’s not enough to quit your 9-5 job after achieving the director level.
  • Second, a competitive & saturated market. There must be someone doing Shaklee ahead of you, so it is inevitably competitive. People will also have their preferred brands in the health and wellness market, so you must put lots of effort into promoting Shaklee products.

When it comes to making money online, there are plenty of options on the internet, such as freelancing, dropshipping, GPT sites, drop services, or affiliate marketing. Wanna know my top pick?

My Alternative Way to Make Money Online

My alternative way to make money online is through affiliate marketing instead of promoting Shaklee products in person.

Imagine you sell Shaklee products to your friends, family, or anyone you know. Don’t you feel embarrassed or blushed? They might avoid you ever since.

Doing affiliate marketing will save you from that:

  • It’s free to start your affiliate marketing business.
  • You don’t need to buy physical products and sell them face to face.
  • There is no monthly minimum sales quota in affiliate marketing.
  • You don’t recruit people to become your downlines to build a team.
  • You are not restricted to promoting one product. You can promote anything you like!
  • Work on your schedules & you are your OWN BOSS!

You only need to start a blog with quality content. So every time people land on your site to read your product reviews or other articles, they will find insight and value.

If they like it, they may purchase the products or services via your links. Here comes your earning potential.

The Process of Affiliate Marketing
The Process of Affiliate Marketing

The platform I am using currently is Wealthy Affiliate. You will find all the proven-to-work training courses, every Friday night LIVE training courses, one keyword research tool called Jaaxy, 24/7 site support, and the most friendly community.

You are more than welcome to check my full Wealthy Affiliate review HERE, or click the button right below to start your online journey with us.

Try Wealthy Affiliate Before Bed Tonight

Take Action To Start Making Money Online Today! 🙂

Wealthy Affiliate Income Proof

Here are some of the most active members from Wealthy Affiliate. Each of them did succeed in generating a sustainable income to replace their 9-5 jobs. You are more than welcome to check their stories HERE.

I hope you enjoy this review, and you are more than welcome to share ideas or leave your comments below. I will reply as soon as I can, thanks.

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Is Shaklee A Scam?Is Shaklee A Scam?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Matt is a 30ish guy who has a corporate job and chases the dream to become a digital nomad with a laptop lifestyle. He is passionate about making money online and will keep creating quality content to find his online success.

4 thoughts on “Is Shaklee A Scam?”

  1. Hi, Matt,

    Great information o Shaklee business opportunity, I must admit that I haven’t heard of them before reading your article, and thanks to you, I have learned about something new for me.

    It really seems like you have to spend a lot of money before even start earning something.

    I have one question about Gold Packs. Apart from these being quite expensive, are these one time expenses, or monthly?

    I appreciate your feedback.

    Best Wishes,
    Natalie

    Reply
    • Hi Natalie,

      Nice to see you back on my website again! 🙂 You are welcome to my Shaklee review.

      I agree with you on the ugly truth that people will have to spend lots of money before earning from Shaklee. As for the Gold Packs, they are a one-time purchase, but you still need to pay the monthly Shaklee distributor cost at $49.95.

      So, if you are not interested in Shaklee, I recommend this platform I am currently using at the moment toward my own online success, and I would love to know your feedback on this platform too.

      Cheers,
      Matt

      Reply
  2. Hi Matt,

    I had not heard of Shaklee, but the supplements market has become so intensely competitive I wouldn’t go near it.

    The need to buy product every month is another turn off for me, unless I was using the $100 worth of products for my own consumption.

    It’s also getting harder to promote almost any MLM product online, not only because of the competition but because the search engines do not rank those doorway pages.

    The only way to do it is to create your own website in whatever niche you’re working in and then build from there. I have done that in the past, and made money, but that’s only because I’m in the business of building and operating websites..!

    I, too, would not join a Shaklee business !

    Cheers,

    Martin

    Reply
    • Hi Martin,

      Yes, you are correct. The supplement market becomes competitive in recent years, so it gets hard to stand out from so many brands in the industry.

      It’s really nice to know that you’ve ever made some nice and decent money from the internet by building your own website, and I think you were a role model for me since I am doing the same at the moment. 🙂

      For website-related platforms I’ve used in the recent years, I will recommend THIS one since it includes website-hosting, website-builder, and domain name purchase in one place. I believe you will also find it useful too.

      Cheers,
      Matt

      Reply

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