How Much Does the Typical Mary Kay Customer Order in a Year?
When I was in Mary Kay, I often heard directors state the fact that the average woman spends $500 a year on cosmetics.
Notice they didn’t say that the average woman was buying MK products exclusively, but those that wanted to hear that heard it, and directors didn’t try to discourage consultants from planting that $500 figure in their head as what their average customer would spend in a year.
Finding reliable numbers on annual U.S. expenditures on cosmetics is not easy, and the industry guards most of its reporting by requiring hefty subscription rates for reports. The closest I got was a 2005 report by the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. They listed annual average purchases of “Personal care products and services” at $541.
Were you cited similar numbers when in Mary Kay? Were you lead to believe that your customers would be spending a certain amount, on average, annually?
Do you remember how much your best customers spent with you every year?
My best customer was ME. And I wasn’t unusual. Nearly every consultant I knew spent much more on Mary Kay than any of their customers did. After all…the consultants ARE the intended end consumer as far as Mary Kay Corp is concerned. Ignoring my purchases, my best customer spent about $300 a year with me. The average annual purchases were around $100.
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I would say my typical customer would average around $1OO a year, my BEST costumer around $35O-$4OO a year! My best customer expected getting some sort of savings too! LJ, I never heard much $$$$$ talk from my director, just product talk. I in turn expected to sell at least 2 Miracle sets to a client a year on top of ALL of the other products they would buy off my shelves every month or 2! LOL, didn’t happen!!!!!! I had a client that spent $46. every 3 months, so that’s $23 profit, right? WRONG $3.5O PCP gift, $.6O Look Book, $1. Gas $.5O packaging $4. website, and having to order from MK to get disount every 3 months, I think I ended up minus profit………..
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I think my “best” customer would have spent about $ 200 per year. That singular – did you notice? The few of the remaining probably came in at under $ 100 per year.
Yep, we were quoted $500 or $600 a year by SD. Ugh, I didn’t have any of ”THOSE” customers!
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My very best customers averaged $50-75 a quarter…they were young single women or young Moms who worked and they bought every new color collection that came out. They tried all the look cards and collected the colors of the looks they liked the best. I had about 5 of them.
so I guess you could say they spent about $2-300 per year each.
About 25% of my cusotmers used the skin care regularly and a foundation and I would say they spent about $200-250 per year.
The others were hit and miss, they used part of the skin color or maybe just a few of the color products and mascara regularly.
The ones that bought the rollup bags, I recruited, so that shot those sales in the A–!
As WWIT said, between the web site, demos, samples, look books, look cards, PCP, gas, unit dues, event costs, the profits were slimmer than you thought they would be by all the claims made.
I have to say MK did a good job of quoting the sales and not mentioning the extra costs of doing business. And when you count the number of times they changed packaging or discontinued colors, it was really hard to make a good profit.
I was my own best customer, between personal use and gifts for friends and family I probably spent $1000 wholesale or more per year. I was a good little IBC, I used everything MK, because they always said “You can’t sell what you don’t use!”
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Let’s see. I think the most any one person bought from me in a year would total $120. Incomes aren’t all that high in my area or my circle of friends. When I did parties, the girls would use a less expensive brand of skin care and then pick up some MK lipstick/blush/eyeshadow because they felt they got better value that way.
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I knew when I started out that I did not want to “sell” Mary Kay. I just wanted to be able to try out the stuff for awhile for 50% discount (pretty much placing it about the same price as makeup at Walmart). Instead I offer the products for my cost to my friends and family. My mom, aunts, and one friend’s mother buy the most (second to me but I knew that going into it). I try to break even in selling them products (they all try very hard to be sure they help me do that) and enjoy whatever I buy for myself. I ignore all the emails that come in from my sales director “hurry buy $___ and our unit is #1 again!” because that doesn’t benefit me. I do not try to convince people why their life is not complete without Mary Kay. I do have a bumper sticker on my car because that way people who want to buy it can contact me and I don’t have to say a word. “Oh you sell Mary Kay?? My consultant just moved and I need some foundation!!” Easy peasie, everybody’s happy.
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Megan, I am new at this and I was wondering if you have to report to the IRS as a hobby or what?
I use Mk for the same reason- the discount and personal use for friends and family. I have access to the section 2 stuff in case I want extras for gifts or travel and I figure, if I am purchasing the minimum of 200.00 a year, it’s a good deal.
thanks
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Hobbies don’t report to the IRS. Only business income is taxed. If you’re doing something as a hobby, then your costs are your costs.
But if you are selling product for a profit, it’s not a hobby. If you’re taking money from others because you’re charging them more than wholesale for the product, then you’re running a business, not a hobby.
(disclaimer: I am not a tax accountant.)
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Thank you for your statement Megan. I do not feel alone in the way I use and sell Mary Kay products now.
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Thanks LJ. I had doubts because Mk I guess sends out a tax statement, but I suppose that if it is shown that I only use and sell at cost and that no profit is made, then it is in fact hobby. I will talk to my tax guy anyway just to be on the safe side.
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Hi, All,
Don’t sell MK anymore but I still love the products. Just ordered some today from a consultant I have yet to meet. I am willing to pay full price for 2 reasons: I want SERVICE, and I want NO TAX CRAP to deal with. I’ve tried so many other skin care lines and can’t find one that works as well. Must admit, I miss all the fru-fru that went with the selling.
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It’s a product I like. I admit the whole dressing up doing the parties etc. is not for me, which is why I sell to my friends at discounts and enjoy the product discount as well. Good for you Shazam, it’s about knowing what works for you and running with it.
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Oh, oh, oh, do Kbots still wear skirts and panyhose for skin care classes? Considering the very skimpy way girs dress today, I can’t imagine that. Panty hose? On today’s young women? Do they even know what those are?
I remember several years ago Amway started having trouble making women dress like it was still 1963. I’d get the biggest laugh when these women in their 50′s and 60′s teaching from stage about the importance of skirts/hose. The young women paid no attention.
It would be like your mother trying to get you to wear poodle skirts to school. Now, unless it was some slutty Brittany Spears get-up, there’s no way that’s gonna happen.
I just gotta know if the gals are still going to meetings/trainings in that outfit?
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I’m an active MK consultant. I know this is an old post, but this goes to Trigger. They still tell you that you should but a good portion at our unit don’t. I just use whatever is trendy and comfortable. I’m a plus size gal, so for me I think wearing hose and high heels would be more unprofessional than wearing them. I mean, there is no way I’d be able to hide the discomfort for long and I know lots of PYT’s (pretty young things) That would just laugh their butts off, if I showed up looking like someone from the 60′s. So, short answer is that I wear what I’m comfortable with as long as its tasteful, like I skip jeans and flip-flops..I just use common sense. Oh and I do wear a skirt at our unit meetings to be respectful.
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