BehindMLM reviewed Unicity as Unicity International back in 2013.

We weren’t impressed with what amounted to a $125 a month autoship recruitment scheme.

At the request of a reader, today we’re revisiting Unicity for an updated review.

The Company

Unicity launched as Unicity Network in 2001. The company was the result of a merger between Rexall Showcase and Enrich International.

Heading up Unicity at launch was former Rexall Showcase promoter Stewart Hughes.

Hughes was Unicity’s CEO as of 2013 and is still running the company today.

In BehindMLM’s 2013 Unicity review, we noted Rexall Showcase’s regulatory issues dating back to 1994. Despite its autoship recruitment focus, Unicity itself appeared to have escaped regulatory scrutiny.

Things have been quiet for a few years but, between 2013 and 2021, Unicity did have some regulatory issues of its own:

While not a government regulatory body, the BBB’s Direct Selling Self-Regulatory Council pulled Unicity up for deceptive earnings and product claims earlier this year.

Unicity’s Products

In 2013 Unicity marketed a large range of personal care, anti-aging, weight loss, health and wellness and energy drink products.

Today Unicity markets a trimmed down dietary supplement offering:

  • LC Pro – “fuel your body, regulate blood sugar, provide balanced energy, and promote lasting fullness”, retails at $51 for a 16.7 oz tub
  • Balance – “proprietary fiber matrix”, retails at $79 for a pack of 30 single-serve sachets
  • BioReishi FX – “coffee formulated with reishi mushroom extract and coconut creamer”, retails at $42 for a pack of 10 single-serve sachets
  • Bone Complex – “a powerful formula containing calcium, vitamin D, vitamin C, vitamin K, zinc, and magnesium”, retails at $43 for a pack of 30 single-serve sachets
  • Chi-Oka Matcha – “a delicious green apple–flavored matcha”, retails at $85 for a pack of 30 single-serve sachets
  • CoQ10 Advanced Formula – “Unicity CoQ10 can help to counter the effects of lower CoQ10 production and give our body back the advantage by supporting energy production and antioxidant activity for the heart”, retails at $47 for a bottle of 60 softgel capsules
  • Imunizen – “provides fuel to support the body’s immune system, promote friendly intestinal bacteria, and provide the body with beneficial antioxidants”, retails at $56 for a bottle of 60 capsules
  • Joint Mobility – “contains a powerful blend of ingredients formulated to support joint function, mobility, and strength”, retails at $55 for a bottle of 60 capsules
  • LiFiber – “high-quality psyllium husk product that contains dietary fiber and a proprietary herbal blend that promotes gastrointestinal health”, retails at $58 for a 1 lb tub
  • Oasis – “restore, protect, and maintain healthy and beautiful skin”, retails at $70 for a pack of 30 single-serve sachets
  • OmegaLife-3 Resolv – “high-quality, purified fish-oil supplement that delivers 1,500 mg of EPA and DHA omega-3 fatty acids”, retails at $59 for a bottle of 120 softgel capsules
  • Paraway Plus – “provides gastrointestinal support designed to support your microbiome balance, aid the body in the cleansing of unwanted materials, and help protect the digestive tract”, retails at $60 for a bottle of 120 capsules
  • ProBionic Plus – “contains 11 probiotic strains to colonize the gut”, retails at $53 for a pack of 30 single-serve sachets
  • Stronghold – “empowers you to build and protect lean muscle with a precise blend of HMB, creatine, and leucine”, retails at $85 for a pack of 30 single-serve sachets
  • Super Green+ – “a drink mix with a blend of high-quality plant phytonutrients and niacin”, retails at $35 for a 1.6 oz tub
  • Unimate – “supports satiety, supports cognitive function, and helps you feel great”, retails at $115 for a pack of 30 single-serve sachets
  • Unimate Fuel – “combines a potent yerba mate extract with MCTs from coconut oil for a creamier Unimate flavor and to provide an extra energy boost”, retails at $109 for a pack of 30 single-serve sachets
  • Vision Essentials Plus – “formulated to help support the normal and natural function of the eye with a proven blend of potent antioxidants”, retails at $55 for a bottle of 60 softgel capsules
  • Bio-C – “a powerful vitamin C complex”, retails at $39 for a bottle of 60 tablets
  • Aloe Vera – “a powerful, natural way to gently cleanse your intestines to promote a normal, healthy digestive system”, retails at $30 for a bottle of 50 capsules

Note that Unicity’s supplements are also available in various bundle packs.

Unicity’s Compensation Plan

Unicity’s compensation plan pays on supplement sales to retail customers and recruited promoters.

Unicity Promoter Ranks

There are ten promoter ranks within Unicity’s compensation plan.

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

  1. Active – sign up as a Unicity promoter and generate and maintain 100 PV a month
  2. Manager – generate 100 PV and 1000 TV a month, recruit and maintain three active or higher ranked promoters
  3. Senior Manager – maintain 100 PV and 1000 TV a month, three active or higher ranked promoters and generate 1000 GV (from one unilevel team leg)
  4. Executive Manager – maintain 100 PV and 1000 TV a month, three active or higher ranked promoters and generate 4000 GV (3000 GV from one unilevel team leg and 1000 GV from a second leg)
  5. Director – maintain 100 PV and 1000 TV a month, three active or higher ranked promoters and generate 9000 GV (5000 GV from one unilevel team leg. 3000 GV from a second and 1000 GV from a third leg)
  6. Senior Director – maintain 100 PV and 1000 TV a month, three active or higher ranked promoters and generate 16,000 GV (10,000 GV from one unilevel team leg. 5000 GV from a second and 2000 GV from a third leg)
  7. Executive Director – maintain 100 PV and 1000 TV a month, three active or higher ranked promoters and generate 35,000 GV (20,000 GV from one unilevel team leg. 10,000 GV from a second and 5000 GV from a third leg)
  8. Presidential Director – maintain 100 PV and 1000 TV a month, three active or higher ranked promoters and generate 70,000 GV (40,000 GV from one unilevel team leg. 20,000 GV from a second and 10,000 GV from a third leg)
  9. Presidential Sapphire – maintain 100 PV and 1000 TV a month, three active or higher ranked promoters and generate 140,000 GV (80,000 GV from one unilevel team leg. 40,000 GV from a second and 20,000 GV from a third leg)
  10. Presidential Ruby – maintain 100 PV and 1000 TV a month, three active or higher ranked promoters and generate 280,000 GV (160,000 GV from one unilevel team leg. 80,000 GV from a second and 40,000 GV from a third leg)
  11. Presidential Diamond – maintain 100 PV and 1000 TV a month, three active or higher ranked promoters and generate 560,000 GV (320,000 GV from one unilevel team leg. 160,000 GV from a second and 80,000 GV from a third leg)

PV stands for “Personal Volume”. PV is generated via retail customer purchases and a Unicity promoter’s own orders.

TV stands for “Team Volume”. TV is PV generated by a Unicity promoter and their personally recruited promoters.

GV stands for “Group Volume”. GV is PV generated by a Unicity promoter and their entire downline.

For information on the unilevel team, refer to “Residual Commissions” below.

Business Development Bonus

The Business Development Bonus pays 20% on PV generated by newly recruited promoters, capped at their initial 1000 PV.

Team Development Bonus

The Team Development Bonus pays on PV generated by downline promoters who have generated over 1000 PV.

Team Development Bonus rates are determined by how much monthly PV a Unicity promoter is generating each month:

  • generate 100 PV a month and receive a 3% Team Development Bonus rate
  • generate 250 PV a month and receive a 5% Team Development Bonus rate

Note that the Team Development Bonus is tied to recruitment. Recruit one Active or higher ranked promoter to qualify for the Team Development Bonus on level (personally recruited promoters).

Recruit two Active or higher ranked promoters to qualify for the Team Development Bonus on levels 1 and 2. This continues on until five Active or higher ranked promoters are recruited, equating to the Team Development Bonus being paid down five levels of recruitment.

Residual Commissions

Unicity pays residual commissions via a unilevel compensation structure.

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

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

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

Unicity caps payable unilevel team levels at twelve.

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

  • Managers earn 5% on level 1 (personally recruited promoters)
  • Senior Managers earn 5% on levels 1 and 2
  • Executive Managers earn 5% on levels 1 to 3
  • Directors earn 5% on levels 1 to 5
  • Senior Directors earn 5% on levels 1 to 6
  • Executive Directors earn 5% on levels 1 to 6 and 3% on level 7
  • Presidential Directors earn 5% on levels 1 to 6 and 3% on levels 7 to 9
  • Presidential Sapphires earn 5% on levels 1 to 6, 3% on levels 7 to 9 and 1% on level 10
  • Presidential Rubys earn 5% on levels 1 to 6, 3% on levels 7 to 9 an 1% on levels 10 and 11
  • Presidential Diamonds earn 5% on levels 1 to 6, 3% on level 7 to 9 and 1% on levels 10 to 12

Rank Achievement Bonus

Unicity rewards promoters for qualifying at Director and higher with the following Rank Achievement Bonuses:

  • qualify at Director and receive $150 a month
  • qualify at Senior Director and receive $250 a month
  • qualify at Executive Director and receive $500 a month
  • qualify at Presidential Director and receive $10,000 and then $750 a month
  • or Presidential Sapphire and receive $20,000 and then $750 a month
  • qualify at Presidential Ruby and receive $40,000 and then $1000 a month
  • qualify at Presidential Diamond and receive $100,000 and then $1000 a month

Note that for the one-time Rank Achievement Bonuses, rank must be qualified for and maintained for three consecutive months.

Centurion Club

The Centurion Club is a confusing bonus Unicity fails to adequately explain in its compensation documentation.

The Centurion Club is tied to generating 100 points a month to qualify as a Centurion. Centurion points are generated “primarily through selling Feel Great packs to Members directly.”

Members are retail customers with a standing monthly autoship order.

Feel Great packs are bundle packs that combine Unicity’s Balance and Ultimate supplements:

As above, Feel Good packs currently cost $235. This means that, effectively, the Centurion Club pays on getting retail customers onto a $235 a month Feel Good pack autoship order.

Despite requiring 100 Centurion Points to qualify, the Centurion Club pays out on as little as 30 Centurion Points:

Generations are defined elsewhere in Unicity’s compensation plan as whenever a Manager or higher is found in a unilevel team leg. What the Centurion Club “increases” are based on isn’t explained.

Other than explaining what a generation is, there doesn’t appear to be any other commissions or bonuses in Unicity’s compensation plan that utilizes unilevel leg generations.

Note that a link to a “library” is provided for more information on the Centurion Club, however the link provided doesn’t work (the link redirects to a Unicity website page with an indefinity spinning wheel).

Joining Unicity

Unicity requires promoters to sign up as a retail customers on autoship first.

This costs $40 or $1549 with a Business Builder Pack (includes various Unicity products).

Unicity Conclusion

Instead of just separating retail customers, including those on autoship (preferred customers), from promoters, Unicity has implemented weird pseudo-compliance.

Unicity has retail customers. These are customers who buy Unicity products and can’t earn anything.

Unicity also has members, as defined in Unicity’s compensation plan:

Unicity’s Member Program is designed for loyal customers who regularly and consistently enjoy Unicity products but aren’t interested in earning commissions (at least, not right away).

Members receive the same product discounts as Distributors and earn product credit for sharing Unicity with others.

On the surface Unicity’s “members” appear to be retail customers on autoship, typically referred to as preferred customers.

Unicity also has promoters, who participate in the MLM opportunity and are eligible to earn commissions and bonuses.

Here’s the thing though, you can’t sign up as a Unicity promoter without signing up as a member first.

When one goes to sign up for Unicity’s business opportunity, you’re made to sign up as a member:

This means you’re paying either $40 or $1549 to sign up… as a Unicity retail customer on autoship? Um, what?

Note as you’re signing up as a Unicity member, there is this option in small print:

Already have a Member account with Unicity?

Upgrade to Distributor for more benefits.

What does “upgrading to a Distributor” entail? No idea, you’re redirected to a member log in form if you click the link. This means you have to have a member account to “upgrade” to a distributor.

So let’s take a step back for a moment. Retail customers aren’t paying $40 or $1549 for access to product autoship. Clearly Unicity’s “member” option is part of its MLM opportunity.

The whole upgrade nonsense is pseudo-compliance, which means in effect, likely not much has changed since BehindMLM reviewed Unicity as an autoship recruitment scheme in 2013.

Sure, promoter orders aren’t mandatory each month, but with how Unicity is set up there’s a good chance PV requirements are still being primarily met through promoter autoship.

With three recruited Active or higher promoters required to qualify for MLM commissions, what’s the bet they’re all self-funding their 100 PV a month requirement too.

And something else to think about, if Unicity’s customer autoship is part of its MLM opportunity, this means there is no true retail customer autoship option.

Like Unicity’s products, don’t want anything to do with the MLM opportunity but want to get a discount for committing to a monthly autoship order? Too bad.

You could sign up as a member for $40 a month but, as far as regulatory compliance goes, you’re now part of Unicity’s MLM opportunity funnel.

This could work if signing up as a Unicity member was free – but it’s not, Unicity charges Members the promoter fee upfront but doesn’t provide access to the MLM opportunity unless an “upgrade” is requested.

This is pseudo-compliance baloney and, on principal, should be avoided. MLM companies shouldn’t be rewarded for coming up with nonsense like this.

Costing up to $1549, Unicity’s “member” membership is clearly just a pointless step in signing up as a Unicity promoter (distributor).

As for Unicity’s products, the range feels kind of stale. This is probably due to Unicity’s age.

That said, if Unicity’s products work as advertised and there’s a healthy retail customer base (unlikely given the company’s past compensation plan(s) and current pseudo-compliance nonsense), there’s not necessarily a need for change.

What I will point out is, even with a reduced product offering, there’s quite a bit of overlap in Unicity’s offering.

Balance and LiFiber are both fiber supplements. Paraway Plus, ProBionic Plus and Aloe Vera all target the digestive system. And multiple Unicity supplements are energy focused.

I feel like Unicity’s product offering could be further consolidated, or at least better differentiate supplements that appear to target the same bodily function(s).

I didn’t see anything that stood out as unique to Unicity, so price comparison should be easy. Based on costs, I get the impression Uncity probably hasn’t kept up with the competition.

I mean sure, whatever “yanba mate” is it might be amazing, but $115 for thirty servings of an energy drink? Yeah, don’t see that selling too well.

Getting back to the “member” pseudo-compliance, I also noticed all of Unicity’s products have the same retail and monthly autoship price.

Autoship is supposed to unlock a discount, so I don’t know what’s going on there. This might matter to a company actually targeting retail customers but, as we’ve previously discussed, that’s not the core of Unicity’s MLM opportunity.

TL;DR: Unicity needs to implement an actual retail customer class, get rid of the “member” promoter/distributor funnel nonsense and just have promoters/distributors sign up as a promoters/distributors.

Oh and Centurion Club. What? If you have to link to a “library” to properly explain one bonus in your compensation plan, putting aside said link is broken, go back to the drawing board and come up with something easier to understand.

Pending actual changes to Unicity’s promoter autoship recruitment focus, avoid.