Avon or Homecare or Tupperware ?? Anyone here had experience......

[2106greencat]

.....in being a represenative for mail order products ?

Just interested if anyone here has gone down the mail order rep's road and what you think of it

If so, any pitfalls to avoid ?

Some better than others ?

Is there money to really be made if you work hard at it ?

I am leaning more towards the Homecare rep's given that most of my knowledge is homewares and would be an area I know most about.

[lind9650]

Greencat, one of my friends did Avon, but from home. She told me it was a lot of hassle with book keeping, collecting and delivering items etc. Comparing with eBay prices, one has to considder the postage involved. It makes the items more expensive for the buyer. So I don't know if it is profitable.

We have a young man delivering Homecare catalogues avaer two weeks. Have bought a few things in the past and am happy with the products, but again, no postage involed. The young man is happy with the income he makes. Told me it's better than being on the Dole.

Try and compare prices and postage, and then work out what profit you can make on persentage you get paid.

Erica

[lyndal1838]

I was an Avon rep many years ago.....long before the internet even existed.

We lived on a Naval Base and I had over a hundred WRANS on the base and several hundred sailors who needed gifts for loved ones.  There were also several hundred families....and no shops close by.

I did a roaring trade...could not have been happier.

I was asked to continue after we came back to Sydney but decided against it....too much work for a lot less benefit as I found out after talking to several reps in the area I lived.  I would have had to travel out of the area I was living and I did not have transport.

It was great at the time but not so sure about it now.

[2106greencat]

Just to clarify - this will not be online or eBay based - I will have provide email contact for orders and queries on the catalogue of course, but I am looking at the actual work from home thing.

Thanks Erica and Lyndal

I was looking at Avon and Homecare becuase I have lived in the same area for over 10 years and can not remember ever receiving an Avon catalogue and in the last 12 - 18 months have not seen a Homecare one......

so I thought maybe there would be room for one of them (or both) to break into a new area.

Just thinkin' at the moment and appreciate any feedback.

[lind9650]

greencat, perhaps if you do both at the same time, leave the catalogues one day with a note to collect a couple of days later, you may get orders for one or both from some customers. That is how the young man does his Homeware run.

At the monent we have nobody selling Avon around here with catalogue drops, and no Tupperware parties. I think Tupperware is a drag, because it relies on a party plan, not catalogue dropping. Also I think Tupperware is going out of fashion and very expensive compared to the good name plastic containers one can find in Supermarkets.

One of our local chaps used to sell Jenny Millers stuff the same way, by dropping off catalogues. He told me he used to earn enough to suplement his pension. Sadly the district manager divided his area and he gave it away because it was not worth the trouble anymore.

So if you can get a resonable area to work, it may be worth while to have a go.

I wish you well for the future.

Erica

[lyndal1838]

My reason for stressing that it was long before the internet existed was because these days Avon can be bought on line so the local footsloggers have to work a lot harder to do any good.

I have not seen an Avon lady for years now....the one who was in the area when I first moved here has long since gone and there were a few new girls who only seemed to last a few months before disappearing too.

For the last couple of years I have been getting the Home Care catalogues left on the doorstep....I have ordered a few things but the reps never seem to last.....maybe 2 or 3 catalogues and then there is a break of several months and another one takes over.

I don't think our area lends itself to door to door selling.....older people tend not to be too keen on strangers knocking on the door.  You need to know your demographic.  A friend of mine is doing Avon in a newer housing estate area in south west Sydney and she is doing quite well.   The shops are some distance away and the younger families are more receptive to door to door sellers.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

[far*canal*]

Yes, but with a party plan company. I did clothing. It very much comes down to the area you are in. In one location, I made more than my full time job. I contemplated quitting but living the lifestyle we do, knew that the security my FT job gave me over party plan was a better option. Thankfully. Because when we did move, I earned in 2 years what I would earn in a week in the last location. My suggestion would be to research your product and your location. Having another rep in the same locality has its pros and cons. For one, if you can't make it, you have a back up and vice versa. And then there is the direct competition. This is kind of negated once you build up your own clientele.

Tupperware and Avon are big business, but have a look at the costs to you with them. How much will you spend after your start up kit. You will need their stationary and this that and the other. If you have to make a return of a product, does that cost you? If you're doing Tupperware (for example), can you supplement your personal host/ess thank you gifts (if you decide to do that and really that can make or break a relationship) with non Tupperware items? For the company that I worked for, part of it was to tell hosts it wasn't a "party" but a get together over a cuppa with mates. So one of the hostess gifts I used regularly was a pack of Timtams; "You bring the coffee and I'll bring the Timtams" and yes, I would come armed with Timtams which had absolutely NOTHING to do with what I sold, but they liked it and it demonstrated I was sticking to my word. Which in the game you're looking at, is a very, very big thing.

Definitely go with what you know and like. I was a regular customer for the product I sold, and it took about 2 years before I joined. But, I could prattle on for hours about the product, how great it was and how it was essentially all I owned. For the record it wasn't Tupperware.

So in short, yes there is money to be made. Sometimes, it doesn't matter how much or how little you put in. If I had put in more in my first location, I probably would have shot a lot higher than what I did. But truthfully, I was kind of lazy and didn't do half of what I should have. The party would take about 3 hours of my time. Doing the orders would take about 30 mins to an hour, depending on the amount of sales. Sometimes, though not often, there would have to be follow up calls, credit cards didn't go through, or an item had just come up out of stock that had been ordered, and that could add 5-10 minutes of your time. IMO if you have the right product (for you) and can get a clientele base, it's easy money.

[vicr3000]

The major money has been made from these places. With the internet and many more shops, just so many places to buy from now.

Even places I used to go to in the country, middle of nowhere, I always called and checked to see if they needed anything

purchased and taken up and often their was. Now, not so much of a problem.

[myoclon1cjerk]

The other problem re Avon is you have a mountain of cosmetics being sold on those shopping channels and people can order over the phone 24/7.