Which is better to sell Avon or Mary Kay? Avon vs Mary Kay

Which is better to sell Avon or Mary Kay? Avon vs Mary Kay

Many who are looking to sell Avon or Mary Kay, want to know which is better or easier to sell and most importantly, will I make more money selling Avon or Mary Kay. Truth be told, people can and are making money from either company. Some do very well(as in make enough money to quit their jobs), many make a good amount of extra money and many never make a dime and quit.

Since I sell Avon, I know Avon better, but have tried to find as much info as I could about Mary Kay, plus my wife tried Mary Kay(neither one is her type of thing).

What is the start up cost?

Avon sign up cost is $10 face to face or $20 online sign up($10 for the kit and $10 for postage)

This start up kit contains:

10 brochures for your first campaign
10 brochures for your next campaign
1 tiny box of Anew Samples
1 order book
Training booklets
Mark Magalogs
Avon bag

You may get some Big Save booklets or something similar.

This Kit doesn't contain much, but it does have everything you need to get started.


Avon does have two additional Starter Kits New Reps can buy if they want:

The Representative Essentials kit for $49.99 (valued at $150+)


Contains Full size products:

1. U by Ungaro for her
2. Anew clinical Derma-Full Facial filling cream
3. Ultra Color Rich lipstick Sheer Raspberry Ice
4. Ultra color Rich lipstick Satin Red 2000
5. Moisture Therapy Intensive hand cream
6. Naturals Pomegranates&Mango; shower gels
7. SSS Soft&Sensual replenishing body Lotion

30 BeautiSeal Anew samples
2 packs of Conversational skin care cards
40 Avon brochures
Avon shopper tote($10 value)


The Representative Premium Kit for $99.99 (Valued at $250+)

Includes everything from the Essential Starter Kit except the
Anew clinical Derma-Full Facial filling cream.

PLUS these full size products:

1. Anew clinical derma-full X-3 facial filling cream
2. Anew clinical advanced retexturizing peel, 30 unscented pads.
3. Naturals Pomegranates&Mango body lotion
4. Naturals Pomegranates & Mango body spray
5. Foot works therapeutic cracked heel cream
6. SSS soft & sensual gelled body oil.

50 LiquaTouch perfume samples

Avon's Signature Tote-coated canvas with Avon print ($35 value)



Mary Kay Sign up/Start up kit $100(plus shipping, handling and tax)
The Mary Kay kit for $100 is full of stuff. The kit comes with over $350 worth of Mary Kay's full size products that can be sold or used to do facials.Including every color of foundation, cleansers, moisturizers, day and night creams and so on.

You will also get many business supplies that will help you to get your business started. This includes books, cd's, fliers and more.
The Earning scales are different for the two companies.

1. Mary Kay's seems the the most straight forward. You earn 50%, but it seems the order must be $200 your cost or larger($400 customer cost)
2. Avon Reps earn 40% on orders of $50 or larger for the first 4 campaigns and then use this scale:

Order Size Earnings
$1550 or more 50%
$900 - $1549 45%
$425 - $899 40%
$285 - $424 35%
$145 - $284 30% (this is an easy level to attain regularly)
$25 - $144 20%
$00 - $24 0%

Both company's are MLM so you can earn extra money recruiting or signing up others to sell. You will need to help them learn the ropes and you can make the extra money as long as you and them continue to sell.

Both companies use catalogs. Mary Kay's is called "The Look" .
The Avon books are better known for sure, but may just be your biggest regular expense since we have to buy them for every campaign or every 2 weeks.
The more we buy the less they cost however.
pack # of brochures cost each total.

Pack# Brochures Cost EachTotal

1 10 brochures $.59 $5.90

2 20 brochures $.41 $8.20

3 30 brochures $.35 $10.50

4 40 brochures $.311 $12.45

5 50 brochures $.268 $13.40

6 60 brochures $.245 $14.70

7 70 brochures $.227 $15.90

8 80 brochures $.216 $17.25

9 90 brochures $.205 $18.45

10 100 brochures $.195 $19.55

11 or more packs: $19.55 (for first 10 packs)
+ $1.35 for each additional pack

Both companies have district managers who are actual employees. They can provide support and hold regular meetings to build enthusiasm and give details about new products or selling/recruiting incentives, which for either can be money or trips. These are free meetings that you don't have to attend to you don't want to.

I do get the impression that Mary Kay consultants do more parties then Avon Reps need to, perhaps it's because the Avon books are like little stores for you. It would be fair to mention that both companies encourage/pressure their people to buy products for parties or to just sell. Many also end up being the best customer, so be careful about that with either.

It also seems you have to purchase much more product more often from Mary Kay than Avon to stay active. To be active with Mary Kay you need to place a $400 order once about every 2 months. When you place a $400 order($200 your cost) then you are active that month, and the following two months. With Avon, as long as you place an order(even for just 10 Avon books) once every 4 campaigns(almost 2 months time) your Avon account stays active. There is a fee to reactivate your account with either company.

The truth is, you can make money by selling for either company. I know several people who sell both. From what I can gather there does appear to be a lot less pressure to sell Avon as it's easier and cheaper to keep your account active and we can make some money even off an order as small as $25. Both companies have been around a long time and have loyal followings, so they must both be doing something right! Personally I don't do any parties and just rely on the Avon brochure to do the selling.

My wife didn't stick with Mary Kay because she isn't the party doing type and it was expensive to do and keep doing, but she never even tried Avon as direct sales of any kind just ain't her thing. She does like products from both companies, as well as Clinique.

The bottom line, so far as I can tell, is that you can be successful selling for either company and the most aggressive, determined and patient people do the best, in other words make the most money. Obviously Avon is the cheapest to sign up and try to in my opinion the easier one to do.

Avon online sign up for $20 at www.startavon.com use the reference code JEBY