LifePlus Review: Nutritional supplements & autoship
There is no information on the LifePlus website indicating who owns or runs the business.
The LifePlus website domain (“lifeplus.com”) was registered on the 29th of May 1995, with “Billy Evans” of “Life Plus USA” listed as the owner. A street address in the US state of Arkansas is also provided.
On the LifePlus website, the corporate address provided is an Arkansas PO Box.
Further research reveals Evans credited as LifePlus’ Chief Information Officer. Marketing material hosted on the LifePlus domain cites Billy Evans father, Bill Evans, as the founder of the company.
On a video hosted on the LifePlus website, Bob Lemon (right) is also identified as a LifePlus founder.
The same document citing Evans as a founder identifies Robert Christian as LifePlus’ current CEO. Christian’s LinkedIn profile lists his having held the position since 2006.
Prior to LifePlus Christian (right) was Senior Vice President at Professional Dental Technologies, an Arkansas dental equipment supplier.
For reasons unknown, the LifePlus website is devoid of any information about the company’s current executive management.
Read on for a full review of the LifePlus MLM business opportunity.
The LifePlus Product Line
LifePlus operate in the nutritional supplements niche, with a large range of products cataloged on their website.
Our nutritional supplements feature a wide range of high quality products.
Whatever your nutritional need, the LifePlus range aims to have something for everyone!
Featured LifePlus product categories include overall health, targeted nutrition, vitamins & minerals, antioxidants, nutrition shakes, weight management, for him, her & little ones and winning combinations.
The entire LifePlus product range is too large to list here individually, but a full catalog with retail pricing is available on the LifePlus website.
The LifePlus Compensation Plan
The LifePlus compensation plan pays out retail commissions and residuals via a unilevel compensation structure.
LifePlus Affiliate Ranks
There are four affiliate ranks within the LifePlus compensation plan.
Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:
- Bronze – recruit and maintain three commission qualified affiliates and have a downline generating at least 3000 GV a month
- Silver – recruit and maintain at least six commission qualified affiliates and have a downline generating at least 6000 GV a month
- Gold – recruit and maintain at least nine commission qualified affiliates and have a downline generating at least 9000 GV a month
- Diamond – recruit and maintain at least twelve commission qualified affiliates and have a downline generating at least 15,000 GV a month
GV stands for “Group Volume” and is sales volume generated by an affiliate and their recruited downline.
Commission Qualification
All LifePlus affiliates are required to purchase 40 PV a month worth of product to qualify for commissions.
Retail Commissions
A 25% retail commission is paid out on the sale of LifePlus products to retail customers.
Residual Commissions
Residual commissions in LifePlus are paid out 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.
LifePlus initially cap payable unilevel levels at three, with commissions paid out as a percentage of sales volume generated across these three levels:
- level 1 – 25%
- level 2 – 10%
- level 3 – 5%
Note that to qualify for level 3 unilevel commissions, a LifePlus affiliate must recruit and maintain at least three commission qualified affiliates.
Leadership Bonus
The Leadership Bonus is a bonus percentage paid out on an affiliate’s unilevel team volume, generated from level four onwards.
- Bronze – 3% bonus
- Silver – 6% bonus
- Gold – 9% bonus
- Diamond – 12% bonus
Monthly Pool Bonus
The Monthly Pool Bonus is made up of 1% of LifePlus’ company-wide sales volume.
To qualify for shares in the Monthly Pool Bonus, a LifePlus affiliate must recruit three or more new affiliates in a month, whilst maintaining a downline of at least three personally recruited and commission qualified affiliates.
Joining LifePlus
Affiliate membership with LifePlus is free.
Conclusion
With a robust product offering and delightfully simply compensation plan, LifePlus on the surface appears to be a solid MLM opportunity.
Upon deeper consideration however, there is a prominent glaring issue that needs to be addressed.
If within a calendar month you are active in purchasing Lifeplus products, you then begin to qualify for referral bonuses.
Despite the existence of retail commissions, the above is how LifePlus describe commission qualification in their compensation plan.
With an autoship program in place (referred to as “ASAP”), LifePlus then describe what an affiliate must do to build their business as follows:
Bonus payments are based on the Lifeplus products that both you and the people you sponsor order.
What about retail? Shouldn’t bonus payments be focused on the sale of LifePlus products to retail customers?
The free affiliate membership doesn’t help, with it encouraging use of the business opportunity as a marketing tool rather than the merit of LifePlus’ products alone.
With this how LifePlus present their business opportunity themselves, there’s little hope that the company isn’t full of affiliates self-qualifying for commissions each month. Those commissions in turn are likely paid out on recruited affiliate’s doing the same, dragging LifePlus into product-based pyramid scheme territory.
The replacement of mandatory affiliate purchases each month with retail volume qualifiers would alleviate this, but as it stands LifePlus are treading on dangerous compliance territory (think Vemma).
Even accounting for LifePlus’ age as a company, this type of MLM business model is outdated and frowned up by regulators.
Pending a compensation and compliance review of the company, I’d approach LifePlus affiliate membership with extreme caution.
I can’t get over how much Bob Lemon resembles Wolf Blitzer. Wonder if they are related somehow? Uncanny.
Hi Oz, Thanks for this review. As a user of LifePlus products, perhaps I can clarify one point.
Lifeplus does not differentiate between a retail user and an affiliate! This is as far as I know a unique feature in the industry.
Everyone who orders products have the option (but not the obligation) to recommend/refer to others, so the affiliate “membership” is automatic as well as free. There is no contract to sign, no fees to pay.
When you buy, you can refer. Or choose not to, as it seems most people do. A concept as simple as the compensation plan 🙂
Hope this clarifies a bit.
Best wishes,
Thomas
So effectively, there is no retail then.
God help them if a regulator comes knocking…
Not so Oz, actually it’s nothing but retail!
There is no direct selling, everybody is buying directly from lifeplus.com, just as if it would be any other online shop.
And the commissions are paid out based on what the referral buys, just as with straightforward affiliate marketing.
So regulators are welcome to come knocking 😉
If everyone is an affiliate participating in an MLM income opportunity, then where is the retail?
The retail is the movement of products from the company to the end consumer. This is happening obviously.
Everyone is a potential affiliate. Most product users are not interested in the MLM income opportunity, yet they have the option to do so, should they ever want to.
Different concept. This is not direct sales. Only referral. Sales part is taken care of between Lifeplus and each individual user regardless of whether they see themselves as “retail user” or “affiliate”.
But if the consumers are all affiliates, how is that retail?
If there’s no distinction between affiliates and retail customers, everyone is an affiliate.
MLM comp plan = MLM opportunity. You might want to read up on Vemma to see how the whole “affiliate consumers are retail customers!” argument went.
Oz, I read up on the Vemma case. Frankly, I find it distasteful of you to make the comparison…
Vemma was shut down because of a number of factors. I quote below from the FTC press release.
(1) “Vemma focuses on recruitment rather than retail sales of its products to generate this income.” and “Vemma urges consumers to make an initial investment of $500-$600 for an “Affiliate Pack” of products and business tools”
Lifeplus sells no affiliate packs. There is no front loading, no entry fees. The focus is on distribution of products. The distribution in the case of Lifeplus does not take place via a “distributor” who must buy bulk in order to resell, but is taken care of by the company.
So rather than incentivizing with discounts on own purchases, at Lifeplus everyone pays the same price and the incentive comes via commissions when others, who you have referred, buy products. Both models encourage sales volume – different ways to count the beans.
(2) “[Vemma] are charged with making false earnings claims, failing to disclose that Vemma’s structure ensures that most people who join will not earn substantial income, and furnishing affiliates with false and misleading materials to recruit others.”
Not the case for Lifeplus. I challenge you to find an income claim made by Lifeplus.
Besides, the term MLM refers to the compensation plan (multiple levels), not to whether the distribution is via direct sales or referrals.
No need to discuss this any further. I hope you see my point.
Thanks again for your reviews.
the chief factor was the ‘monthly autoship’ which was the primary source of income for vemma. approx 80% of vemma sales were from the autoship of affiliates and so called ‘customers’.
thomas has very slyly slid around the ‘autoship’ issue which lifeplus has at 40 PV per month.
so, everyone joins up for free, goes on autoship, and if they recruit they are affiliates, and if they dont, they’re ‘customers’. how bloody convenient.
thomas, ‘retail’ is when a person buys with no possibility of any MLM compensation. all of lifeplus affiliates and so called ‘customers’ have the opportunity to earn commissions.
if lifeplus drops the autoship requirement then it will have no problem. so, why cant lifeplus sell its ‘wonderful’ products without autoship? could it be, that without autoship no one will be interested in its products?
Same old story – if you don’t buy product – no matter how many you have brought in that are buying – you won’t get paid.
So if no one is buying they won’t get paid either.
Same cycle of members buying and members buying so they can see a pay day.
Some how people like Thomas don’t see it.
I can’t stand it.
Where are the sales people? – Its just recruiters here.
how can anyone buy directly from lifeplus.com, when the website does not have any ‘retail price’ listed for any product? duh.
Could someone explain to me exactly what the difference is between a sale and a retail sale and is it different for MLM?
I’m thinking of buyers clubs (Costco, Sam’s club and the like) With certain memberships they pay you back a percentage of your yearly purchases.
Suppose they added a MLM component. Pay you back a percentage of your referrals purchases. Perhaps an additional bonus if purchases go over certain amounts.
Would that change things?
Then there’s purchases made by employee’s at a company retail store (even getting their employee discounts). They’re certainly associated with the company. Would those be retail sales?
Using your Costco example, you pay your fee as a member – you are allowed to buy at a discount.
You can then go and SELL AT RETAIL – price for a profit to non members. Those non members are called CUSTOMERS.
If everyone is a member – who is selling – in this case who is buying at retail.
If you are buying for $1 and selling for $1 how are you making profits?
If your program is focused on you getting members and not customers – you probably in the wrong business. Guess who wins in that scenario.
@Thomas
LifePlus has no retail, it is also based on affiliate recruitment (signing them up and whacking them on autoship).
Yeah, that’s what Vemma argued. The fact of the matter is on the business side of things, you’re recruiting affiliates on autoship, the same as Vemma.
The point is Vemma had insignificant retail volume, and was shut down for being a pyramid scheme. Lifeplus International, by virtue of its compensation plan also appears to have insignificant (read: zero) retail activity taking place.
@RRoss
These aren’t MLM income opportunities with affiliate-based compensation plans that may or may not be chain-recruitment schemes.
There’s your difference.
You don’t make money from Buyer’s Clubs. You make money from MLMs.
If you’re not even sure which are you in… You should be in a different line of business.
Wow that spurred some comments. Hi guys, I thought I’d leave it that, but I must make a few corrections here 🙂
@anjali, you commented I did not mention the autoship. My mistake, so here goes: Autoship is not a requirement for earning commissions.
You also pointed out that prices are not listed on the website. That’s right – I never noticed it; I live in Europe and over here the prices do show, but not for the north americans. Can’t explain that one, but I’m guessing someone with a knack for conspiracy theories might offer an explanation or five 😉
@Terrence; you should get a sales job. But I’m guessing you already have…
@Oz; if the lack of “retail” sales is such a big no-no, then ALL affiliate programs would/should be banned and closed down. Online marketing would be dead instantly. Now you may say “everybody who buys through an affiliate link online will not become an affiliate themselves” – true, but they could at no cost choose to do so. Same with Lifeplus.
Enough from my side. Enjoy getting fired up about discussing and trying to be right, if that’s what you enjoy doing. I hope I’ve managed to bring some points to the attention of those who can see. Bye guys!
-Thomas
Think everyone missed my question. When is a sale a RETAIL sale and what makes it one?
This seems to be crucial to only MLM’s. Everyone else only has to divide sales up between taxable or non-taxable. Frequently those sales are called retail or wholesale. Fully understand that.
But apparently there’s a different definition for MLM. And really would like to know what it is and how to apply it.
I gave the previous examples of why I’m confused. Would Costco become illegal if they added in the MLM component I mentioned?
And what about the employee shopping at the company owned store? (Used that last one because I guess if your associated with a company (in MLM) self consumption isn’t a retail sale – but otherwise it is???)
A little disclaimer might be needed. I’m not trying to justify or compare anything.
Have never been involved in MLM or any other online program. Been following this for simple entertainment but recently have been stuck on the language of what constitutes a retail sale.
no, no they don’t. You join the club to get real discounts on items. Then, you tell your friends for free so the club still exists in the future due to those people you told patronizing the establishment and getting actual real discounts.
@Thomas
Nope, just the MLM ones with no retail. See Vemma, FHTM, Zeek Rewards, TelexFree litigation.
Non-MLM discussion is irrelevant.
Enjoy continuing to bury your head in he sand when it comes to retail in MLM. Ask BK Boreyko how that worked out.
@RRoss
In MLM, when products are sold directly from the company to non-affiliates (the sale is put through by an affiliate).
Some companies (Vemma et al) try to push affiliate purchases as retail, arguing that what an affiliate does with products after they’ve purchased product counts as retail sales for the company.
This is false, as financial records as far as the company are concerned will only record an affiliate purchase of product (non-retail sale).
If they had no retail sales sure. The reason for this is chain-recruitment. You can’t have chain-recruitment in Costco because there’s no income opportunity. Ditto single-level opportunities, which only pay you to sell to non-affiliates.
If it’s not an MLM opportunity with an attached income opportunity, doesn’t matter. They’re not a retail customer but there’s no chain-recruitment issue.
@oz
is that a problem?
if i purchase a hundred big macs from McDonald’s – paying sales tax for those purchases – is it McDonald’s concern what I do with them afterwards?
Will those have been retail sales for them?
hey I’ll add to that – I’ll purchase 1000 bic macs – using a re sellers id number – from McDonalds – how will they record the sale?
And what about the employee shopping at the company owned store?
If it’s not an MLM opportunity with an attached income opportunity, doesn’t matter. They’re not a retail customer but there’s no chain-recruitment issue.
So – employee purchases are not recorded as retail sales—
then that begs the question of what are actually retail sales –
accountants doing tax returns going to get confused by that
Not an MLM company? Not relevant.
Not in MLM.
How? Retail receipt (or commissions attributed to retail sales) = retail sale.
Income derived from affiliate purchases is permissible in MLM, just not at the expense of retail sales.
Yup. Vemma tried to argue their affiliates were retail customers and it was shot down in court (when the were trying to come up with a new comp plan from memory).
Nope. You could sell them for $2 or $2,000,000 – McDonalds isn’t going to record the revenue as their own retail sales.
Same principle in MLM. If an affiliate purchases the product, it’s an affiliate purchase, not a retail sale.
they are a retail customer, just one getting a discount.
Preferred customers get a discount and are retail customers.
Affiliates, discount or no discount, are not retail customers in MLM.
Discussing non-MLM companies is going to cause confusion as they have nothing to do with MLM compliance.
Think we’re discussing this cause I’m trying to find out what a retail sale is. Thought it was simple – whoever the end user was – who paid end user sales tax.
But apparently that’s not always true when it comes to MLM.
The INTENT can vary that? WOW!! That’ll open Pandora’s box
So – back to the question – What’s a Retail Sale? – guess the final answer is: depends on viewpoint.
No wonder there’s continuous lawsuits – What a wonderful conclusion.
Is self consumption a retail sale? depends
Oz – your right – McDonalds won’t care about what I sell those 1000 big macs for – my inital purchase unless OMG – i’m associated with McDonalds – then they WON’T be retail sales – what a mess
Like I said, trying to put non-MLM companies within an MLM context is a waste of time.
With respect to MLM companies sales, where a company can record revenue inbound, to affiliates are not retail sales. Sales to non-affiliate customer are retail sales.
It’s pretty simple.
oz – really don’t think “trying to put non-MLM companies within an MLM context is a waste of time.” in this context.
Trying to define what a retail sale is should be universal else will create a mess.
Sooo – my opinion – affiliate sales for self consumption IS retail. I’m assuming affiliates are like any other company.
They’ve set up a company and have a resale license. Purchase items from manufacturer for resale. If affiliate they hopefully get a discount.
If they pull anything out of that inventory for self consumption they report it as a sale and pay sales tax. Just as if it was sold to someone else. No difference.
It’s pretty simple – or should be.
Yep. Non-MLM companies have completely different business models and don’t have to adhere to MLM compliance.
The fact of the matter is retail sales are not universal. What is a retail sale outside of MLM has nothing to do with retail sales in MLM.
is irrelevant (see Vemma, FHTM, Zeek Rewards and TelexFree litigation).
ok – can go with – “The fact of the matter is retail sales are not universal. What is a retail sale outside of MLM has nothing to do with retail sales in MLM.
Guess that’s why confusion and lottsa lawsuits.
I’m definitely no fan of MLM – have nothing against it in principal- just think any product that’s worth marketing could do MUCH better with direct sales – especially and because of internet age.
But that’s just a marketing opinion.
I don’t like to see special definitions applied universally to a particular group.
A retail sale – not relevant to rest of world – but if you’re MLM – this definition – unique to you – applies.
in lifeplus you cannot earn commissions at any level unless you have a personal purchase of 40 PV in the month. to unlock bonuses from the third level onwards you Have to be on a ‘monthly’ autoship.
with no retail price and no retail customers outside the compensation plan, lifeplus recruits people into their compensation plan, who purchase 40 PV in the hope of earning commission from further recruitment.
how much of lifeplus’ sales are generated from this ‘required’ 40 PV purchase? i fully expect that the vast majority of sale volume is generated from this ‘required’ purchase, similar to vemma with autoship sales volume of about 80%.
actually you CAN make money from buyers clubs in both non MLM and MLM scenarios.
in the non MLM context you can purchase at wholesale from costco etc, and retail the product for profit.
in the MLM context, 1] you can purchase product at a discount as an affiliate, and retail for profit and 2] you can take advantage of various levels of volume based discounts, to sell product to your downline for profit.
yes, Genuine self consumption is equivalent to a retail sale.
whenever this self consumption is Forced, via Requirements to purchase a particular amount of product, either by way of an initial investment or a monthly investment, then the FTC and courts do not treat such self consumption as legitimate. FTC vs burnlounge and FTC vs vemma, will clarify this for you.
A better question is why does MLM itself want to confuse the issue.
Obviously a company can’t rely on its own sales force to consume most of your production. That’d be like McDonalds requiring its employees to buy food from McD to get their paycheck.
Yet most MLMs expect their sales force, i.e. affiliates to do a good chunk of the consumption… as qualification of getting paid any commission.
So are the affiliates actually buying the product because they want to consume it… Or because they need to, in order to get paid?
It’s pretty obvious that in the latter case, it’s NOT retail. It’s coercive sale. But how do you know if the sale is real retail… or coerced?
I was addressing your comment that employees of a company get a discount and claiming they are not a customer.
When I worked for someone, I got to buy parts at a discount but still paid over cost and paid sales tax. It was still a sale to a customer – just like any other customer – even though I was an employee.
Let me be precise then…
You join a buyer’s club to BUY stuff. The INTENT of joining is not to make money, but to SAVE money by leveraging group buying power. You join as a CONSUMER.
You joined a MLM to SELL stuff. The intent of joining is not to buy stuff, but to act as sales agent and make commission on each sale. You join as a retailer / distributor.
Bad MLMs conflate the two activities by encouraging self-consumption. It’s Doublespeak. Buy = sell. Consume = Retail. Recruit = Promote.
By mixing
@whip
Must have misread what I wrote, I only mentioned discounts within the context of MLM.
Further clarification on the importance of retail in MLM by Andrew Ceresney, Director, Division of Enforcement at the SEC (March 2016).
Still want to carry on like pork chops about retail in MLM doesn’t matter?
https://behindmlm.com/mlm/theory/secs-ceresney-legit-mlm-involves-retail-sales/