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.