Everybody needs clothes and what better way to make someone feel special than to personally sell them clothes and make money for yourself? LuLaRoe MLM is a company you may have heard of. They sell a variety of clothes through direct marketing to a very wide market. In this LuLaRoe MLM review, we’ll take a look at the clothes and how this offer works to see if you can succeed here.

What is LuLaRoe MLM?

LuLaRoe is a multi-level marketing company that was founded by DeAnne and Mark Stidham in 2013. The name is a combination of their three granddaughters’ names. Their flagship product was maxi skirts. Eventually, the line would expand to include dresses, tops, kids clothes, menswear and more. In 2014, their main product became leggings. In the beginning, the distributors (called Fashion Consultants) were located in the mid-west of the United States. LuLaRoe is now available across the U.S. and in a number of countries. In 2016, it was considered one of the largest MLMs in the business with reported sales of approximately $1 billion. They had over 80,000 Fashion Consultants selling clothes. Unfortunately, lawsuits brought against the company would highlight the many flaws within.

Are LuLaRoe Products Worth Their Price?

Lularoe Mlm Review - Leggings Their signature product eventually became leggings. They come in many different patterns and sizes. You can’t buy these clothes on the website. You can look at the different clothes available but if you want to buy something, you have to be connected with a Fashion Consultant in your area or find them through social media such as Facebook pages. Many Fashion Consultants sell the clothes through places like eBay and Poshmark. The leggings in the image was found on the Poshmark website and is most likely listed by a Fashion Consultant. I tried to find a reasonably priced product to give you an idea of the pricing. These are actually less expensive than others. The average price is $25 per pair and come in only two sizes–One Size and Tall and Curvy. But pay close attention to the shipping price. It’s actually more than the price of the leggings. I’m not sure how to account for this except to say that LuLaRoe pays shipping charges to Fashion Consultants. There would certainly be a shipping charge but this seems excessive to me. There’s a question of quality here as well. Some of the customer complaints were that the leggings fell apart after only wearing once and that includes the more expensive $25 leggings. LuLaRoe puts orders for clothes through MyDyer, a Los Angeles-based retail company that manages orders for many other retailers. The orders are then completed by Asian and Central American factories. The clothes are very colourful and come in a variety of different prints and materials which customers seem to like. But the quality may let your customers down.

The LuLaRoe MLM Opportunity

Let’s take a look at how this works. First, you sign up through a sponsor. You’ll need to buy an onboarding package. This is where you decide what type of clothes you want to sell and/or a certain named line of clothes. For instance, you can choose to sell kids clothes or you can choose a certain named collection of clothes such as the Cassie group. From there, you buy your onboarding kit and start selling.

How Much Does It Cost to Join LuLaRoe?

According to the website, you’ll have to come up with $499 for an initial purchase of inventory. The package will include 65 pieces of clothing from a variety of styles. In order to stay qualified, you also have to make monthly purchases whether you have sold clothes or not. This may seem expensive and it is. But consider that this is a revised pricing structure. In the past, the cheapest onboarding package was the Lindsay Package which included only 45 pieces for $945!

Can You Make Money with LuLaRoe?

Let’s take a look at the different ways you can make money with LuLaRoe clothes. Each Fashion Consultant will have their own inventory that is specific to what they like and think they can sell. You can start by having a party where you guests can see the clothing and perhaps try things on. You can create a pop-up boutique online by setting  up a Facebook page where you can post pictures of clothes or hold live events where you can showcase pieces. One-on-one styling sessions could also bring in customers. You earn 35% to 50% from gross sales. Lularoe Mlm Review - Compensation The real way to earn money is by recruitment. The more people you can recruit, the more money you make. In this case, an additional 5%. You can also move up the ladder based on the number of recruits in your team.

Pros:

Free Ground Shipping LuLaRoe pays for all shipping costs for the products you order. All orders are shipped within three days of receiving payment. One less expense for you. Plenty of Resources LuLaRoe have tons of resources available to make sure that there is no room for failure. Education, business support, training, marketing, and analytics are just a few of the resources listed to help you succeed. Lots of Selling Opportunities There are a lot of different ways you can sell the clothes. Setting up a Facebook page, selling through eBay and Poshmark, one-on-one sales, office parties, home parties, and birthday parties are all opportunities to sell clothes.

Cons:

Pyramid Scheme Accusations In 2017, A lawsuit was filed in Washington state that accused LuLaRoe of operating a pyramid scheme. At that time, upper LuLaRoe leadership bonus plans allowed consultants to receive bonuses based on the number of recruits they brought in which is a typical pyramid scheme model. The consultants were encouraged to push their recruits to place large orders for clothes which bumped up the bonuses for the upline. BBB rating Right now the BBB (Better Business Bureau) have LuLaRoe listed with a B- rating and 2-star customer rating. This is actually much better than their previous rating of F. The F rating came in February 2019 and was the result of hundreds of complaints filed against them and the lack of response to those complaints. At present, the BBB have added government action alerts to their company information page. Below is just one of 175 complaints on file with the BBB. Lularoe Mlm Review - Complaints Fashion Consultants File Bankruptcy At least 115 of LuLaRoe Fashion Consultants have had to file bankruptcy since 2016. LuLaRoe has disputed this and claimed that one consultant received a full refund. Unfortunately, the data does not support that claim. Misleading Return Policy One thing that really turned off a lot of Consultants was that the Return Policy changed. Previously, if a Consultant wanted to cancel their agreement, they could get a full refund for all returned inventory. Instead, LuLaRoe only gave a partial refund or charged fees for returns.

Is LuLaRoe a Scam?

I have to say in this case that this seems like a total scam to me. Coming up with $499 just to get started means that you have to work exceptionally hard to make that money back. So it could take a while before you are made whole with this opportunity. Having clothes sold to you might make your customers feel special but if those same clothes are of poor quality and fall apart, you will lose them fast. And let’s not forget about the lawsuits here. With such easy access to the Internet, customers can do a quick search on a company to check their reliability and their track record. If you manage to find customers, you may find it hard to keep them. And that won’t be your fault. That will come down to the quality of the products.

Final Thoughts

I recommend you give this company a pass. There are so many things going wrong here. The average person probably doesn’t have $499 to invest in clothes for their business. If having your own business is important to you, check out my #1 recommendation. I guarantee you it won’t cost you $499 to get started. You’ll get all the tools you need including a website, hosting, training, 24/7 support and more.
Top Recommendation
Wealthy Affiliate

This is where I learned how to get started in online business and it is the only community that I trust for honest top level training on how to make money online. I highly recommend Wealthy Affiliate for its training, tools, live support and included hosting.

Get a Free Starter Account Read the Full Review

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

4 Comments

  1. Hi Jay,

    6+ years in the market and a lot of resources to help their reps to succeed is good news. Although there are some good things about LuLaRoe the cons outweigh the pros. $499 is quite expensive and I hate the monthly targets with the MLM companies, that’s one of the reasons why people end up losing a lot of money.

    When I checked how LuLaRoe is trending on Google the interest overtime is going down. The lawsuit against them and 115 consultants filing bankruptcy are big red flags for me. Of all with the MLM business model, the success rate is very low and 70-95% of people lose their money.

  2. Hi Jay,

    MLM wouldn’t be my first choice of business to make money online or offline. I’m new to affiliate marketing, but regardless of the initial required investment, I just don’t feel comfortable pushing sales of any product to my friends or relatives or anybody for that matter.  Poor product quality and poor customer service are just two more reasons for staying away from that company.  Thank you for the background research, the honesty of your opinion, and your integrity.  In the light of so many negative news in the marketing and distribution business about large corporations and smaller ones too, it seems to me that our duty would be, now more than ever to partner with companies that treat their affiliates, consultants, and suppliers in a fair way.

    Vincent

  3. I agree with you on giving LulaRoe a pass for a way to make money. One of my friends was a consultant and I recruited her for a fundraiser for a local animal shelter. I purchased 2 pair of leggings, but within 1 – 2 times of wearing the leggings, there was a rip in the seam. Don’t get me wrong, these are comfortable leggings, but I would expect a longer life expectancy on the brand. Now, regarding the MLM….don’t do it…unless you can actually guarantee sales and downline sales. You will spend more in product than you make in building a team and your brand. Find something that is quality, that you love, and that will make you some extra income. 

  4. It’s definitely an expensive ordeal when a company asks you to fork up $499 just to get started and on top of that make monthly purchases of the clothing line you wish to sell. I’d say the only people who should be trying LuLaRoe are those who’ve garnered a following in this market. 

    I can’t believe they’ve lasted as long as they have, even if the lawsuits continue to file in. For those interested in MLM, is there a better option you’ve come across than LuLaRoe?