Scentsy has announced a round of staff layoffs. The layoffs coincide with compensation plan changes, effectively raising the barrier of entry to its MLM opportunity.

On  January 9th Scentsy filed a WARN notice in Texas. The notice details 94 layoffs in Coppell on January 3rd, 2025 (click to enlarge):

Coppell is home to one of Scentsy’s two US product distribution centers (below is from Scentsy’s website):

It’s unclear how many employees work at the Coppell center.

Following on from the Coppell layoffs, on January 19th CEO and President Dan Orchard announced Scentsy compensation and product changes (hat tip to Julie Anderson).

Scentsy is unifying branding of its “pod” products as Scentsy Air. The company is also discontinuing three of its product lines:

The big change in Scentsy’s compensation plan is the increase in required Personal Retail Volume” (PRV), from 200 to 250 a month. The change also effects Scentsy affiliates qualifying through “party” marketing events.

Scentsy affiliates are required to meet the monthly PRV target to fully qualify for MLM commissions.

The Monthly Sales Award Bonus increases Scentsy commission rates. Its qualification criteria has been increased from 2000 to 2500 PRV a month.

Orchard (right) attributes Scentsy’s compensation changes to needing to “build momentum”.

Recently we’ve seen a decline in momentum, really across just about every direct selling company.

New customer acquisition, customer engagement, new consultant acquisition and new consultant engagement; Given that this is currently not happening at a level that can sustain us today, we know that we need to make some changes.

One positive for Scentsy Consultants is those who don’t meet 250 PRV a month will still earn 20% on personal volume. Previously affiliates who failed to meet PRV requirements once over a rolling four-month period were deemed “inactive”.

I believe affiliates who don’t meet 250 PRV over a rolling four-month period still need to hit 250 PRV at least once every 12 months to avoid account cancellation.

The MLM commission requirement of hitting required PRV (now 250 PRV) over a rolling four-month period remains unchanged.

Previously Scentsy had a “Certified Consultant” rank, requiring 1000 PRV with no time limit and permanently qualifying a Consultant at the 25% commission rate. This rank has been dropped in favor of the monthly PRV requirement.

Of note is Orchard disclosing that as of late 2024, only 25% of Scenty’s Consultants were active (i.e. qualified for MLM commissions).

Increasing monthly PRV requirements will either encourage Consultants to meet the new quota, as Scentsy is hoping, or result in even less Consultants qualifying.

Either is a win for Scentsy as a company. They either drive more sales or earn more on orders they don’t have to pay MLM commissions on (whatever the percentage difference 25% of Consultants failing to qualify but placing an order increases to).

I can’t speak as to whether Scentsy’s plan will work but it does feel like trying to draw more from existing Consultants over expanding the business.

Scentsy’s announced compensation plan changes begin March 1st.

Scentsy is owned by Orville and Heidi Thompson (right).

The Thompsons took a break from Scentsy back in mid 2021 to pursue a “three-year mission” with the Mormon church in the UK.

Dan Orchard was initially appointed interim CEO but that position appears to have been made permanent.

The Thompsons’ “mission” ended mid 2024. As I understand it though they’ve been MIA regarding Scentsy since returning to the US.