Clever Container Review: Premium storage solutions
Clever container was founded in 2006, with the MLM side of the business launching in 2007.
Based out of the US state of Illinois, Clever Container are headed up by Karen Eschebach and Jennifer Weaver.
Absent from the Clever Container website are the exact roles Eschebach and Weaver have in the company, aside from being owners. For some reason there’s no corporate management structure provided anywhere on the Clever Container website.
So the story goes, Eschebach and Weaver (right) met at a Pampered Chef party:
When she became a mother herself, (Karen) began a Clutter Cutters Club for other moms in her Grosse Pointe, Michigan neighborhood.
“We’d get together once a month,” Karen explained, “and I’d help them all with ideas on how to organize their pantries and linen closets. I’d give them an assignment and the next month, they’d come back with before and after pictures.
Sometimes we’d even go to someone’s home and organize a closet, so everyone would learn from the process.”
It wasn’t long before people started asking for more personal attention and Karen found herself with a small business as a professional organizer.
After a corporate career in data processing, where she designed systems to keep information in place, she thought she’d found the perfect way to organize her life as a wife and mother with her desire to work.
With three kids, there weren’t a lot of extra hours in the day, so Jennifer decided to spend a few evenings a week as a direct sales consultant for The Pampered Chef — selling cooking utensils at parties that women in the neighborhood would have in their homes.
And it was at one of those parties, which Karen happened to attend, that the two women’s little side businesses began to merge into one very big idea.
That idea of course was Clever Container, which Eschebach and Weaver have been running ever since.
Read on for a full review of the Clever Container MLM business opportunity.
The Clever Container Product Line
As the name suggests, Clever Contain market a range of storage solutions.
There are far too many products to individually go through here, however a full catalogue (complete with retail pricing) is available from the Clever Container website.
Areas of storage Clever Container sell products to deal with include
- travel
- auto
- office
- essential storage (home general)
- kitchen
- out the door (shopping and errands)
- closet
- bath
- crafts
- laundry and
- kids
Prices seem pretty reasonable, with most items coming in at under $30 retail.
The Clever Container Compensation Plan
For reasons unknown, the Clever Container compensation plan is not provided on the company website.
The following analysis is from a Clever Container compensation plan document dated July 2014. I believe this is the most recent revision of the plan at the time of publication.
Clever Container Affiliate Ranks
There are ten affiliate ranks within the Clever Container compensation plan.
Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:
- New Consultant (first 90 days) – sign up as a Clever Container affiliate (no MLM commissions)
- Consultant – generate $300 PV a month in sales volume (no MLM commissions)
- Managing Consultant – generate $500 PV a month in sales volume (no MLM commissions)
- Senior Consultant – maintain $500 PV a month in sales volume, have at least two active unilevel legs and a downline generating at least $2500 GV a month
- Executive Consultant – generate $700 PV a month in sales volume, have at least three active unilevel legs (one must contain a personally recruited Managing Consultant or higher) and have a downline generating at least $3500 GV a month
- Director – maintain $700 PV a month in sales volume, have at least four active unilevel legs (one must contain a personally recruited Senior Consultant or higher and another a personally recruited Managing Consultant or higher) and have a downline generating at least $5000 GV a month
- Associate Director – maintain $700 PV a month in sales volume, have at least four active unilevel legs (one must contain a personally recruited Director or higher and another a personally recruited Senior Consultant or higher) and have a downline generating at least $5000 GV a month
- Managing Director – maintain $700 PV a month in sales volume, have at least four active unilevel legs (two must contain a personally recruited Director or higher) and have a downline generating $8000 GV and $40,000 TGV a month
- Senior Director – maintain $700 PV a month in sales volume, have at least four active unilevel legs (all four must have a personally recruited Director or higher (two must be Associate Director or higher)) and have a downline generating at least $8000 GV and $80,000 TGV a month
- Executive Director – maintain $700 PV a month in sales volume, have at least five active unilevel legs (all five must have a personally recruited Director or higher (two must be Managing Director or higher)) and have a downline generating at least $8000 GV and $160,000 TGV a month
Note that PV stands for “Personal Volume” and is the sales volume generated by an affiliate’s own purchase of products and their sales to retail customers.
GV stands for “Group Volume” and is the PV of an affiliate’s downline, excluding any volume generated by Director or higher ranked affiliates and their downlines.
TGV stands for “Total Group Volume” and is the PV generated by an affiliate’s entire downline (includes Director volume).
Rank Advancement Bonus
Clever Container affiliates are paid the following bonuses when they first qualify at any of the following given ranks:
- Managing Consultant – $50 (must qualify within 3 months of joining the company)
- Senior Consultant – $100 (must qualify within 3 months of joining the company)
- Director – $500
A $300 matching bonus is also paid out on personally recruited affiliates who qualify at the Director rank.
Note that the affiliate receiving the matching bonus must themselves be at the Director or higher rank.
Retail Commissions
Retail commissions are available on the sale of all Clever Container products, paying out a 20% monthly commission on PV.
Note that PV includes retail sales and an affiliate’s own purchases (for the sake of simplicity I’ve bundled the two together).
All Clever Container affiliates start with a base 20% retail commission. Once they sell over $1000 in PV, affiliates are then paid a 25% retail commission.
This percentage amount can further be increased to up to 33% percent as follows:
- sell $2500 PV in a month = 3% bonus (28%)
- sell $4000 PV in a month =5% bonus (30%)
- sell $6000 PV in a month = 8% bonus (33%)
Note that a temporary 5% percentage boost is available in an affiliate’s first four months with the company.
New Clever Container affiliates can qualify for this 5% bonus by achieving $1000 PV in sales volume in their first month, which is maintained throughout the following three months.
The wording in the Clever Container compensation plan suggests this additional 5% is paid out at the end of the four month qualification period, retrospectively on all PV generated during the qualification period.
Residual Commissions
Residual commissions in Clever Container are paid out via a unilevel style 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 of these level 1 affiliates go on to recruit new affiliates of their own, they are then 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 number of levels.
Clever Container pay out residual commissions based on the retail sales activity of affiliates within a unilevel team, with how many levels an affiliate is paid down determined by their affiliate rank:
- Managing Consultant – 3% on level 1
- Senior Consultant – 5% on level 1 and 2% on level 2
- Executive Consultant – 5% on level 1 and 4% on level 2
- Director or higher – 5% on level 1, 4% on level 2 and 3% on level 3
Team Volume Bonus
Team Volume in Clever Container is volume generated by an affiliates downline, excluding volume generated by Director or higher ranked affiliates and their downlines.
Director or higher ranked affiliates can earn a Team Volume Bonus on this sales volume, paid out as a flat percentage bonus.
How much of a percentage bonus is paid out is determined by a Clever Container affiliate’s rank:
- Director – 2.5% bonus
- Associate Director – 3% bonus
- Managing Director – 3.5% bonus
- Managing Director – 4% bonus
- Executive Director – 4.5% bonus
Generation Bonus
The Generation Bonus allows a Clever Container affiliate to earn an additional bonus percentage on their downline’s sales volume, tracked via generations.
- Director (must have previously qualified as an Associate Director or higher) – 2.5% through one generation
- Associate Director – 5.5% through one generation
- Managing Director – 5.5% through the first generation and 4% through the second
- Senior Director – 5.5% through the first generation and 4% through the second and third
- Executive Director – 5.5% through the first generation, 4% through the second and third and 3% through the fourth
Unfortunately Clever Contain do not explain how they define a generation within their compensation plan material.
Typically a generation bonus is paid out down each individual unilevel leg, until an affiliate of a specific rank is found. This then caps off the first generation, with any affiliates after this ranked affiliate forming the second generation.
The second generation is capped once another affiliate at the specified rank is found, with the process repeating itself for subsequent generations as required.
If no specified ranked affiliate is found, the first generation extends to the last level of that particular unilevel leg (generations in each unilevel leg are calculated independently from the other legs).
Given the generation bonus starts around the Director rank, if I had to guess I’d say a generation is defined when a Director or higher ranked affiliate is found in a unilevel leg.
Mentor Bonus
The mentor bonus is a 10% bonus commission paid out on the retail sales volume of newly recruited affiliates (an affiliate’s own purchase volume is excluded).
This 10% bonus applies to any retail sales volume generated by a personally recruited affiliate, within their first 90 days of joining the company.
Joining Clever Container
Affiliate membership with Clever Container is available for either $99 or $149.
The difference between the two price-points is the amount of product an affiliate receives, which is cited as $230 and $415 retail value respectively.
Note that after a Clever Container affiliate’s first twelve months with the company, they then need to sell at least $1000 PV worth of product over a rolling twelve month period to maintain their affiliate membership.
Conclusion
When I first sat down to review Clever Container, I figured I’d be reviewing some sort of Tupperware clone.
There is some overlap between the two companies, however Clever Container focus exclusively on storage solutions – and seem to do a pretty good job of it.
The products they marketed reminded me of the sort of stuff you’d find in Ikea.
On the marketing side of things, everyone has stuff that needs to be stored, so there’s definitely a market out there. The challenge I suspect will be getting to people before they just run down to the local supermarket/Ikea/hardware store etc.
One way of doing that is to market Clever Container’s storage solutions as a way to re-organize what a potential customer might already have stored.
I know as I browsed through their catalogue, I couldn’t help but think some of their products would look much nicer under my coffee table over the shoeboxes full of papers I have sitting there now.
The approach Clever Container have adopted to combat this is the party-based MLM marketing model.
You host a party, you invite people you know, give them a product presentation and then start taking orders.
The pros of this model combined with Clever Container’s offering is obvious. You’ve got a good chance of getting people to think about their current storage systems (or lack thereof), and you’re pitching to a warm market.
The downside is that you’re going to run out of people you know pretty quickly.
If you’re going to take being a Clever Container affiliate seriously, sooner or later you’re going to have to tackle ongoing customer acquisition.
Not helping is the fact that Clever Container’s product line is permanent. That’s not to say that repeat business isn’t possible, but if I were to say replace my shoeboxes – that’s done and I’m not going to be needing replacements anytime soon.
New storage or updating other areas of the house would be where repeat business comes into play.
But even then, hitting the cold market after your first few months is going to be the key challenge here.
It’s not like you can walk around with Clever Container products under each arm and randomly approach people you think might be interest in storage.
One idea that just came to me as I’m sitting here collecting my thoughts was a blog. Showcase all the different ways Clever Container’s products can be used (photo-heavy with a step-by-step guide explaining what you did).
And make sure you take snaps of your customers’ storage ideas too. That alone should give you plenty of material to drip-feed a blog with for months on end.
No doubt this is already a cluttered space on the net though, so you’ll have to do your homework on the internet marketing front (I didn’t look any further into the idea).
Moving onto Clever Container’s compensation plan, at first it looks a bit shallow with only three levels of unilevel commissions offered, but the Team Volume and Generation bonuses do extend payable levels considerably.
One thing I noticed was the emphasis on building new business, as Director or higher ranked affiliates are phased out of regular Group Volume (GV).
This does kind of “punish” an affiliate with a successful downline (which might get irritating at the upper levels of the affiliate ranks), but does force Clever Container affiliates to maintain focus on their newer and lower-ranked affiliates.
That in turn spurs growth (higher-ranked affiliates will need to replace Director or higher ranked affiliate volume), which should create and maintain healthy upline downline relationships.
One thing to be particularly aware of is the rather high entry into MLM commissions, which sits at $500 PV and $2500 GV a month.
Commissions below that are possible, however you’re only looking at single-level until the above criteria is met.
An affiliate’s own purchases can help towards that amount (excluding affiliate membership fees), but it’s much simpler to focus on actually selling the products and building a customer-base (the PV and GV requirements are monthly and ongoing).
This got me thinking about how much product you’d have to sell to meet that ongoing quota. Most of Clever Container’s products are priced around the $10-$30 range.
That means with a few sales per customer, you’re looking at four or five spending $100 or so a month.
Then I thought about what they would get for that amount. Three, maybe four box storage solutions? The same in basket solutions?
All of a sudden the prospect of storage solutioning an entire household starts to add up.
If you can find the market though and more importantly sell to them, more power to you. For me this is one of those “I like the designs but I’m not sure if I’m ready to spend hundreds of dollars for solutions to clutter”.
Even as admittedly neat as some of Clever Solutions products seem (no pun intended).
Anyway, with a solid retail offering and well-defined niche to fill, Clever Container looks to be an interesting MLM opportunity to ponder over.
Entry into the company isn’t expensive, so if you think you can market the company’s products beyond your warm market – why not give it a shot. Definitely research your marketing strategy (or strategies) before jumping in though.
Talk to people without pitching the products or the opportunity.
How do they feel about storage? Can you see yourself selling the idea of storage solutions and Clever Container’s products to them?
Good luck!
And people accuse you of always taking the negative roll – Great review Oz.
Cheers.
People need to remember it’s not me that dictates the tone of the review, it’s the opportunity itself.
The competition?
containerstore.com/shop/office
finance.yahoo.com/q?s=TCS
For the right salesperson, who has a client base that is a good fit, this could have potential.
I could see this as a nice add-on to an already existing “sales party” line like candles and stuff like that.
As for repeat business, it is possible to develop if the product line matures into a steady, stable line of growth and/or development.
Really, what you are selling are solutions to people’s ongoing, evolving or otherwise changing needs. A keen salesperson who becomes someone who is considered a source of solutions to problems can do quite well.
I would have to know a lot more about the products themselves and what the company’s longer term perspective is before I could suggest it. Worth a look.
Xorly
Why would any one buy from them when one can just walk into any Office Depot / Target / Big Lots / Container Store / whatever and get the containers they need right then and there?
There is no margin to sustain a MLM business on this. They’re selling a commodity with known prices.
not only that but there are businesses that already do this.
Like “organization consultants” / de-clutterers?
so to speak. They come in and organize your shit.
I have a friend whose brother does it in Florida. One can google ‘closet organizer business’ to get an idea.
One example: outoftheclosetorganizer.com
Its called relationship marketing and seems to have worked pretty well for Tupperware, Amway, Avon Etc, when people can just “walk into a store” and purchase similar items.
I would have expected a better more original argument than THAT, from you, K.Chang. That one just seems like the age old MLM hater objection.
Several TRILLION dollars of products have been moved through the marketplace over the years from that concept.
I guess we have different definitions of “what works” or for whom.
In my experience, It works great at the corporate level, and is a VERY smart business move to not try and compete with the big dogs for shelf space.
If you have ever tried it, you would know that the challenge and cost of that is astronomical. That overhead can only be passed on to the consumer or end user.
With the Direct sales model you you have a 50% to 60% margin (overhead) going back to the reps. Yes this cost goes back on the consumer.
However, with retailing, 70% to 80% of the cost of product is tied up in overhead. this means, contrary to what many believe about an “overpriced” MLM product, they CAN bring it to market at a better value than a retailer.
I will be unbiased here and say, whether they DO or not is a different story. Some do some dont. Thats where a little homework comes into play. but it doesnt make it FACT accros the board either way.
I WOULD agree, that, though its smart for a maunfacturer and/or shareholders, using a top down percentages and level pay plan, never fares to well for the average reps.
mlm products are more expensive than retailers as it is. Your argument doesn’t work.
no way a rep are making 50-60% on product pricing per rep. I make 35-40% on my products (parts) as a real business that I alone get to keep. And I don’t have to pay someone monthly to keep it.
You better do some more homework. You have no idea how the real world works. your being a hater of those with real knowledge is showing.
I maybe comparing apples to oranges, but I caught some numbers on Apple and their product a year ago.
So for the product that cost $650(iPhone or iPad), they paid around $270 in part and labor, $100 in research/management/lobbying overhead and another $150 marketing/delivery/store commissions/ repairs.
So they get about %25 profit on one of the most profitable products in the world and they do almost everything through their own channels.
Now, compare it with MLM product that compete with the similar stuff on Big Retailer store shelf and with similar but much cheaper stuff on Discount Retailer store shelf.
How in the hell are you going to compete at all? And its not like product they sell made in other place than China. So, there is very little differentiation.
MLM people think that they are selling high end stuff that can take them to super-profits, but in reality they compete in low to low-middle level market.
And even if they are not paying overheads for the stores, they are paying for recruitment and other MLM overheads. And recruiting downline can be way more expensive and time consuming than putting product on the retailer’s shelf.
So dream a little dream today, but wake up to realty.
Personal connections in retail meant everything 40-50 years ago. Now, when everybody can check price of every product on Internet, they mean almost nothing.
Bottom level price is what 90% of people will pay every time all the time.
Did you read ANY part of my comment Whip? ALL mlm products are overpriced compared to their exact retail competition? Really? ALL?
The manufacturer of your parts makes no money? They just GIVE you the stuff to make a profit on? They dont make 30 to 50% as well?
Regardless, where did I say that the profit margins in mlm were 50-60% per rep?
I will not even get into the other infintile arguements with you Whip. Go be happy with the dolts at scam.com for that one.
Boris, Yes Comparing electronics, especially price controlled electronics from Apple to Consumables or petrolium based products like tupperware IS comparing “apples” to Oranges.
There is not as much overhead going direct to consumer as there is going through retail PERIOD!
Whether that saving is passed along to the end user is debateable. Some are, some arent. AS I SAID EARLIER. (whip)
Of course I read your attack on KChang.
You haven’t pointed to anything mlm that is cheaper than a retail product. Just throw unsubstantiated vagueries out there like However, with retailing, 70% to 80% of the cost of product is tied up in overhead.. Cite the sourcce or admit you made it up. It’s utter bullshit.
You make it seem like individual reps do make that kind of money individually by the way you purposely worded it.
And course my manufacturers make money. That’s how they stay in business. My distributor for each manufacturer makes money too.
I, myself, make 35-40% minimum for myself in a real business. I can make even more if I choose. Individual mlm reps can not say the same – and let’s face facts…..that’s what we are always talking about here.
I’ve never seen anyone argue what the collective of reps makes. They all don’t chip in to pay each other’s bills so that shit ain’t gonna fly.
ATTACK on K. Chang ? ha ha.. Saying I expect a better arguement is an attack now?
You make 35 – 40%, so does your manufacturer and so does your distributor. Thats MORE than 70% to 80% overhead. Yup,its your own words yet its unsubstantiated.
I was making no reference to reps AT ALL until the end regarding their overall lack of profitability.
You are arguing, just to argue. Its your M.O. Everyone knows it and you have little credibility with it.
Its not the way I purposely worded it. I was quite plainly referancing the corporate entity. Sorry you didnt catch that. Sorry I dont fit into your MLM’er conspiracy world.
A couple short examples, I regularly save business owners on average, 18% on their CC processing with no contracts, terms or gimmicks.
For the products we have that you can find in retail, they are consistently, 10% 20% less for the same exact product, from the same exact manufacturer. Its simply relabled and much of the the overhead is cutout.
We are not a manufacturer, if the product is not the best value it would make no sense for us to have it at all. We dont have a bias. We just bring in what fits in the market, if its in demand and we can price it right.
I sell a website’s That a consumer would normally pay in the range of $3000-$4000 for, for $1500 and make around $1000 cash in my pocket. Thats a little better than 30%.
I save consumers from 2% to 30% on what they purchase from over 3000 retailers. Bottom line is EVERYTHING we have is cheaper from me than going to the store and picking it off the shelf even if its the same exact product from the same exact retailer. PLUS the money saved from time and fuel, depreciation, going to the stores.
This, according the the beauru of labor statistics can be over $9000 per year per consumer unit. Your argument that ALL direct sales products are more expensive is completely BUNK. And I can back it up in every way possible.
My business is fully reconciling to consumer, corporate, and distributor PERIOD! I agree not all are like that. but for you to throw a blanket over the whole of direct sales is childish, irresponsible and very short sighted.
On consumables im at about 30% plus backend commissions which, combined, total 40% to 50%.. Mg per Mg or cost per use, our products come out on top every time compared to retailers.
If they didnt we wouldnt have them. It would make no sense.
There are plenty of companies that WOULD try to make sense of not providing the best value, but certainly not ALL! A simple look at how many customers they have compared to distributors will tell you that. A simple look at the amount of autoships compared to gross sales will tell you that.
I can document my numbers just fine, and so can the company as a whole so dont even start with your “prove it” crap. I dont need to do that.
No matter what I say or show, you will argue it so you will either have to take my word for it or look it up yourself. The numbers are quite clear in the full financial reports from independent auditing firms.
So, in short. Go back to your biased MLM bashing forum and shutup with your self serving “prove it” “site source” and endless arguement BS. No one cares about how much YOU think you know here and the fact that you just want to argue with people no matter what the topic.
You are very right when it comes to MOST MLM. BUT, you CANNOT speak in absolutes and back it up. PLUS, all direct sales companies do not use the MLM pay structure.
I cant believe that I make some simple statements about the dollar volume that moves through this type of distribution channel, and make an unbiased and objective case for margins and it turns into this off topic scam.com thread. Great job Whip
Any and all ‘direct sellers’ are pretty much starry eyed, pushy leeches on friends and family.
That’s about it. No purpose is served by MLM.
totalitarian statement! bravo!
what purpose is served by allowing any number of manufacturers, to make and sell umbrellas?
CHOICE
choice to manufacture and sell anything you want. choice to give the customers a choice.
similarly MLM is a method of CHOICE to sell products. one more choice for customers to employ in their buying decision.
CHOICE
choice is the bedrock of freemarket and capitalism. choice is like ‘freedom’.
Unabated free market is not always best “choice”. Large company can buy all of its competitors and demand higher prices from consumers. This is a perfect choice in unregulated markets.
Fact is, when some business model had failed to deliver results countless times, there should be regulations to either eliminate it or decrease its influence on economy.
There is nothing wrong with regulated economies as long it promotes smart regulations and decrease influence of junk like MLMs.
of course, no one wants an unabated freemarket. regulatory controls are absolutely necessary. MLM is also regulated.
in 2013, MLM had sales of approx 32 billion in the US. this is a good figure, but a fraction of total traditional sales [4.5 trillion/2013]. so MLM is not affecting the ‘economy’ or ‘influencing’ it in a big way.
why are you saying MLM has not delivered results countless times? have govt experts/advisors released a study, concluding this, or is it your personal experience?
i sometimes read critics reports, about how in MLM, no one but those on the top make money, but i don’t see this on the ground. people who put in some effort, do make sales and make some money.
the amounts vary, nobody is rich off MLM, but they do make money. if MLM can help little people in little ways, it’s good, if there are improvements to be made to the model, suggest them.
simply complaining and junking ideas, never helps.
I appreciated this very balanced review. I am one of the first 4 people to make it to the Managing Director level in the company – there are 2 levels above it on the comp plan.
I joined 2 years ago and even though I live in rural midwest in a very small town (population 1,200) – the products and this company were extremely well received.
I have found that people are eager to host parties, attend parties and purchase products. The fact that my team sold close to $70,000 in product last month speaks for itself in terms of the market for this.
The nearest Container store or Ikea is 5 hours away. The average woman is looking for a professional organizer – they just want some fun, easy, organizing solutions and that’s what we offer and it has taken off like wildfire!
Common Sense had a balanced view of things as well.
There isn’t a product out there in the MLM/direct sales industry that cant be purchased elsewhere, cheaper. But people are not looking for cheap. They are looking for someone who will help them make wise purchasing decisions based on their personal needs.
That is why direct sales works so well – relationship marketing.
I LOVE this business model. The only way I earn money is by helping others earn money and they earn money by helping customers find organizing solutions that are right for them.
It’s a beautiful business model.
* Correction – the average woman is NOT looking for a professional organizer. (Who can afford that?!)
I guess the only problem with this business is market saturation. There’s only so much container you can sell to a particular area. 🙂
As long as they don’t expand too fast the reps should make okay money.
But again, as I said, if you have office superstores or IKEA or such nearby, forget it. 🙂