Buyezee Review: Pay to play e-commerce portal

Buyezee are incorporated in the US state of Delaware and operate in the e-commerce MLM niche.

Despite providing basic information about the company on their website though, there is currently no information up as to who owns or runs Buyezee.

This is of particular concern seeing as Buyezee claim to have first incorporated back in 2014.

Further research reveals Buyezee on their Facebook page identifying Daniela Claudia Szasz as CEO.

Citing “20 years of experience”, on her blog Szasz (right) markets herself as a business advisor.

I advise managers, leaders and entrepreneurs from companies and businesses (on) how you authentically bring in profitable returns, while impressing your customers with a self-confident and convincing representation.

As a result of my continually enterprise successes, I am today an independent trainer and consultant for companies, network and businesses in national and international corporations.

As a personal development trainer for company events, management courses and motivation seminars, I’ve impressed every audience with my clear, charming, versatile, and competent style.

MLM companies Szasz has previously been an affiliate with include Herbalife (President’s Team member) and PM-International (supplements). Her Facebook profile also reveals affiliation with Asea and LifePlus.

Of note is that Szasz as only appointed Buyezee’s CEO in late February of this year. Buyezee was incorporated in 2014, so she clearly doesn’t own the company.

Buyezee would appear to be based out of Europe, with the company boasting it is ‘a registered trademark for all Eurozone countries (as of) June 2015‘. Additionally the Euro is the currency used in the official Buyezee compensation plan documentation.

For all intents and purposes, it appears Buyezee exist in the US in name only. More importantly, for now and for whatever reason, Buyezee aren’t disclosing who owns the company.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money.

The Buyezee Product Line

Buyezee retail an e-commerce portal filled with “10,000’s of Brands from 1000’s of Top Retailers”.

Our template for success is our consumer orientated focus to offer 100,000,000’s of products, from 1,000’s of top retail brands for people to easily search and find the product they are looking for at the best prices.

Buyezee claim their e-commerce portal provides  ‘up to 70% commission (on) shopping, hotels, flights & local deals’, with replicated portals given away for free.

Commission rates through the Buyezee portal however are tied to how much is paid for access to it.

• free portal = 20% commission rate
• €199 a year (access to finance products and marketing tools) = 45% commission rate
• €799 a year (allows a portal owner to market their own products) = 50% commission rate
• €1399 a year (access to “custom product pages”) = 55% commission rate
• €1999 a year = increases commission rate to 60%
• €4999 (3 year license) = increases commission rate to 65%
• €9999 (lifetime license) = increases commission rate to 70%

Obviously this is some sort of partnership with one or more third-party affiliate networks, however who Buyezee use to provide the backend of their shopping portal is not disclosed.

The Buyezee Compensation Plan

The Buyezee compensation plan pays affiliates to sell e-commerce platform licenses to retail customers and recruited affiliates.

Buyezee Affiliate Ranks

There are nine affiliate ranks in the Buyezee compensation plan.

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

• Shopreneur – sign up as a Buyezee affiliate for €39
• 1 Star – mandatory paid Buyezee e-commerce portal purchase (can’t use free option), generate 1000 GV a month (max 500 GV from any one unilevel leg) and personally recruit and maintain two affiliates
• 2 Star – maintain paid Buyezee portal subscription, generate 3000 GV a month (max 1500 GV from any one unilevel leg) and personally recruit and maintain two 1 Star or higher ranked affiliates
• 3 Star – maintain paid Buyezee portal subscription, generate 10,000 GV a month (max 5000 GV from any one unilevel leg) and personally recruit and maintain two 2 Star or higher ranked affiliates
• 4 Star – maintain paid Buyezee portal subscription, generate 25,000 GV a month (max 12,500 GV from any one unilevel leg) for two consecutive months, personally recruit and maintain two 3 Star or higher ranked affiliates and complete one TRI-9 cycle
• 5 Star – maintain paid Buyezee portal subscription, generate 50,000 GV a month (max 25,000 GV from any one unilevel leg) for two consecutive months, personally recruit and maintain two 4 Star or higher ranked affiliates and complete two TRI-9 cycles
• 6 Star – maintain paid Buyezee portal subscription, generate 100,000 GV a month (max 50,000 GV from any one unilevel leg) for two consecutive months, personally recruit and maintain two 4 Star or higher ranked affiliates and complete two TRI-9 cycles
• 7 Star – maintain paid Buyezee portal subscription, generate 250,000 GV a month (max 125,000 GV from any one unilevel leg) for two consecutive months, personally recruit and maintain two 6 Star or higher ranked affiliates and complete four TRI-9 cycles
• 8 Star – maintain paid Buyezee portal subscription, generate 500,000 GV a month (max 250,000 GV from any one unilevel leg) for two consecutive months, personally recruit and maintain two 7 Star or higher ranked affiliates and complete five TRI-9 cycles

GV stands for “Group Volume” and is sales volume generated by an affiliate’s own e-commerce subscription, along with that of their recruited affiliates and retail e-commerce portal customers.

E-commerce Portal Shopping Commissions

For every product sold through Buyezee’s e-commerce portal, a third-party merchant pays the company a commission.

This commission is shared with Buyezee affiliates as follows:

• free portal = 20% commission rate
• €199 a year = 45% commission rate
• €799 a year = 50% commission rate
• €1399 a year = 55% commission rate
• €1999 a year = 60% commission rate
• €4999 = 65% commission rate
• €9999 = 70% commission rate

Residual e-commerce portal commissions are paid out through 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.

Buyezee cap payable unilevel levels at ten with a 10% commission paid out on each level.

How many levels a Buyezee affiliate can earn on is determined by how much they pay for access to the Buyezee shopping portal:

• free portal = 10% on levels 1 and 2
• €199 a year = 10% on levels 1 to 4
• €799 a year = 10% on levels 1 to 6
• €1399 a year = 10% on levels 1 to 8
• €1999 a year = 10% on levels 1 to 9
• €4999 or €9999 = 10% on levels 1 to 10

E-commerce Portal Commissions

Buyezee affiliates are paid a direct commission when they sell the shopping portal to retail customers or recruited affiliates as follows:

• €199 a year license = €60 commission
• €799 a year license = €240 commission
• €1399 a year license = €420 commission
• €1999 a year license = €600 commission
• €4999 three-year license = €1500 commission
• €9999 lifetime license = €3000 commission

TRI-9 Pay Commissions

TRI-9 Pay commissions are paid out when an affiliate generates three shopping portal sales.

How much of a commission is paid out is determined by which price-tier portal is grouped together:

• Starter (€199 a year) – €50
• Premium (€799 a year) – €200
• Professional (€1399 a year) – €350
• Ultimate (€1999 a year) – €500
• Ultimate Pro (€4999 for three years) – €1250
• Ultimate Life (€9999 one-time) – €2500

A residual TRI-9 Pay commission is also paid out when personally recruited affiliates also sell shopping portals in groups of three.

Again, which price-tier is sold determines how much of a commission is paid out:

• Starter – €150
• Premium – €600
• Professional – €1050
• Ultimate – €1500
• Ultimate Pro – €3750
• Ultimate Life – €7500

If three recruited affiliates earn TRI-9 Pay on any portal price-tier, the upline affiliate receives a “Double Pay” bonus commission.

A Double Pay bonus commission is equal to the above payouts, determined by which portal price-tier has been sold (eg. Double Pay bonus on Ultimate Pro is €3750).

Note that affiliates who use the free Buyezee shopping portal do not qualify for TRI-9 Pay commissions.

RoyalPay

RoyalPay is a bonus 10% commission on the sale of Buyezee shopping portals.

The commission is paid out as a 10% percentage of 25% of the commissionable volume each portal sale generates, using the same unilevel structure residual portal sale commissions are paid out with.

• 1 Star – 10% on levels 1 to 3
• 2 Star – 10% on levels 1 to 4
• 3 Star – 10% on levels 1 to 5
• 4 Star – 10% on levels 1 to 6
• 5 Star – 10% on level 1 to 7
• 6 Star – 10% on levels 1 to 8
• 7 Star – 10% on levels 1 to 9
• 8 Star – 10% on levels 1 to 10

A residual commission on RoyalPay commissions earned by personally recruited 3 Star or higher affiliates is available, paid out down seven levels of recruitment:

• 3 Star – 10% on level 1, 5% on level 2
• 4 Star – 10% on level 1 and 5% on levels 2 and 3
• 5 Star – 10% on level 1 and 5% on levels 2 to 4
• 6 Star – 10% on level 1 and 5% on levels 2 to 5
• 7 Star – 10% on level 1 and 5% on levels 2 to 6
• 8 Star – 10% on level 1 and 5% on level 2 to 7

Note that the residual levels above are paid out on 3 Star or higher ranked affiliates in the downlines of personally recruited 3 Star or higher ranked affiliates.

DoublePay

Commissions earned through RoyalPay and TRI-9 Pay are doubled each month, with a cap on payouts determined by a Buyezee affiliate’s rank:

• 1 Star – €500 cap
• 2 Star – €1250 cap
• 3 Star – €2500 cap
• 4 Star – €5000 cap
• 5 Star – €12,500 cap
• 6 Star – €25,000 cap
• 7 Star – €50,000 cap
• 8 Star – €150,000 cap

Global Pool

The Global Pool is made up of 1% of Buyezee’s annual company-wide turnover, capped at €1 million EUR.

The bonus is paid out annually among GlobalPay qualified affiliates.

To qualify as a GlobalPay ranked affiliate, a Buyezee affiliate must be 8 Star ranked and have at least one personally recruited 8 Star rank affiliate in their downline.

Joining Buyezee

Affiliate membership with Buyezee is  €39 annually, on top of access to the Buyezee e-commerce platform (free to €9999).

The primary difference between the e-commerce platform fees is commission rates paid out on sales generated through the portal (pay more, earn more).

Conclusion

Historcally e-commerce MLM opportunities have brought the issue of selling nothing more than access to discounts.

Buyezee do have a platform of their own however, which appears to be inhouse. If so, the licenses the company sells would thus qualify as a service, within the context of an MLM product or service being sold to retail customers.

That said, the legitimacy of Buyezee hinges on whether or not the platform is viable on a retail level.

I don’t believe it is, for the sole reason that it’s a platform that’s aimed at generating money.

For €39 a year, it comes attached with an MLM business opportunity – that has the potential to generate even more money.

The two go hand-in-hand, and I believe that’s going to come at the expense of genuine retail sales.

If you can’t find anybody to sell Buyezee e-commerce platform to for €199 to €9999 to, tell them an extra €39 a year gets them a business opportunity and away you go.

At the expense of retail, this lends itself to chain-recruitment. If affiliate’s are the only ones purchasing the Buyezee shopping portal, you’re looking at a closed-loop flow of money within Buyezee, where affiliate recruitment is thus the primary source of commission payouts.

Note that if this is the case, whatever revenue is thus sourced from third-party merchants through the e-commerce portal is irrelevant (Buyezee don’t themselves sell these products, they merely provide access to them).

Buyezee themselves touch on this in their compensation plan:

Shopreneurs can also introduce other BUYEZEE SHOPRENEURS who can duplicate their efforts and benefit from their success from doing exactly the same.

“Introduce other Buyezee Shopreneurs” = recruit new affiliates, with duplication seeing recruited affiliates achieving “success” by recruiting affiliates of their own.

The good news is establishing whether Buyezee’s platform is viable at a retail level is pretty straight-forward. Just ask your potential upline how many active retail portal customers they have, and compare that to the amount of active recruited affiliates they have.

If the ratio is favored towards affiliates, that indicates that the retail viability of Buyezee is probably non-existent.

Delving deeper into Buyezee’s compensation plan, even with strong retail portal sales there’s still the issue of “pay to play”.

This is evidenced by the more an affiliate spends on the shopping portal translating into a higher commission payout.

In MLM variable commission rates should be determined by an affiliate’s sales performance, not by how much they spend themselves.

I did like the use of Double Pay in the plan. Initially I questioned why they didn’t just adjust both the TRI-9 Pay and RoyalPay commissions respectively. Then I worked out that this way an affiliate is paid double, regardless of whether they’re stronger in one component of the compensation plan over the other.

It’s sort of the best of both worlds, governed by a universal cap (which would be in place if they doubled RoyalPay and TRI-9 Pay individually anyway.

Finally, I’ll point out that historically third-part merchant networks pay out peanuts per sale. These funds are shared between Buyezee and their affiliates, which takes peanut revenue and reduces it even further.

That alone isn’t a problem (other than reducing the viability of the shopping portal), but when contrasted with thousands of EUR paid out on selling portal licenses, pretty much guarantees portal licensing fees are going to trump whatever revenues shopping through the portal generates.

I’m bringing this up because Buyezee’s pitch is pretty heavy on their portal providing access to “100,000,000’s of products, from 1,000’s of top retail brands”.

From a business opportunity perspective, it seems disingenuous to place an emphasis on the component of the business that’s likely to generate the least amount of commissions. Although from a calculatedly misleading compliance standpoint, I can see why they’d do so (and of course strongly object).

All in all I feel Buyezee is unlikely to surpass the historical problems of generating genuine retail interest in e-commerce based MLM companies. There’s nothing really new here, other than charging affiliates and retail customers thousands of Euro for a shopping portal license.

In an age of free e-commerce affiliate programs, that’s probably going to be a hard sell.

Throw in anonymous company ownership likely based out of Europe, who have for reasons known only to themselves chosen Delaware to incorporate the company… make sure you thoroughly get to the bottom of things before diving in.