Mary Kay Amazon Storefront
Written by Parsons Green
Beginning October 15, Mary Kay will have a storefront on Amazon. A letter and video were posted on InTouch explaining that Mary Kay is doing this to stop private sellers from listing Mary Kay items on Amazon. Once the storefront is open, Mary Kay will be able to force Amazon to remove listings from unauthorized sellers. They will only be offering five products on the site, at a higher cost than what a customer would pay if they purchased from a consultant at the full retail price.
Directors found out about this change on the top directors trip in September, and this was announced to the sales force last week.
Several NSD’s and sales directors shared their thoughts on Voxer messages and YouTube Videos.
In Lisa Madsen’s Voxer, said she was on a Zoom last week where she heard the news, and then yesterday the inner circle directors had a meeting with Ryan Rogers. He said that the profits from Amazon will go to the company (no consultant cut) but this money will be used to build the brand. They need to make the brand appeal to younger folks, like her grandaughters who do a lot of shopping on TikTok. Mary Kay can end this partnership at any time. She said her unwavering faith in this company has given her 30+ years of success. She still has skin in her game because her daughter inherited her million dollar unit. She remembered when the PCP program was created. Many thought that this was the company’s way of bypassing consultants but it did not So trust in the company. She retires in January.
A consultant recorded Kristin Sharpe discussing this and posted it to Voxer. Kristin states that products on Amazon are either counterfeit, or are products consultants ordered in bulk to achieve seminar recognition. (What???? I thought that nasty Pink Truth was lying when they said that consultants and directors are buying their achievements???)
Lia Carter also shared this would prevent the sale of counterfeit products. Nike and Kendra Scott also have similar Amazon storefronts.
Emily Schuete mentions that this is being done to protect the company from the regulatory powers that be. She didn’t mention the FTC by name, but they could be concerned that the majority of purchases by consultants are to stockpile inventory that is never sold to an an end customer.
Julie Gambina Thomas states she was part of a company panel to discuss the Amazon problem. She personally had potential recruits decline the Mary Kay opportunity because they didn’t believe customers would pay full retail price for something they could get cheaper on Amazon.
Reaction from the consultants was mixed! Some consultants love the change, and see the need to cut out the Amazon listings. Others ask why they can’t sell on Amazon themselves. Amazon should route orders to a local consultant in the customer’s area. Amazon should also have a disclaimer that reminds consumers that they can buy product cheaper from a consultant.
Mary Kay Ash died in 2001. Twenty four years later, her grandson is doing whatever he can to keep the company alive and profitable. Could the company be eliminating the sales force?
Visit the
With Mary Kay being a privately held company, they don’t hate to disclose HOW the profits will go back to supporting the sales force/brand.
On Amazon, there is Subscibe and Save. Thinking this is how customers will be able to get it cheaper.
This is just the next step to bypass the sales force to prove their sales will be stronger through RETAIL.
Boiling the frog.
Fascinating how so many directors and NSDs refuse to take off those rose colored glasses.
It’s interesting to me to read comments from some consultants saying that Amazon should feed the sales to a consultant in the same ZIP code as the purchaser. My question would be, which one? By design, there is a glut of consultants everywhere (because they are actually the target customers, and every company wants to have plenty of those). How would Amazon choose just one?
I think it would be beyond the scope of Amazon to do such a thing. Most likely MK will be following the normal Amazon protocol: rather than shipping individually, they send a shipment of products to an Amazon distribution center and Amazon will take care of the rest. Why would Amazon even consider encouraging or enabling buyers to buy *once* from them and direct their customers to an outside seller. MK still has to play by Amazon rules, which is supposedly a prime motivator to sign up to begin with.
MK marked up the price higher than the “MSR” but speaking for myself, while I do shop for price on Amazon most of the time, the speed, efficiency, and convenience would be worth it for me if I really needed something.
Ordering from consultant = delays in contacting, shipping etc unless I’m ordering online when MKC is doing all the shipping etc. Especially if the consultant is pushing to order directly. I can see paying via Venmo or PayPal, then waiting for the consultant to actually ship. Maybe she’s out of town or is having a busy week at her real job or whatever. Then I finally get the product and I have to check to see if it’s expired and if it is I have to contact the consultant to exchange or return and wait for their response.
Ordering from Amazon = can just throw in my MK stuff along with stuff I normally buy. Or better yet if I use the products regularly then I can put on Subscribe and Save and not have to think about it. As soon as the order is received, Amazon packs and ships. I’m prime, so free shipping, usually within a day or two. If by some chance I don’t like the order or there’s something wrong with it I can return it through Amazon meaning I walk 1/2 mile to the UPS store and they scan the QR and give me a receipt.
I just confirmed and sure enough if Amazon fulfills the orders, they do NOT give the customer’s information to the seller. And TBH, that’s one of the attractions of buying from Amazon, because I don’t necessarily want my info to go to sellers. Especially with the possibility that the seller will give MY information or even push me to have possible future orders go through a consultant instead. The “sales force” can say all they want about how they want to give service and consult and so on, but I doubt most people need instructions on how to wash their face and apply moisturizer that they can’t get online.
It might also be worth the higher price if you knew a consultant was never going to try to recruit you!
I do not believe at all that Mary Kay products are being counterfeited. The market of customers beyond IBCs is not large enough to profit anyone to do so. We know that the actual customer of Mary Kay is the IBC! They are resellers or past consultants trying to make back money after being manipulated into large purchases.
No need to counterfeit when there’s so much unsold product out there to begin with. MK is not a high end popular brand and I doubt it would be worth counterfeiting. I’m sure almost all of the “unauthorized” products online are from consultants trying to empty their rooms and closets of the stuff.
Kali Brigham tried to put the spin that counterfieters are buying EMPTY bottles and refilling them with Non Mary Kay product.
I’ll take things that have never happened for $2000, Alex.
Oh, brother. Anyone can buy empty, brand new containers for pennies apiece. Anyone could print labels on a desktop printer. One pump bottle or lotion jar looks like another.
Not to mention a counterfeiter wouldn’t waste their time on MK. As others have said, there’s so much out there for next to nothing it would be pointless.
The counterfeit lie has been alive for decades. NO. ONE. No one is making fake MK products and selling them. What they ARE doing… is getting genuine MK products for pennies on the dollar from people who are trying to get rid of it and trying to recover at least something.
Some consultants are thinking that the company will allocate commissions from Amazon to active consultants based on the zip code of the customer ordering!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ryan Rogers is likely well aware that Mary Kay Corp is just one class action lawsuit away from FTC action to force them off their MLM distribution model. MKC needs to be very careful how they unwind this, as a class action may also follow any dramatic shift away from their current model, which could also cause a legal chain reaction.
The biggest thing protecting them to date is the moratorium on negative talk about the company from within the downlines. A lot of big spending MK reps would have to discover each other in order to get a class action started. That is no small task when any negative talk in MK is quickly quashed. This moratorium also helps reinforce the illusion that these big spenders are all alone with their deep red ledger, even though nearly every participant, at almost every level, is losing money.
Amway is also still around, so it remains possible, even in 2025, for MLMs to control the narrative inside the MLM hierarchy. But it takes serious cult-like tactics to uphold these illusions in this age of ubiquitous commentary on the efficacy of participation in the pay-to-play endless-chain recruiting model at the heart of these MLM companies.
What is obvious to the outside world is nearly impossible to discern by the folks trapped lower in these MLM downlines. The “Pink Fog” feels just as “real” as the faux reality captured in “Merchants of Deception.”
Ryan Rogers is likely well aware of the pickle he finds himself in. MKC is heading for rough waters. The wise will steer clear of MLM activity altogether.
A class action would be interesting. I’d have to dig back through the contract but I’m sure there’s legalese that states consultants shouldn’t buy more than they can sell, the company is not liable if consultants buy more than they can sell, they’re independent contractors not employees so certain employee protections don’t apply, the company is not responsible for uplines that push frontloading, etc.
The march toward affiliate-only and placement in retail outlets continues!
Looking at one Mary Kay product on Amazon they have the “May be available at a lower price from other sellers, potentially without free Prime shipping” link available. It will be interesting to see if that goes away.
Ellen Bowman Cox, where are you! I can’t wait to hear your dulcet tones detailing your thoughts in elegant, poetic style. Limerick? Haiku, maybe?
She has been so quiet during all of this!!!!!
There once was a Kbot named Ellen.
Her temper was bad beyond tellin’.
She hated translations
And took no vacations.
Failure just was you smellin’.