Tupperware is a well-established company with trusted products used by a very large number of people around the globe.
They also offer people the chance to become a consultant and progress through the ranks of the company. In this review, I’ll show you what to expect.
Tupperware Business Review
I want to be upfront with you here… I don’t know much about Tupperware itself nor do I have much of an interest in it. I do understand multi-level marketing though so I can help you decide if the business opportunity is worth pursuing or not.
The company was founded in 1946 by Earl Tupper and specialises in innovative kitchenware solutions such as plastic storage containers and the like.
This brand is incredibly well known throughout the world, their products are said to be in 9/10 homes.
They distribute these products through ‘parties’ using an mlm business system and boast over $2.6 billion in yearly global revenue.
The story goes that Brownie Wise pioneered the very first home party in 1948 and it has been going strong now for almost 70 years.
The Tupperware Business Opportunity
The business opportunity is primarily aimed at people interested in socialising and having fun while creating a bit of extra income in the process.
From what I can see there is not a huge amount of hype about getting rich quickly and there is a strong focus on the product sales which is a great sign.
The general idea is to buy some of the products yourself, then share these with others you know at ‘home parties’ where you can make sales.
You can also earn commissions based on the efforts of your team, this is what multi level marketing is. For example, if you recruit Jane and she recruits Samantha, you will earn a small commission based on what they both sell or buy for themselves.
Compensation Plan Break Down
The Tupperware compensation plan breaks down how you can earn money within the Tupperware business. And in this section, I’ll do my best to break it down for you.
Becoming a Consultant
To get started you’ll need to buy a $99 business starter kit which gives you some of the basics in getting started with your first Tupperware party.
You can start by making a down payment of $39 and if you make $1000 in personal sales within 60 days, the company will pay the remaining $60 for you.
Some Important Concepts To Understand
The company uses various terminology to explain how things work and it can become quite confusing so I thought this would help.
Firstly, a unit is just your downline organisation, capped at 3 levels deep. All of the team commissions I explain later for consultant and manager ranks below are based on your 3 level downline ‘unit’.
Second, there are 12 ranks within the company and the more effort you put in, the higher the rank you will achieve. You start out as a consultant and work your way up, with the ultimate goal being to reach ‘Presidential Director’ rank. The higher your rank, the higher your commission percentages on team sales, the bigger your bonuses and ultimately, the more money you will make.
It is only once you get past the Manager ranks that you will earn beyond your 3 level downline unit.
Earning As a Consultant
The ‘consultant’ rank allows you to earn a 25% commission on any items you personally sell and you’ll receive 25% discount on anything you purchase yourself since you are buying at wholesale. If your sales volume exceeds $1,500 you will earn an additional 5% bonus from the company. If your personal sales reach $10,000 or more in a given month, your bonus will then be 10% of the total volume of sales.
For example: if you sell $5k in products yourself in June, you’ll receive a bonus of $500 and $1250 on top of this given the standard 25% commission rate. So your total earnings for that month would be $1750. Not bad. That is a lot of selling though and it would take time to work your way to that level of sales, but anything is possible with enough effort.
As mentioned, it only costs $99 to get started as a consultant. In order to remain qualified and keep your business running though, you must be making $250 worth of personal product sales every 4 months. These can include your own personal purchases and your direct customers. Realistically, I think most people can work their way into $250 in sales every 4 months so I wouldn’t be too concerned.
The Manager Ranks
The ‘Manager’ rank allows you to earn in the same way as a consultant, except now you get 2 addittional performance based bonuses as explained below.
#1 Profit Plus Bonus
You are now eligible to earn the ‘Profit Plus’ bonus which is 2% of the commissionable volume of whatever you sell and whatever your team (unit) sells. The ‘commissionable volume’ is 75% of the total product value. For example, if your team sells $2000 in products for the month, the commissionable volume would be $1500. The ‘Profit Plus’ bonus would then amount to $30.
You will continue to earn this bonus up until you reach ‘Director’ rank and it grows from 4% to 6% depending which kind of Manager you are. This is illustrated below:
#2 The Vanguard Bonus
Just like the bonus above, you will continue earning this bonus up until you reach ‘Director’ rank, and it is based on total commissionable sales volume of your team as shown below:
To earn the Manager rank you must be doing $500 worth of personal sales every 4 months AND you must have at least 3 active recruits on your first level who are doing $2,500 worth of sales in any given 4 month period.
Director In Qualifcation Program
This is the ‘DIQ’ program which is a ‘qualifying’ stage aimed at preparing you for the official Director status. I won’t go nuts on every little detail but just know that this is a kind of ‘rank’ between Manager and Director and certain performance based requirements must be met to proceed past this.
Director Rank
The Director rank opens up new opportunities and is where you stop earning ‘unit profit plus’ on just 3 levels of your downline and start earning ‘team profit plus’ which goes down an unlimited depth.
This means you can now earn the profit plus bonus on everyone in your downline all the way down until you reach the next Director in your team. Once you reach another Director within your downline organisation, this particular bonus is capped.
Star Director and Beyond
In order to qualify for this you need to have a Director ranked referral directly under you on level 1. This allows you to continue earning the ‘team profit plus’ bonus I showed you above, however, now it doesn’t just stop when you reach the next Director in your downline. Now you will earn a set percentage of any sales volume within your Directors team as well.
It gets pretty elaborate to try and explain things from this point forward and ultimately, I think it’s unnecessary to re-write the comp plan. Just know the higher your rank the better this gets for you! This is also where the concept of ‘generations’ comes into play and where you earn can start earning a long way down the line based on the efforts of your entire downline organisation.
The link to the offical comp plan above really does illustrate this well and it’s worth going through if you are considering joining the company and want to build a full-time income.
Performance Based Bonuses
There are many different bonuses on offer for advancing in rank and reaching certain milestones within the company, including holiday and car bonuses among others.
Maintaining Your Business
If you fall below certain sales quotas you are made ‘inactive open’ for up to 8 months during which time you cannot build your team or access the standard consultant pricing. If you don’t reactivate by submitting at least $350 in cumulative sales by the 9th month, you essentially lose your business. I explained the basic requirements for Consultant and Manager above if you want to clarify these.
What I Liked
- Potentially a fun and lucrative opportunity for the right person
- The have a well established and trusted brand
- Not very many complaints online
- Very ethically run and strong focus on product sales
What I Didn’t Like
- They don’t share the full compensation plan on their website
- They primarily teach the ‘warm market’ technique for building your business
Final Thoughts
From what I can see, this is a great company with a very well known and trusted product range. There is no doubt that a motivated individual willing to put in the work could see some incredible results. I must admit, Tupperware isn’t my thing but there is obviously a strong market for these products and people are making money.
If you’re into the party based networking and sales model then this could work well. However, if you are like me and don’t really like chasing family and friends to try to sell products then there are definitely other options worth considering.
Either way, this is definitely not a scam. I hope this review has been helpful to you and all the best with your entrepreneurial ventures!
Actually there are currently two kit options
The summer kit is now $60 to get started and you receive over $240 in product and supplies. You also receive 3 months of the Pro website with a zoom account for FREE. You will also receive a welcome bonus for joining as well as a party bonus when you sell just $500 by the end of the month. When you reach $1000 in sales within 60 days, you will get a credit of $60 on your next order. There are also confident start prizes you may earn during your first 13 weeks of business. They also have incentives every week/month for gifts you may earn based on your sales. Oh and one BIG thing that most companies do not give you is retail sales credit on those samples you can purchase. Most of them you get full retail credit even though your cost minus 35% in other words.. sample retail value $100 your cost $65 but you get sales credit for her $100 !! You also have access to excellent online training, Facebook , zoom all kinds of trainings for selling online. They even have kick parties and video demonstrations you may use on your online parties if you are camera shy.
The second “kit” option is actually not a kit. You receive ALL of the same benefits listed above. This option is $15 no product no materials but same free website, Welcome bonus, $60 credit everything!
I will have to say this, selling online has never been my thing. I was an in home party only girl. But right now with Covid-19 we have been forced to learn new ways of doing our business and we have all had record breaking sales since March! If I had known I could have this much increase in my business by selling online I would have done it 5 years ago when I started.
A correction to some of your information above. You only have to sell 4,000 a month to get the profit plus bonus of 10% more in commission not 10,000. Another correction if a consultant goes inactive by not selling a cumulative total of $350 in a rolling 4 month period they will go inactive status For 8 months until they reach the $350 in a rolling 4 month period. As an inactive consultant they are not able to recruit new team members, they are unable to purchase samples, but they STILL receive their 25% commission on all sales
Managers only receive their extra vanguard bonus if they have $500 in personal sales minimum and their entire team three levels deep Along with their sales have a combined total of $2500. They and their team perform as a manager team in order to be compensated as one. They are allowed 4 misses per calendar year. They also receive a cash bonus for stepping into a manager position. They also earn extra gifts as a manager performing at a manager level.
I made Director level in 6 weeks and earned a company car in 8 weeks as well as a trip to Hawaii for my husband and I ( earned in 3 months ) I also earned a trip to Cancun and South Carolina. This business is extremely rewarding and like any other business you will only get out of it what effort you put into it. By the way You get a new car every two years, they pay the taxes, license, insurance, tires all I pay is fuel and oil changes. My success story is not uncommon. I know many people who have grown much larger organizations than myself.
My point is this, Tupperware takes very good care of their sales force. They give us all of the tools we need to become successful. It is up to us whether we want to exceed and put in the work to get there.
I have been with Tupperware for 5 years, and have just recently left. Anytime you would like to discuss what really goes on as a Tupperware consultant/manager…I’d be happy to fill you in.
Hi Kristin,
Would be more than happy for you to share here, with everyone else. You can do so anonymously if you like. I think it’s always nice to hear from both sides of the fence, this is what helps people make more informed decisions. So your story would be greatly appreciated by folks I am sure.
The overall startup expense is far greater than their $99 startup kit. The person hosting the party has to foot the bill for refreshments, in some cases fuel costs as well as the time element involved. I tracked my wife’s expenses for her first party which came to just over $240 (including the startup kit) and based on her sales she will only make $48 in commissions. Also, this is based on “IF” the purchaser does not change their mind and back out of the transaction after the party. You do pose a nice argument however, the overall cost far exceeds the expectations posted by Tupperware.
Hi Kevin, thanks for your input and I appreciate you sharing your insights on this.
It’s always worth allowing more than the signup cost with these things I think. I guess it varies depending on which samples you buy, how extravagant the party itself is and and so on. I still wouldn’t say the cost is crazy and with enough determination and hustling you can succeed. But you are right, the cost goes beyond just $99 that’s for sure.
I wrote an article about selling Tupperware online where I show folks how to get started for free (with a free website) which might be worth checking out. Granted, this is primarily a face to face biz but it can be done, especially these days. This could increase your customers and decrease costs for things like refreshments. Anyway, thanks for dropping by and I hope this helps!
Gas is definitely part of any cost as a home business as you travel to where you work, the party. However, one of the perks of a home business is the tax write off. All the gas expenses to your parties, to the meetings and whatever refreshments you may have incurred yourself to do the party are part of your business write off. If a host do spend the money on extra refreshments for her guests to visit, she does qualify for some extra incentives in Tupperware for being a gracious host.
All told, the investment requirement to start a business in Tupperware is so minimal at $39-$99 which already got you over $400 worth of products to get started compared to starting a full on brick and mortar store or some other companies. This also allows a person to get started on her first few parties without investing on any other product until she is ready or see the need arise for her personal consumption or for future use because the product in her kit are well thought popular items for a party.
For sure, well said 🙂 I wasn’t aware of the ‘gracious host’ incentive though, that’s cool.
I think that is one of the awesome things about owning a business (network marketing or otherwise), you can claim a lot of things as a deduction to lower your income tax liability.
Hi. Good assessment. One thing, though, we consultants purchase at a 25% discount not a 75% discount. The sampling program allows up to a 35% discount on newly released items, but we have never had a 75% discount. Thank you, Tim.
Haha, yes you are correct! I think I was meaning that reps only pay 75% of the retail price for products and somehow that got spewed out lol, I do appreciate you chiming in on this and I’ve updated the review 🙂
That is pretty cool about the 35% discount on on newly released items you mentioned, I wasn’t aware of that and I think this is a good thing. Anyway, thanks for commenting I appreciate your insights!