Is Norwex a Pyramid Scheme? Does It Work in 2020?

So you came across a company called Norwex that offers an income opportunity. Is Norwex a pyramid scheme? Does it really work? How much can you earn with Norwex? I found myself wondering the same questions, so I dug around, tried out some products, and asked some ex-members what the deal is with Norwex. 

What is Norwex?

You might have received a message from an old classmate asking you to join their Norwex business. They claim it's a legitimate way to make money and be your own boss. "A career that changes the world" they say.

Is Norwex a Pyramid Scheme?

Although they avoid the term, Norwex is a multi-level marketing company (MLM) and it operates much like every other MLM to date. The only major difference is this company is in the household and cleaning supply industry. These companies are very similar to pyramid schemes. 

Having said that... 

How Much Money Can You Make with Norwex? 

In some cases, a MLM company will share a public income disclosure statement, but Norwex does not have an income disclosure statement. Getting an accurate income estimate from Norwex consultants is almost impossible.

The reason for that is the consultants don't want to spread negative information about the company, otherwise they won't get people to join under them. They basically have to be positive all the time and praise the company whenever possible. 

The short answer; I don't know how much money Norwex consultants earn. But based on the commission rates, expensive products, and required purchases, as well as what we already know about MLMs, I doubt it's much. When you're done reading this Norwex review, you'll know why I feel that way. 

What About the Products? 

Norwex's most popular products are the microfiber cleaning cloths. These are supposed to be made from microfiber that's 1/200th the size of a human hair. They also contain a micro silver agent that's designed to kill bacteria. The company's best-selling product is called EnviroCloth, which uses a anti-bacterial agent called Baclock. 

How Do You Make Money with Norwex? 

If you're familiar with MLM companies, then you probably already know what this section is going to be about. If not, I'll give you a crash course. This is one of the reasons people ask me "Is Norwex a Pyramid Scheme?". 

Here's how it works: 

To make money with Norwex you need to sign-up as a consultant and buy a Starter kit. One good thing about Norwex is they offer to send you the first kit for free, as long as you can generate $2,000 of sales within your first 90 days. You only have to pay the $9.99 shipping within the U.S. 

Other kits: 

1. Party Starter - $285
2. Silver Package - $277
3. Gold Package - $466
4. Platinum - $748

The Starter kits include marketing material too, as well as order forms and envelopes, if your friends choose to order products from you. There brochures in the package too. 

Your next task it to launch a party. Invite everyone that you know (their exact words) to your house to advertise the Norwex cleaning supplies. From there, you'll can either earn commissions on sales, or recruit more people to join your team to earn more bonuses.

Or  you can attempt to build a team... 

Norwex Success Builder (Compensation Plan):

Norwex Success Builder is the term they use to describe their compensation plan. It works much like any other MLM company, with multiple ranks, commissions, discounts, bonuses, and whatnot. 

Here's a list of the most important ranks: 

1. Sales Consultant - No commissions. 
2. Team Coordinator - Commissions start here. 
3. Sales Leader
4. Executive Sales LEader
5. Vice President Sales Leader
6. And it continues. 

Look, the chances of you even reaching the fourth rank are very slim. The vast majority of members are within these few ranks, most of them being in the first and second. 

Here's a list of the possible commissions and bonuses: 

1. Retail Discount (locked at 35%)
2. Product Commissions (Between 3 - 5%) 
3. Commission on TC's Personal Recruits
4. Commission on Level 1-4 Downline
5. Commission on Group Sales
6. Monthly Car Bonus
7. Other promotions. 

Each rank comes with various bonuses and commission rates. There are also rank requirements. At Team Coordinator, you can earn 3% commissions on sales from Personal Recruits.

Norwex Pros: 

  Wide Selection of Household Cleaning Supplies

As I mentioned earlier, Norwex has hundreds of products for your household. Most of these are bundled together into packages that you can either buy or market as a consultant. Nevertheless, the wide selection of products is nice. 

 Norwex's Mission is to Reduce Toxic Products

Their mission is to reduce the amount of harmful chemicals in households around the world. The idea is to make homes "Healthy" again. It's a nice goal. The idea is to just use the cloths and water...

 Most Norwex Products are Anti-Bacterial

They use microfiber to create towels and whatnot, which are anti-bacterial. The microfiber is an interesting technology and the quality seems to be good. Most people who use the towels say they clean quite well. 

The Cons with Norwex: 

 Very Expensive

Most of Norwex's products are very expensive. Remember the fragrance disk from earlier? Well, their core product, a microfiber cleaning cloth, costs $18.99 for one.

Granted, it is is microfiber, but who can justify spending that much on a cloth? You can find identical ones in any supermarket for a fraction of that. Actually, on Amazon you can find 24-packs of microfiber cloths for around $10. 

 Hosting Parties Aren't Sustainable

In the Consultant marketing material you'll see charts of how much money you can earn by hosting a certain number of parties a week. The problem here is at some point you'll run out of people to invite. Maybe you know enough people for a couple parties, but 8 a week? I don't think so. It's not sustainable.

What happens is you feel desperate, so you start being overly aggressive, marketing wherever you can, to whoever, and nobody appreciates that. I'm sure your friends will start avoiding you. 

Instead, you can learn how to market Norwex products online by targeting warm leads on the internet. That's a much better idea and actually how my entire online business works...

 The Products Can Smell Bad

There are lots of complaints online claiming the cloths start to stink after a few uses. People have tried all kinds of things to get the cloth smelling nice again to no avail. Be careful. 

 It's an MLM 

MLM opportunities rarely work. As a matter of fact, close to 99% of people who join a MLM do not make a profit. Their basically sinkholes for money, and it's not something I recommend.

Looking for a Good Alternative? Try This: 

Personally, I don't think the Norwex opportunity is worth it. I feel like you'll quickly run out of people to invite to your parties and then you'll be forced to aggressively market the products. It's not a good business idea.

You can use our targeted traffic techniques to promote the products and opportunity, but I think I would consider other products within the same niche to make sure your promoting only the best products for your long term success. Stinky rags are hard to sell and you may get a lot of refund requests. 

If you're looking for a much better alternative, I recommend learning how to build niche websites. There are many success stories of niche websites that bring in thousands of dollars a month. 

I happen to know of a really cool online training course that walks you through all the necessary steps to build such websites. It only costs about a dollar a day, and you can build an extremely profitable business. 

So, instead of trying to figure out how MLM compensation plans work and keeping up with the required sales quota, relax, and learn how to really build an online business. 

Thanks for taking the time to read this article. Hopefully now you know the answer to "Is Norwex a Pyramid Scheme?" and you're ready to start a real income opportunity. Leave a comment if you have any questions.