Is Pink Zebra an MLM? Yes, it is a muti-level marketing (MLM) company because you can make money not only from selling the products, but also from the sales of the people you recruit and the sales of the people they recruit, etc. In other words, you can get paid on multiple levels.
Let me show you what this one is all about in this article. I’ll tell you what the compensation plan is like, how much money you can make, if there are any complaints or positive reviews and if it’s a good idea to join.
I’ll also have an alternative option for you if you decide Pink Zebra or MLMs are not for you.
Let’s dive in!
Summary: Pink Zebra is a company started in 2010 by husband-and-wife team, Tom and Kelly Gaines. According to their About page, they met while working in a candle factory and eventually decided they wanted to create their own candles. They started their own candle business in 1999, and turned it into a direct sales company in 2010.
Recommended? I cannot recommend any MLMs due to the nature of how they work. While Pink Zebra may have great products that people love and may even have a good compensation plan, MLMs are set up to have people at the bottom lose money. Not only that, but they’re very hard to work, as I’ll explain below.
What is Pink Zebra?
Pink Zebra is an MLM that mainly sells a product they call Sprinkles. These Sprinkles are little balls of wax with different scents that you can mix and match. You then add the Sprinkles to a warmer, and you have yourself a custom-made candle.
They also sell different warmers, warmer shades (similar to lamp shades), simmering pots and something they call soaks, which is a liquid scent meant for smaller spaces like a car.
How Does Pink Zebra Work?
For the business opportunity, you would sign up as an independent consultant by purchasing one of the Pink Zebra kits. (Costs detailed in the next section.) You then have the ability to sell the products to earn a commission, and you can also build a team under you and earn commissions on your team’s sales too.
Pink Zebra focuses on home parties, as this is the best way to sell something that smells nice. However, some people do their selling online through social media and other avenues.
At the time of this writing, they only have about 79,000 consultants, so this could be a good “ground floor opportunity”, or it could be like so many others that never really take off. It’s something to consider before you get involved.
How Much Does it Cost to Join Pink Zebra?
As mentioned above, in order to join, you will need to purchase one of Pinks Zebra’s kits.
These kits are the :
- Starter Kit = $79 USD or $99 CAD
- Deluxe Kit = $149 USD or $169 CAD
(These are the prices at the time of this writing. It seems the prices change from time to time.)
The Deluxe Kit includes everything you need to create your own home party right away. Here’s a video that shows everything you get in detail.
Besides the kits, there’s also an $11.95 per month fee for your website.
You need to sell (or buy yourself) $150 within 6 months to stay active as a consultant This much better than most MLMs. For instance, when I took a look at Monat, you have a 200 PV (personal volume) goal every month. That’s about $200. Every month.
How Much Money Can You Make with Pink Zebra?
I am taking this information straight from Pink Zebra’s documentation. This is their document for Canada, but it seems to also cover the U.S. as well. I didn’t find a separate U.S. document.
There are 6 ways you can earn money with Pink Zebra in 3 different phases.
Phase 1 – Selling Phase
- 25% base commissions from party sales
- Additional 5% – 10% enhanced commissions on personal sales (paid monthly)
Here’s what the enhanced commissions look like:
The percentage amount you get is based on your Sales Volume (SV). Everyone has a base percentage at 25%, and it can go up to 35% if you can hit $2000 in sales or more in a given month.
Phase 2 – Management Phase
- 7% Sponsoring Bonus (paid monthly)
- 3% Team Level Bonus, four levels deep (paid monthly)
- 2% Mentoring Bonus (paid monthly)
Phase 3 – Executive Phase
- Three levels of generation bonuses that total 7% (paid monthly)
What does all of this mean? I’m not sure! Compensation plans are confusing! But here’s someone who can give us more detail about how it all works.
Here’s an overview of the compensation plan:
If you can understand all that, I give you a lot of credit.
Do Consultants Get a Discount?
Yes, Pink Zebra consultants get a 25% – 35% discount off the retail price.
Here are prices for some of the products to give you an idea of how much everything costs.
- Jar Sprinkles (3.75 oz) = $9
- Carton Sprinkles (16 oz) = $28
- Soaks (3.75 oz) = $13
- Warmers = $31
- Shades = $24 – $50
- Simmer Pots = $28-$33
You would get a base discount of 25%, and more discounts the more you spend, up to 35%.
Pink Zebra Positive Reviews & Complaints
Most of the positive reviews of Pink Zebra are from consultants, so it makes it a little hard to find unbiased reviews. I did manage to find this one:
And this one from a happy consultant:
I found quite a few complaints and most of them were regarding technical issues like the website not taking their credit card. There were some people who said the Sprinkles don’t smell enough. The scent isn’t strong enough.
Here’s a complaint from a consultant who’s having a hard time selling the product:
These reviews were found on this website. There are 60 reviews, and Pink Zebra’s average rating is 2 stars.
The Pros and Cons of Selling Pink Zebra
From my perspective, there are the pros and cons of signing up as an Independent Consultant with Pink Zebra. You are free, of course, to have a different opinion.
Pros
- Inexpensive start-up cost as compared to most businesses
- Product prices aren’t outrageously expensive like some MLMs
- You only need to sell (or buy yourself) $150 worth of products in 6 months to stay active
Cons
- Pink Zebra suggests selling via home parties, which require a lot of prepping, planning and food buying (which is why most people don’t want to host)
- Not an easy work-from-home gig, you need to do a lot of hustling
- In order to make a good income, you need to recruit and train, recruit and train
- It’s not your own business as you’re led to believe, you don’t have control over Pink Zebra’s business
- Because this is an MLM, in order for you to make money, people below you have to lose money
- More than 99% of people in an MLM lose money
- Generally, people have a distaste for MLMs and it’s not easy to sell the products or recruit people to your team
- When you sign up for an MLM, YOU are the customer and the people above you make most of their money from YOU and others in their downline
Is Pink Zebra a Pyramid Scheme?
Technically, Pink Zebra is not a pyramid scheme, but many people will call it that, so watch out. The Federal Trade Commission says a pyramid scheme is different from a legal MLM because MLMs have a real product to sell.
“Not all multi-level marketing plans are legitimate. If the money you make is based on your sales to the public, it may be a legitimate multilevel marketing plan. If the money you make is based on the number of people you recruit and your sales to them, it’s probably not. It could be a pyramid scheme.” Source
I always consider MLMs to be right on the border of being a pyramid scheme due to that paragraph from the FTC. Most people in MLMs make their money from recruiting – not from the sale of products.
Oh, they make sales on the products, but from the people they’re recruiting – not from people outside of the MLM.
Alternative to Selling Pink Zebra
If you like the idea of working for yourself and actually creating your own online business, then I have an alternative idea for you if you’ve decided MLMs are not the best idea.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a way to promote other people’s products for a commission. But it’s totally different from an MLM because:
- You can do it entirely from home at your computer
- You don’t recruit anyone
- You offer helpful advice on your website (or via videos)
- You attract people to you via keywords (instead of chasing sales and leads)
- You don’t need to worry about any inventory
- You don’t handle any customer service
- You don’t need to train anyone
If you love the idea of selling candles and home decor products, you can easily do that through affiliate marketing. For instance, you can sign up for Amazon’s affiliate program and sell anything they have on their site for a commission. Yankee Candles has an affiliate program. Most major companies do, so you can imagine the possibilities…
You can learn more about affiliate marketing with my free guide, How To: Affiliate Marketing for Beginners, or you can check out my #1 recommendation for affiliate marketing training. It’s free to join, (no credit card needed).
Conclusion
So, is Pink Zebra an MLM? I hope this article helped you answer that question. Due to being able to make money from multiple levels, Pink Zebra is considered an MLM.
I would not consider it an illegal pyramid scheme since they do have products to sell. However, if recruiting is the main push in an MLM and that’s where most of the money is made (which is almost always the case), then, in my opinion, it’s a borderline pyramid scheme.
Whether you choose to join Pink Zebra is up to you, but I wouldn’t personally recommend it. (I know from personal experience how hard MLMs are to work.) Instead, I would recommend affiliate marketing as there is no recruiting involved. Learn how to set up your own affiliate marketing website step-by-step here.
Other related content:
- Best Programs to Make Money Online
- Ultimate Wealthy Affiliate Review
- MLM vs Affiliate Marketing – Why Affiliate Marketing is 100x Better