NuViza Review: Minor pay to play qualification concerns
According to the NuViza website,
January 1, 2011 marks the first day in business for NuViza. The organization is a total of seven people, from all backgrounds focused on one common mission: to change the world. NuViza launches with three products, the EMZ, Burn, and the DTX.
Curiously, the NuViza website domain however was only registered on the 16th of September 2014.
The company’s official Facebook page was also only created in October 2014.
Identified as Founder and Chairman of NuViza on its website is Ahmad Evaji.
Evaji (right) has a Facebook profile, in which a “ZV International” is advertised (2013). This seems to be the precursor to NuViza as it’s known today, with the former ZV International website domain (“zvinternational.com”) now defunct.
Further research reveals ZV International was also known as ZoiVi.
Now I’m not suggesting anything overtly disingenuous is going on, but I do think this can be better reflected in NuViza’s corporate history. NuViza as it’s presented today on its website certainly wasn’t around in 2011.
As for Ahmad Evaji, he was previously an affiliate with YOR Health (Founders Council in 2008) and Usana (joined April 2009).
Two years later ZoiVi was launched, and then relaunched as NuViza in late 2014.
Read on for a full review of the NuViza MLM business opportunity.
The NuViza Product Line
NuViza operate in the health and weight loss MLM niche, with eight products listed on their website:
- DTX – “the first officially documented and scientifically proven full body detox on the market”
- BurnX – calorie burning
- EMZ – enzyme supplement that targets “heartburn, acid reflux, bloating, indigestion, gas and constipation”
- O.N.E. – meal supplement/replacement
- Genki – “multi-Vitamin with an exclusive anti-inflammatory, anti-aging, omega, and cellular rejuvenation formula”
- 10GO – “healthy coffee with a powerful energy, mood, and libido blend”
- EGO – energy drink
- GIA – 5 hour energy coffee
Unfortunately NuViza do not provide retail pricing on their website. If a visitor clicks the “buy now” button any of the product pages, the NuViza website presents them with a login page.
The NuViza Compensation Plan
The NuViza compensation plan sees affiliates paid retail commissions, residual commissions via unilevel compensation structure and various performance-based bonuses.
Commission Qualification
NuViza affiliates qualify for commission based on monthly personal sales volume as follows:
- Basic – 75 PV
- Entrepreneur – 500 PV
- Promoter – 1000 PV
These qualifications need be met only once, after which they are assigned to a NuViza affiliate for life.
Note that commission qualification is separate to an affiliate’s rank, which are outlined below (see Nuviza Affiliate Ranks).
Retail Commissions
Retail commissions in NuViza are paid out as “the difference between the retail pricing and wholesale pricing of a product”.
When a retail customer (non-affiliate) places an order for NuViza products, a retail commission is pad out based on the wholesale/retail price difference.
NuViza Affiliate Ranks
There are twelve affiliate ranks within the NuViza compensation plan.
Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:
- Certified Promoter – generate 50 PV a month and have at least one customer or recruited affiliate
- Manager – generate 50 PV a month and have at least two recruited customers and/or recruited affiliates, and have a downline generating at least 1000 GV a month
- Senior Manager – generate 50 PV a month and have at least three recruited customers and/or recruited affiliates, and have a downline generating at least 2500 GV a month
- Supervisor – generate 50 PV a month and have at least four recruited customers and/or recruited affiliates, and have a downline generating at least 5000 GV a month
- Director – generate 100 PV a month and have at least five recruited customers and/or recruited affiliates, and have a downline generating at least 10,000 GV a month (no more than 60% can be counted from any one unilevel leg)
- Senior Director – generate 100 PV a month and have at least six recruited customers and/or recruited affiliates, and have a downline generating at least 25,000 GV a month (no more than 60% can be counted from any one unilevel leg)
- Executive – generate 100 PV a month and have at least seven recruited customers and/or recruited affiliates, and have a downline generating at least 50,000 GV a month (no more than 60% can be counted from any one unilevel leg)
- Senior Executive – generate 100 PV a month and have at least eight recruited customers and/or recruited affiliates, and have a downline generating at least 100,000 GV a month (no more than 50% can be counted from any one unilevel leg)
- Vice-President – generate 150 PV a month and have at least fifteen recruited customers and/or recruited affiliates, and have a downline generating at least 250,000 GV a month (no more than 50% can be counted from any one unilevel leg)
- Senior Vice-President – generate 150 PV a month and have at least twenty recruited customers and/or recruited affiliates, and have a downline generating at least 500,000 GV a month (no more than 50% can be counted from any one unilevel leg)
- Chairman – generate 150 PV a month and have at least twenty recruited customers and/or recruited affiliates, and have a downline generating at least 1,000,000 GV a month (no more than 40% can be counted from any one unilevel leg)
- Founder – generate 150 PV a month and have at least twenty recruited customers and/or recruited affiliates, and have a downline generating at least 2,500,000 GV a month (no more than 40% can be counted from any one unilevel leg)
Note that PV stands for “Personal Volume” and is sales volume generated by an affiliate’s own purchase of product and sales to retail customers.
GV stands for “Group Volume” and is sales volume generated by an affiliate’s downline (unilevel team).
Rank Advancement Bonus
NuViza reward affiliates for achieving certain ranks for the first time and maintaining the rank for three consecutive months as follows:
- Vice-President – $20,000
- Senior Vice-President – $50,000
- Chairman – $100,000
- Founder – $250,000
Note that the bonuses are paid out over 12 months, with an affiliate required to maintain the rank they are earning the bonus at (can be a higher rank), for the duration of that time.
Fast Start Bonus
The Fast Start Bonus pays a commission on any product order made by recruited NuViza affiliates, within 31 days of them joining the company.
The Fast Start Bonus is paid out as a percentage commission though 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 of their own, 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.
NuViza cap payable Fast Start Bonus levels at five, with how many levels an affiliate qualifies for payouts on determined by their commission qualification rank:
- Affiliate (less than 75 PV a month) – 25% on level 1
- Basic – 25% on level 1 and 10% on level 2
- Entrepreneur – 25% on level 1, 10% on level 2 and 5% on level 3
- Promoter – 25% on level 1, 10% on level 2, 5% on level 3, 3% on level 4 and 2% on level 5
If an affiliate wishes to, they can split their first level commission with another affiliate in their unilevel team (12.5% is paid to each affiliate).
Residual Commissions
Residual commissions in NuViza are paid using the same unilevel compensation structure as in the Fast Start Bonus.
Whereas the Fast Start Bonus only pays down a maximum four levels however, monthly residual commissions are paid down seven levels of recruitment.:
- Certified Promoter – 5% on levels 1 and 2
- Manager – 5% on levels 1 to 3
- Senior Manager – 5% on levels 1 to 3 and 4% on level 4
- Supervisor – 5% on levels 1 to 3 and 4% on levels 4 and 5
- Director – 5% on levels 1 to 3, 4% on level 4 and 5 and 3% on level 6
- Senior Director – 5% on levels 1 to 3, 4% on levels 4 and 5, 3% on level 6 and 2% on level 7
Note that “GV” stands for Group Volume and is sales volume generated by an affiliate’s entire downline (unilevel team).
Matching Residual Commission Bonus
A NuViza affiliate is able to earn a matching bonus on monthly residual commission earned by their downline, payable down four levels of recruitment.
How many levels an affiliate can earn the Matching Bonus down is determined by their NuViza affiliate rank:
- Certified Promoter – 20% on level 1
- Executive – 20% on level 1 and 5% on level 2
- Vice-President – 20% on level 1 and 5% on levels 2 and 3
- Senior Vice-President or higher – 20% on level 1 and 5% on levels 2 to 4
Team Development Bonus
Available only to Entrepreneur and Promoter commission qualification ranked affiliates, the Team Development Bonus is a generational bonus that pays up to two generations deep.
A generation in NuViza is defined when a Director ranked affiliate is found in any individual unilevel leg.
If a second Director ranked affiliate is found in the leg, the second generation is capped off. If no second Director ranked affiliate exists, then the second generation runs till the end of the leg.
Commissions are paid out as a percentage volume bonus, using the same unilevel team used to track residual and Fast Start Bonus commissions.
How much of a percentage is paid out is determined by a NuViza affiliate’s rank:
- Director – 1%
- Senior Director – 2%
- Chairman – 3%
Note that these are bonus percentages that stack on top of residual commission payouts. Also note that for the purpose of generation calculation, each unilevel leg is treated independently from the rest.
Bonus Pools
Entrepreneur and Promoter commission qualified affiliates can earn shares in five bonus pools.
Each of these pools is made up of 2% of NuViza’s global sales volume, with an affiliate able to qualify in a pool at the Certified Promoter, Director, Senior Executive, Chairman and Founder ranks.
Note that each affiliate can only qualify for a share in any one of the above pools, according to their rank.
Additional shares in the bonus pool an affiliate qualifies at can be obtained via the generation of 500 PV or 2000 GV. Each time one of these amounts is met, a bonus share in the pool an affiliate qualifies in is issued for that month.
Lifestyle Bonus
When a NuViza affiliate qualifies at specific ranks between Director and Founder, they qualify for the following monthly Lifestyle Bonus:
- Director – $100
- Senior Director – $250
- Executive – $500
- Senior Executive – $1000
- Vice-President – $1500
- Senior Vice-President – $2000
- Chairman – $2500
- Founder – $3000
Note that only Promoter commission qualified affiliates can receive the Lifestyle Bonus.
Joining NuViza
Basic affiliate membership with NuViza is $49.
When signing up, a NuViza affiliate can opt to purchase a “set”, which range in price from $390 to $1170.
These sets come with NuViza products, and also qualify affiliates for commissions via the NuViza compensation plan (see commission qualification requirements).
Conclusion
The first thing that struck me as odd about the NuViza compensation plan was the three-tier PV commission qualification structure.
As certain parts of the income opportunity are restricted based on commission qualification, I found it odd that affiliates were penalized based on nothing more than their generated PV.
This is a problematic metric to base commission qualification on because an affiliate’s own purchase(s) count.
Specifically things get murky when you consider NuViza’s affiliate “set” enrollment options:
- Basic Mix Set – costs $390 and generates 300 PV
- Entrepreneur Mix Set – costs $680 and generates 500 PV
- Platinum Mix Set – costs $1080 and generates 1000 PV
Is it a coincidence that the Entrepreneur and Platinum Mix Set PV amounts are exactly what is required to commission qualify at the Entrepreneur and Promoter rank?
Even the first letters of the Set names (BEP), match the letters used to designate who can qualify for what commission in the official NuViza compensation plan documentation (Basic, Entrepreneur and Promoter).
It is of course entirely possible to join at the $49 basic affiliate level and generate the required PV via sales to retail customers, but I’m not convinced the majority of NuViza affiliates have qualified this way.
And if they haven’t, then having certain commissions pegged to how much an affiliate pays when they signs up drags NuViza into “pay to play” territory.
The Fast Start Bonus is a perfect example of this, with an affiliate’s commission qualification rank directly impacting how many levels they can earn the bonus on.
Other areas of the NuViza compensation plan were handled well, with retail incentives for customers a nice addition.
Retail customers can’t earn commissions, but by referring new customers they can instead earn a discount on future product orders.
Anyone actively marketing NuViza products is probably better off as an affiliate, but if a customer isn’t interested in the business opportunity then at least there’s some incentive to expand retail sales through existing customers.
Countering that however is the lack of retail pricing provided on the NuViza website. I shouldn’t have to sign up and create an account just to see how much NuViza’s products cost.
On the product side of things nothing much jumped out at me. I think NuViza’s product line is heavily influenced by Ahmad Evaji previous MLM experience, not that there’s anything inherently wrong with that.
If you can carve out a market and customer-base for NuViza’s products, then more power to you.
As a prospective NuViza affiliate though, two things that should be mandatory in conducting your due diligence are to
- find out if your potential upline qualified themselves for commission via self-purchase (purchase of a Set or products otherwise), or if they qualified by generating PV via product sales to retail customers and
- are they making their monthly PV requirement via their own purchase of product or sales to retail customers
A lack of retail sales (and resulting retail PV) in both instances indicates a weak retail focus, meaning you’re probably looking at self-funding your own commission qualification, and then focusing on recruiting new affiliates who do the same.
This equates to chain-recruitment, which is a compliance issue for obvious reasons.
If on the other hand you find your potential upline does indeed have a healthy base of retail sales and you think you’ve got a shot at marketing NuViza’s product line – good luck!
