Is Market America A Scam? A Pyramid Scheme [EXPOSED]?

Market America Is a MLM based business that was started by James Howard Ridinger (AKA JR Ridinger) & Loren Ridinger in 1992 and is headquartered in Greensboro, North Caroline. 

Currently Market America has 1,200+ employee's worldwide haven expended their operations to include Taiwan, Australia, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Singapore, Phillipines, Mexico And Malaysia. 

The products by Market America include Cosmetics, Auto care, Dietary Sypplements, Weight Management, Water Purifiers and Custom Websites. 

Market America uses the the website and domain name Shop.com as the retail arm of their business. 

Market America has 1 patent and 61 registered trademarks and generates $800M Annually in revenue. 

Similar companies to Market America Include Ebates, Amazon and Paribus. 

Market America has a huge and very diverse product range which includes Cosmetics, Health and Finance related products and even include a shopping portal. 

Here is a brief list of their Products:

• TLS  Weight Loss Solution
• Matriskin 
• Isotonic
• Royal Spa 
• Heart Health
• Snap
• Pentaxyl
• Cellular Laboratories
• Pet Health
• Fixx
• Motives 
• Isotonix  Custom Cocktail
• Timeless Prescription
• Lumiere de Vie
• Ultimate Aloe
• MA Web Centers
• Prime Anti-Aging Nutraceuticals
• Motives for La La
• Shop Financial
• NutriClean 
• DNA Miracles / DNA Miracles Natural

You can find more information about the products by Market America Here

 The Connection - Market America And Shop.com

When Market America started out the operated their business from the MarketAmerica.Com Domain, later to appeal to a more global market it was essential for a little rebranding or their business and acquired the shopping comparison site Shop.com by buying it from a certain Bill Gates. 

The Market America website is still used as their official site and corporate information, how to join but the entire retail side is operated from the Shop.com website. 

More Often now the name Shop.com is used than Market America, despite being one and the same company. 

You have 3 principle ways in which you can generate revenue with this company:

• 1. Earn Cashback: You can earn cash back from your purchases online or that of your clients online purchases.

• 2. Direct Retail Sales: Earn commissions by promoting and selling Market America products. Commissions vary from 30% to 50%. 

• 3. Recruitment: Earn by building your downline and get passive residual income

Market America call their distributors "Unfranchise owners". 

As an "Unfranchise Owner" you are obliged to to maintain a "Transfer Buy" every month of 50-150 Business Volume, fully depending on your rank. 

The obliged "transfer buy" doesn't start until your 3rd month.

A "Transfer Buy" you can consider to be similar as an autoship. Similar but not the same. 

The main difference between autoship of products and Transfer Buy is that with regular MLM business you are stuck with product that you would not otherwise use if you don't sell them and an inability to return the items as unsold stock to the company.

With Market America / Shop.com due to the wide range of products available your monthly Transfer Buy you can buy products that you personally would buy anyway and thus effectively transferring your buying habits to them since you would have bought those items anyway!.

The Compensation Plan operates using the binary compensation method which involves recruiting on two legs, left and right. 

Watch the video for an excellent explanation.

Getting Started With Market America

Starting fees for Market America are very expensive $399 +$129 per month fee. 

The Monthly Fee Includes:

• Getting Started Guide
• Training And Seminar System
• Audio Training
• Coaching And Mentoring

The fee's don't end here, you are also obliged to part company with $130 - $300 per month on "Transfer Buys" to remain active. 

And then on top of this there are training seminars and events that are $20 to $200 each.

If you are like me then you will be the kind of person that gives respect to businesses that are well respected and rated by well known consumer advocacy groups and organisations. 

Market America is fully accredited by the Better Business Bureau and has been accredited since 2004. They hold a perfect A+ rating too, which is impressive. 

From the complaints that I found the most common ones seem to relate to products or service offered by the company, including low quality problematic products. 

Market America is a privately owned company and does not  have publicly traded stock and is not listed on any stock exchange, therefore is not a publicly traded company. 

However, between the years 1994 and 2001 Market America was a publicly traded company. Market America became a private company for the second time when they bought back existing shares. 

There are somethings that I did like about Market America, which are as follows:

Long Established Company

having been established since 1992 and still going stronger than ever it is fair to say Market America are not a fly by night company and will be in business for many years to come. 

Highly Rated By The BBB 

The company hold a perfect A+ rating and are fully accredited by the Better Business Bureau.

Digital Marketing Friendly

Some network marketing businesses prohibit their distributors from operating online. Market America welcome the use of the internet to help you generate sales.

There were some things that I did not like about Market America, namely 

It Is Expensive To Get Started

The starting costs for most I expect can be crippling!.

• $399 Signing up fee
• $129 every month on going fee
• Minimum obliged Spend of $130 To $300 to remain active
• Seminar fees $20 to a couple of hundred USD!.

This is not a start cost - its a burden, particularly when just starting!

Overpriced Products

Many of the products on sale by Shop.com are available else where for a significantly cheaper price. This it's self might make your own job of selling their products more difficult.

Why would someone buy a product on Shop.com when an identical one is available cheaper on Amazon for example? 

With Market America it is not easy for you to make money with this company given their elevated starting costs as well as their expensive ongoing costs. 

The company does not publish their obliged income disclosure statement - and I do believe there is good reason for that!.

My estimation is that the vast majority earn less that $2,000 per year and only around 2% maximum earn more than minimum wage or higher. 

My answer and opinion is that you will find it difficult to make money with Market America. 

Thankfully there is an abundance of other opportunities out there.

Given the technicalities in the law and the famed Amway ruling in 1979 Market America are not a Pyramid Scheme. 

Allegations, including a 2017 lawsuit alleging the company to be a Pyramid Scheme have dogged the company for years. 

Despite Market America's denial and strong attempts to distance themselves from Multilevel Marketing they do operate using the binary compensation model and pay out on different levels and oblige an minimum monthly buy of products they most certainly are in my opinion a Multilevel marketing business. 

Market America, despite the fact that I would love to label them as a scam due to they way in which they operate and conduct their business they are in actual fact not a scam. 

I am not going to say that it is legit either!. 

I'm just going to tell you to stay away from both Market America and Shop.com. 

Market America do seem to have all the right credentials for doing business with when you first find out about them. 

But when you start to look beneath the facade and false veneer you start uncovering some unpleasant things such as a high failure rate, huge start up costs and a difficulty to make a profit. 

Thankfully, there are much better opportunities available and ones that don't complicate your life in the same way in which MLM's do. 

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