Belcorp has been around since 1980, although you wouldn’t know that from visiting their website.

Belcorp does a terrible job of providing information about itself on its website.

The “about us” page on Belcorp’s website redirects to information about their “leadership principles”. The “our history” link on their US website redirects to the business opportunity page.

Why does Belcorp have a separate US website? No idea.

Belcorp primarily targets South America and so when you visit their websites, you’ll find Spanish as the default language.

As claimed in their marketing material, Belcorp is the ‘third top cosmetics direct sales company in Latin America‘.

In the US Belcorp operates as L’bel or Belcorp USA. The company runs both Belcorp USA and L’bel websites, with the former branded as L’bel despite the domain name.

L’bel claims to be “supported by Belcorp” but I believe is a subsidiary of the main company.

I tried to suss out why Belcorp operates as L’bel in the US but came up blank.

One significant difference between the two companies is marketed products.

Do you sell Esika & Cy-Zone in Belcorp USA?

No, at this moment we sell the L’Bel brand. In the future we will enter these brands in the United States market.

Again, not really sure why this is the case.

Eduardo Belmont Anderson founded Belcorp in 1980. Anderson (right) is from Peru and in his seventies, still serves as Belcorp’s President.

A search into Anderson’s background quickly establishes his billionaire status. As at the time of publication, Forbes pegs Anderson’s net worth at $1.7 billion.

Belcorp’s CEO as of February 2018 is Erika Herrero.

The only representation Anderson and Herrero have on Belcorp’s website are two small quotes.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Herrero (right) started at Belcorp in 2015 as a Corporate Vice President.

Belcorp as a corporation is based out of Lima, Peru. L’bel in the US appears to be based out of Miami, Florida.

Read on for a full review of Belcorp’s MLM opportunity.

Belcorp’s Products

Belcorp operate in the personal care MLM niche.

Products sold in the US by Belcorp under their L’bel brand span skin care, color, fragrance and well being.

Belcorp have far too many products to list here individually, but a full catalog with retail pricing is provided on their website.

Belcorp’s Compensation Plan

Belcorp’s compensation plan material is easy enough to read but omits a large number of bonus explanations.

That and there doesn’t appear to be an English version of their compensation plan, at least not on their public facing website.

The following is an analysis of Belcorp’s compensation plan in Spanish, which I worked through via translation.

Belcorp Affiliate Ranks

There are fourteen affiliate ranks within Belcorp’s compensation plan.

Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:

  • Beauty Advisor – sign up as a Belcorp affiliate and qualify for commissions (see below)
  • Senior Beauty Advisor – generate $300 PV a month and recruit and maintain at least one Beauty Advisor
  • Expert Beauty Advisor – generate $350 PV a month and recruit and maintain at least two Beauty Advisors
  • Specialist Beauty Advisor – generate $400 PV and $1500 GV a month, and maintain two personally recruited Beauty Advisors
  • Executive – generate $450 PV and $3000 GV a month, and recruit and maintain three Beauty Advisors
  • Advanced Executive – generate $500 PV and $500 GV a month, and recruit and maintain four Beauty Advisors
  • Principal Executive –  maintain $500 PV a month, generate $7000 GV a month, and maintain at least two personally recruited Beauty Advisors and two Specialist Beauty Advisors or higher
  • Director – maintain $500 PV a month, generate $12,000 GV a month, and maintain at least two personally recruited Beauty Advisors, one Specialist Beauty Advisor and one Principal Executive or higher
  • Prestige Director – maintain $500 PV a month, generate $25,000 GV a month, and maintain at least two personally recruited Beauty Advisors and two Principal Executives or higher
  • Elite Director – maintain $500 PV a month, generate $50,000 GV a month, and recruit and maintain at least three Principal Executives and one Director
  • Premium Director – maintain $500 PV a month, generate $100,000 GV a month, and recruit and maintain at least four Principal Executives and two Directors or higher
  • Executive Director – maintain $500 PV a month, generate $250,000 GV a month, and maintain at least four personally recruited Principal Executives and two Prestige Directors or higher
  • National Director – maintain $500 PV a month, generate $700,000 GV a month, and recruit and maintain at least five Principal Executives and two Elite Directors or higher
  • Grand National Director – maintain $500 PV a month, generate $2,000,000 GV a month, and maintain at least five Principal Executives, one Prestige Director and two Premium Directors

Commission Qualification

In order to qualify for commissions, Belcorp affiliates must purchase or sell $300 worth of product.

To remain commission qualified they must purchase or sell $150 of product a month.

Retail Commissions

Belcorp pays a variable retail commission rate, based on how much an affiliate sells and/or orders in a month.

  • sell or purchase $150 to $299.99 worth of product and receive a 30% retail commission rate
  • sell or purchase $300 to $449.99 worth of product and receive a 35% retail commission rate
  • sell or purchase $450 to $599.99 worth of product and receive a 40% retail commission rate
  • sell or purchase $600 or more worth of product and receive a 50% retail commission rate.

During a new Belcorp affiliate’s first three months with the company, a 50% commission rate is paid on orders or purchases of $400 or more.

Fast Start Bonus

New Belcorp affiliates receive a $150 Fast Start Bonus if they qualify at Beauty Advisor within their first three months.

A $150 Fast Start Bonus match is also paid to the upline affiliate (the affiliate who recruited the affiliate who qualified for the Fast Start Bonus).

Recruitment Purchase Bonus

If a newly recruited Belcorp affiliate puts in a $400 or more order within their first three months, the affiliate who recruited them earns up to $120.

How the recruitment purchase bonus scales is unclear.

An example provided in Belcorp’s compensation plan cites a $40 bonus on 400 PV placed orders.

Residual Commissions

Belcorp pays residual commissions via a unilevel compensation structure.

A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):

If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.

If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.

Belcorp caps payable unilevel team levels at four.

Residual commissions are paid out as a percentage of sales volume generated across these four levels based on rank:

  • Beauty Advisors earn no residual commissions
  • Senior Beauty Advisors earn 7% on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates)
  • Expert Beauty Advisors earn 8% on level 1
  • Specialist Beauty Advisors earn 9% on level 1 and 2% on level 2
  • Executives earn 10% on level 1 and 4% on level 2
  • Advanced Executives earn 11% on level 1, 5% on level 2 and 2% on level 3
  • Principal Executives to Prestige Directors earn 12% on level 1, 6% on level 2, 3% on level 3 and 2% on level 4
  • Elite Directors and higher earn 13% on level 1, 6% on level 2, 3% on level 3 and 2% on level 4

Generation Bonus

A Generation Bonus typically allows an affiliate to extend residual commissions beyond offered unilevel team levels (in this instance, four).

The Generation Bonus starts at the Director rank and pays on up to four generations per unilevel team leg:

  • Directors earn a 3% Generation Bonus on up to one generation per unilevel leg
  • Prestige Directors earn a 3% Generation Bonus on up to two generations per unilevel leg
  • Elite Directors earn a 3% Generation Bonus on the first two generations of a unilevel leg and 4% on the third
  • Premium Directors earn a 3% Generation Bonus on the first two generations of a unilevel leg and 4% on the third and fourth
  • Executive Directors and higher earn a 3% Generation Bonus on the first two generations of a unilevel leg, 4% on the third and fourth and 5% on the fifth

Belcorp fails to provide any specifics on the Generation Bonus. Given it starts from the Director rank though, it’s a safe bet ranked Directors in a unilevel team leg trigger a generation in that leg.

Note that generations are calculated individually for each unilevel team leg.

Executive Generation Bonus

The Executive Generation Bonus is for National Director and Grant National Director ranked affiliates.

  • National Directors earn 0.5% on one executive generation per unilevel leg
  • Grand National Directors earn 0.5% on the first executive generation per unilevel leg and 1% on the second

Like regular generations Belcorp fails to define an executive generation.

Executive generations appear to be defined when an Elite Director or higher ranked affiliate is found in a unilevel team leg.

Coaching Bonus

Belcorp’s compensation plan details a $700 Coaching Bonus, starting from the Senior Beauty Advisor rank.

This appears to be a 3% volume bonus but specific details aren’t provided.

Business Bonus

The Business Bonus starts at the Principal Executive rank.

  • Principal Executives receive $100
  • Directors receive $175
  • Prestige Directors receive $200
  • Elite Directors and higher receive $300

The Business Bonus isn’t fully explained but appears to be a monthly bonus tied to rank.

Team Construction Bonus

The Team Construction Bonus starts at the Executive rank and pays up to $80 per unilevel leg.

  • Executives receive $40 per qualified unilevel team leg and
  • Advanced Executives and higher receive up to $80 per qualified unilevel team leg.

Unfortunately Belcorp fails to disclose how a unilevel team leg triggers the Team Construction Bonus.

Consistency Bonus

The Consistency Bonus is paid out over consecutive months, starting at the Principal Executive rank.

  • Principal Executives earn $300 over two months
  • Directors earn $450 over three months
  • Prestige Directors earn $1200 over four months
  • Elite Directors earn $3000 over four months
  • Premium Directors earn $7200 over six months
  • Executive Directors earn $18,000 over six months
  • National Directors earn $36,000 over six months
  • Grand National Directors earn $72,000 over six months

The Consistency Bonus appears to be a rank-based bonus (paid out incrementally each month rank is maintained), but Belcorp fails to provide specific details.

Turbo Infinity Bonus

The Turbo Infinity Bonus starts at the Director rank.

  • Director to Elite Director ranked affiliates earn a 1% Infinity Bonus;
  • Premium Director and higher ranked affiliates earn a 2% Turbo Infinity Bonus.

Typically an Infinity Bonus extends payable residual commissions.

It is assumed the Turbo Infinity Bonus extends residual commissions beyond four unilevel team levels.

Belcorp fails to provide any specific details in their compensation plan material.

Joining Belcorp

Belcorp affiliate membership costs $59.99.

Conclusion

For a company that’s been around since 1980, there’s a lot about Belcorp that feels half-assed.

The US push doesn’t appear to have gone well, with Alexa ranking the L’bel USA website at 12 million (dead).

I don’t know if this is because of the lack of information on the L’bel USA website, or a result of it.

What I do know is Belcorp’s interest in the US seems mostly to focus on Spanish-speaking affiliates and customers, which if we’re honest is probably just an extension of their Latin America market residing in the US.

There’s nothing wrong with that, but even then Belcorp fails to provide prospective affiliates with enough information.

On the product side of things Belcorp do a great job of presenting their range in an easy to navigate catalog. Why the company can’t sell certain ranges in the US however is a mystery.

I certainly hope it’s not a case of weaker regulation in South America permitting Belcorp to sell questionable ingredients that aren’t permitted for sale in the US.

As to the personal care range itself, Belcorp has a lot of products and that’s great – provided they’re actually being sold to retail customers.

I didn’t see anything in Belcorp’s compensation plan that encouraged retail sales.

The closest they come is the sliding scale retail commissions, however this includes an affiliate’s own purchases (PV) and is thus questionable.

The good news this mixing of retail and self-purchase PV provides you a quick way to evaluate how a potential upline is running their Belcorp business.

To qualify for commissions a Belcorp affiliate must be generating at least $150 PV a month ($300 PV a month for MLM commissions).

What you want to find out is how your potential upline is meeting this requirement.

In order to be a legitimate MLM business, each Belcorp affiliate would have to generate at least $75/$150 in retail PV a month. That is volume generated via sales to retail customers.

Not samples, not promises, not any purchases made by the affiliate themselves. These have to be actual retail sales, which means you want to see receipts.

Any Belcorp affiliate who can’t provide you with receipts isn’t meeting this retail requirement.

Signing up under them will likely see you self-fund commission qualification, and then primarily get paid on recruiting other affiliates who do the same.

This is your classic pyramid scheme model and for obvious reasons, should be avoided.

The bad news is I couldn’t see anything in Belcorp’s compensation plan to safeguard against this happening. That doesn’t mean Belcorp is running as a pyramid scheme, but something that shouldn’t be ignored.

Oh and outside of the product catalog, Belcorp really needs to scrap its online presence and start again. Executive bios and detailed compensation material for a start.

Particularly with respect to compensation, Belcorp’s plan has a lot of fleshed out bonuses but zero explanation as to what any of them are.

What good is a deep rewarding compensation plan if most of your affiliates aren’t going to have a clue how it works?

And if Belcorp is serious about targeting the US, ditch Spanish for English. Keeping Spanish as the default on the South American Belcorp website isn’t an issue.

I don’t know what the underlying reason is but with respect to their online presence, Belcorp seems to have a lot of squandered potential.

And again, this is only amplified by how long the company has been around for.

One odd this I found while trying to find an English copy of Belcorp’s compensation plan is this certificate issued by the Colombian police.

Villegas Franco Andres, who apparently is Belcorp’s Human Resources Director, has no issues with Colombian police.

Good to know but certainly a strange thing for an MLM company to put up on their website.

Approach with caution.