Pink Zebra is a company that manufactures and distributes home decor accessories, candles, lights, and fragrance products.
The company also has an MLM compensation plan in place, meaning that you can make an income for distributing its products to retail customers as its “Independent Consultant” as well as for recruiting other people as Pink Zebra’s Consultants who will distribute the company’s products themselves…
This raises a few questions…
- Is Pink Zebra a legit MLM company or a scam?
- Are its products worth it?
- Does its compensation plan offer the potential for you to achieve your financial goals?
- Or is it just another pyramid scheme like the ones who leave those who join them hundreds of dollars poorer after having wasted hundreds of hours of their time?
In this Pink Zebra review, you’ll discover everything you need to know to make an informed decision about whether this company is worth your time, attention, and money or not, such as
- What Pink Zebra is
- How Pink Zebra works
- The company’s background and owners
- How much it costs to join
- Its compensation plan
- If it’s a pyramid scheme or not
- The products it offers
- Pros and cons
- and much more
Let’s get cracking!
Pink Zebra Overview
Name: Pink Zebra
Owners: Tom & Kelly Gaines
Price: $129 – $199 (One-time Payment) + shipping and local applicable taxes + $11.95 per month for a replicated website
Official Website: pinkzebrahome.com
Suggested? So and so…
Increase your chances of reaching success in multi-level marketing by following a dedicated MLM course.
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- Replicated Website
- Established Company
- Provides Training
- Unique Products
- Complicated Compensation Plan
- MLM Business Model
- Low Income Potential
- Saturated Niche
Before I move on to the actual Pink Zebra MLM review, I want to reveal to you some general MLM statistics that will probably SHOCK you to your very core.
10 Shocking MLM Statistics
- According to FTC, 99% of all MLM participants lose money
- The chances of profiting by running your own small business are 38% more than by joining an MLM
- The profitability rate of running an online business is 10% - 20% higher than the profitability rate of joining an MLM
- The odds of winning from a single spin of the wheel in a game of roulette in Las Vegas could be as much as 300 times higher than actually profiting in an MLM
- According to AARP Foundation, 47% of MLM participants lose money and 27% make no money whatsoever
- Among the 26% who actually earn a profit, 53% of them earn less than $5000 a year
- 39% of MLM participants quit because pitching crappy products and services to friends and family jeopardized their relationships
- At least 50% of MLM reps quit within 1 year after joining an MLM and 95% quit within 10 years
- 75% of those who have joined and left an MLM state that they would never join another MLM in their life
- A 2018 poll of 1049 MLM reps across various companies found that most of them make less than 70 cents an hour, 20% of them never made a sale, 60% of them had earned less than $500 in sales over the past five years, and 32% of them acquired credit card debt to finance their MLM involvement
…until you’ve taken a good look at these shocking MLM statistics.
What is Pink Zebra About?
As mentioned earlier, Pink Zebra is a company that manufactures and distributes home decor, scented candles, and fragrance products among others…
The company was founded back in 1999 by Tom and Kelly Gaines (husband & wife). Those two actually met in a candle factory where they both used to work.
Pink Zebra slowly grew during its 6 first years and it eventually became USA’s 3rd largest candle manufacturer.
The company’s signature product is scented candle “Sprinkles”, which are basically scented soy wax beads used to create custom candles (see image below).
In 2010, Tom and Kelly decided to expand their business by employing the MLM business model.
According to them, their greatest strength is the in-depth understanding they have for their customers
The company’s mission is very simple and it is to change people’s lives for the better.
You can find a lot more about Pink Zebra, its founders, mission, products, policies, certificates, etc on its official website.
Below, you can find a short video recorded by Tom and Kelly a quick overview of their products…
Pink Zebra's Products and Prices
According to its website, Pink Zebra manufactures its products employing only the best of the best standards and regulations from around the world.
The company’s on-site lab developed Soft Soy, a proprietary blend of eco-friendly soy wax and dependable food-grade, paraffin wax to capitalize on the best performing components of each.
Pink Zebra’s perfumers created a responsible blend of natural and manmade ingredients. Their eco-friendly approach uses naturals where sustainable and avoids them where overharvesting causes harm.
Pink Zebra produces and distributes hundreds of different products so for the sake of keeping this short I am not going to list down every single one of them.
Some of the company’s main products are
- Sprinkles
- Soaks
- Lotions
- Soaps
- Candleholders
- Simmer pots and lights
- etc
All the products are extremely affordable ranging from $5 – $50 each.
So, How Can I Become a Pink Zebra Consultant?
You can sign up as a Pink Zebra consultant through the company’s official website or through the website of another Consultant.
To complete the signup process, you’ll have to fill in a form with your personal information, as well as purchase one out of two Pink Zebra’s Enrollment Kits which cost $129 or $199 + shipping + local taxes as well as a replicated website which costs $11.95 per month.
The enrollment kits contain several products for sampling, product catalogs, brochures, order forms, and other tools that are going to help you jump-start your business.
As a Pink Zebra Consultant, you also get access to monthly live webinars, and what they call “ZebraNET”… ZebraNET is your personal back office workstation through which you will manage your business, view reports through analytics tools, place orders, track your sales, manage your recruits, etc.
To remain active as a Consultant and qualify for commissions, you will be required to maintain a minimum retail sales volume of $150 during a rolling six-month period.
So, let’s start talking money, shall we?
Pink Zebra's Compensation Plan
The majority of MLM companies have so overly complicated compensation plans that it feels like you need to have a rocket scientist doctorate to understand just their first paragraph.
Pink Zebra’s compensation plan is no exception.
Nonetheless, I’ll try my best to get you up to speed! 
So, Pink Zebra compensates you for your sales and recruiting efforts in 6 different ways.
- Minimum Base Commissions
- Enhanced Personal Commissions
- Sponsoring Bonus
- Team Level Bonuses
- Mentoring Bonus
- Generation Bonuses
1 • Minimum Base Commissions
You earn 25% commissions from all your retail product sales.
For instance, if a customer purchases either personally or through your website $100 worth of Pink Zebra products, you pocket $25.
2 • Enchanced Personal Commissions
Earn 5% -10% increased commissions from your retail sales when you surpass a certain retail sales volume per month.
- $1 – $899 per month = 25% commissions
- $900 – $1999 per month = 30% commissions
- $2000+ per month = 35% commissions
For instance, if you sell $1800 worth of products this month, you’ll pocket 30% of it which equals to $540.
3 • Sponsoring Bonus
Pink Zebra pays you a monthly 7% commission of the total sales volume of other Consultants that you have personally recruited to Pink Zebra.
For instance, when one of your personally enrolled Pink Zebra Consultants has a monthly sales volume of $1000, you’ll earn $70 for that month.
4 • Team Level Bonuses
This Team Level Bonus is paid via a uni-level compensation structure.
In a uni-level structure, all Pink Zebra Consultants you have personally recruited are placed right below you (level 1).
All Pink Zebra Consultants your personally recruited Consultants recruit, are placed right below them (level 2), and so on (see image below).
This Team Level Bonus is calculated as 3% of the total sales volume of Consultants up to four levels below you and is paid monthly.
For instance, if the sales volume of the Consultants on your 3rd level is $10.000 this month, you will earn $300.
5 • Mentoring Bonus
When you reach the Executive Manager level and higher, you earn a Mentoring Bonus which iscalculated as 2% of all the group volume of everyone in your group. This bonus includes all the sales volume of all downline team members to unlimited depth down to the next person who has achieved the rank of Executive Manager or higher.
When you reach the Director level the percentage of this bonus increases to 3%.
6 • Generation Bonus
When you achieve the Director rank and an Executive Manager in your downline becomes a Director as well, that Director becomes your 1st
Generation, and you will begin receiving a 3% generation bonus on that Director’s personal group volume.
When that 1st Generation Director has someone in their downline who becomes a Director, that person becomes your 2nd Generation, and if you have reached the Executive Director rank, you will begin receiving a 2% bonus on that 2nd Generation Director’s personal group volume.
When that 2nd Generation Director has someone in their downline who becomes a Director, that person becomes your 3rd Generation, and if you have reached the Presidential Director rank, you will begin receiving a 2% bonus on that 3rd Generation Director’s personal group volume.
Generation bonuses are paid to unlimited depth in each generation until another Director or higher rank is found.
You can take a look at Pink Zebra’s full compensation plan right here (starts on page 28).
Please note that Pink Zebra’s compensation plan might undergo changes from time to time so by the time you read this review, some of the info, the commission rates, the rank bonuses, etc that are displayed in the link I shared with you right above might not be that accurate.
If you still have questions about Pink Zebra’s compensation plan, you could contact its support team at telephone number 1.855.746.5932 or you could locate an independent Consultant through Pink Zebra’s official website and contact them.
Or you could contact me at harry@dearboss-iquit.com and I will do my best to help you out.
Pink Zebra's Ranks & Qualifications
How Much Does It Cost to Become Pink Zebra's Consultant?
In order to become a Pink Zebra Consultant, you’ll need to purchase an enrollment kit.
At the time of this review, the two enrollment kits that are available are the
- Starter Kit – $129 (One-time payment + shipping + taxes)
- Deluxe Kit – $199 (One-time payment + shipping + taxes)
Please note that from time to time, the prices and contents of those kits might fluctuate so the information that is displayed here about them might not be accurate by the time you read this review.
In addition to the mandatory purchase of an enrollment kit, upon your signup as a Consultant, you’ll also have to purchase a replicated Pink Zebra website which costs $11.95 per month.
Is Pink Zebra a Pyramid Scheme?
Most of the time it’s very hard to distinguish between a legit MLM company and a pyramid scheme.
The video below will help you understand how to spot and avoid pyramid schemes in general.
The main difference between an MLM and a pyramid scheme is that MLMs give you the opportunity to earn commissions by selling actual products or services to other people in retail without having to recruit them while with a pyramid scheme the only way to earn money is by recruiting other people into the scheme.
Not all MLMs are legitimate. If the money you make through an MLM is based on your sales to the public, it may be a legitimate one. If the money you make is based on the number of people you recruit and your sales to them, it’s not legit. It’s a pyramid scheme. Pyramid schemes are illegal, and the vast majority of their participants lose money. – Federal Trade Commission
Since with Pink Zebra, you have the option to earn commissions by selling the company’s products to retail customers, I have to conclude that Pink Zebra is NOT a pyramid scheme.
Pink Zebra Pros
- Provides Training
- Replicated Website
- Established Company
- Unique Products
1 • Provides Training
Something that the majority of MLMs don’t offer to their newly recruited members is proper training on how to actually make the most with the company (no wonder that such a small percentage of MLM participants manage to make a profit).
Pink Zebra offers some training within ZebraNET as well as monthly live webinars, to help you understand how the company works, its compensation plan, how to market your website and your products, how to throw hosting parties, etc.
The training is not top-notch but it’s way better to have some training than none.
There are also a lot of training videos posted by other Pink Zebra Consultants on YouTube.
2 • Replicated Website
Upon signing up as a Pink Zebra Consultant, the company provides you a pre-made website (replica of pinkzebrahome.com) which people can visit and purchase Pink Zebra products online.
When someone who visits your replicated website purchases one or more Pink Zebra products through it, you earn up to 35% commissions of the total amount of money paid by that customer.
In addition, if someone signs up as a Pink Zebra Consultant through your replicated website you become their sponsor and they become part of your 1st level of recruits.
If marketed the right way, this website could help you maximize your customers, commissions, and recruits.
If your business is not on the internet, then your business will be out of business – Bill Gates
3 • Established Company
The thing that I like the most about Pink Zebra is that it’s been operating for 20 years now.
A company that has been up and running for that long probably offers products that are high-quality and in high demand which means that you won’t have a very hard time finding potential buyers or even recruits.
Companies that operate for so many years are considered well-established, with a loyal clientele and high reputation, something that makes them unlikely to shut down any time soon.
4 • Unique Products
It’s undeniable that Pink Zebra’s products offer a very unique approach to design and fragrance, especially the scented soy wax sprinkles…
Some of the candle shades, holders, and other accessories are weird in a good kind of way. To tell you the truth, I would actually like to own some of them myself 😛
Everything seems to be of high-quality as well.
I’m guessing that people will probably be naturally attracted to most of Pink Zebra’s products so you won’t have great difficulty selling them.
I also conducted a little research online and it seems that a lot of people are posting positive reviews about Pink Zebra’s products to this very day (although I guess that a lot of them are probably Pink Zebra’s Consultants).
Pink Zebra Cons
- Complicated Compensation Plan
- MLM Business Model
- Low Income Potential
- Saturated Niche
1 • Complicated Compensation Plan
Team Level bonuses, enhanced commissions, 1st, and 2nd generations, uni-level structure, percentages here and there, different ranks, group bonuses, blah blah blah…
A person who is relatively new to MLMs doesn’t stand a single chance of really grasping Pink Zebra’s compensation plan.
This is not a random occurrence though…
MLMs deliberately make their compensation plans so complicated in order to confuse people into joining them.
I am not making things up…
Did you know that according to research, complexity sells better than simplicity?
This is actually called “complexity bias” and marketers use it all the time.
They do this by incorporating confusing language or insignificant details into product packaging or sales copy.
Most people who buy “ammonia-free” hair dye, or a face cream which “contains peptides,” don’t fully understand what those claims mean but they see them and imagine that they signify a product that’s superior to alternatives.
People are way more likely to choose a complex product rather than a simple one based on the assumption that the simple one is way too simple to really work as expected and that the complicated one is too complicated to understand so it must work.
2 • MLM Business Model
As mentioned earlier, I am not fond of the MLM business model in general for many reasons…
First of all, the success rates of MLM participants are awfully low (74% – 99%)
Secondly, I hate selling…
And thirdly, I’ve heard so many stories of people losing all their friends, family, and money due to the pushy and sleazy practices they were being taught by their “mentors” that I have become repulsed by the MLM business model in general.
It’s just not worth the trouble in my mind…
3 • Low Income Potential
According to an income report Pink Zebra published back in 2015 (see image below), the average Consultant made $842 during that year.
This is way too low.
After conducting further research, according to an Indeed article, the average Pink Zebra Consultant in the United States makes approximately $50,000 per year, which is 37% below the national average.
This estimate was derived from 23 data points collected directly from employees, users, and past job advertisements placed on Indeed.
4 • Saturated Niche
The internet is full of Pink Zebra Consultants…
If you hit the keyword “Pink Zebra” on Google you’ll come across tons of blogs and YouTube videos reviewing the company’s products, giving tips, analyzing the compensation plan, answering questions, etc.
I read somewhere that there are 79.000 Pink Zebra Consultants in the US alone.
This is a lot of competition…
And the more competition there is, the harder it will be for you to break your way into the market… And the harder it will be for you to recruit other people as Consultants.
That’s why usually the ones who manage to make good money with an MLM are those who get in really early when the company is still a “fresh” money-making opportunity in the eyes of other people.
The majority of the time, the later you get in an MLM company, the less your chances of building a substantial income with it and I think that right now this applies to Pink Zebra as well.
Is Pink Zebra Suggested?
If you are interested in building an income by selling home decor and candle products, then Pink Zebra might be a solid choice for you.
On the other hand, to tell you the truth, I am not at all fond of the MLM business model in general…
- The success rate of their representatives is awfully low
- They are way too volatile and unstable
- You need to invest a ton of money, time, and energy until you manage to make a profit (if you ever actually make a profit)
- And most of them focus on recruiting people instead of actually providing an actual valuable and beneficial product/service
Plus, in order to make money with the MLM business model, you’ll have to turn into a sleazy salesperson and I really hate selling as much as I hate being sold to.
12 Responses
Pink Zebra may be legit but I have to wonder how long and how much work it would take someone to even reach a “Manager” or even “Executive Manager” level?
I understand that most things can be accomplished with a lot of hard work but it’s hard to see this happening when their compensation plan is so complicated. And who or what is tasked with making all those calculations?
I don’t put much trust in averages either because it doesn’t give a true picture of what is really taking place.
When you mention a “Replicated Website” does this mean there is no work to do or do you still have to write content for the products?
Wayne
Every worthwhile achievement from reaching higher ranks in an MLM to becoming a pro in playing the guitar, requires investing a lot of time and energy.
The calculations about the commissions, sales, downlines, team members, generations, etc are all handled almost automatically through ZebraNET.
The replicated website is basically a website exactly like pinkzebrahome.com which you can use as an eshop or a portal to recruit other people as Pink Zebra’s Consultants.
You don’t have to write any content for it, everything will be in place and I don’t really think that you have the authority to edit it.
Harry
I’m very skeptical of MLM’s but I wanted to learn more about Pink Zebra because I actually like the products although they are a little bit overpriced.
I guess I searched for Pink Zebra more out of curiosity than anything. I was just curious if I would get a discount as a distributor. But it sounds like there are a lot of other hidden costs that I wasn’t thinking about. The statistics you share are eye-opening.
Do you know if there are any legit candle businesses out there that are not MLM’s or am I better off sticking with affiliate marketing?
There are definitely a ton of legit candle businesses that are not MLMs but if they don’t have an MLM compensation plan in place the only way to make money with them is to become their employee or maybe buy their candles and sell them at higher prices which frankly doesn’t make sense.
If you are that interested in candles and affiliate marketing, you could operate an affiliate marketing business in the candle niche.
I am pretty sure that there will be a lot of profitable candle-related affiliate programs out there.
Harry
Hi! I really liked the cartoon of the guy losing his shirt gambling and the other guy losing everything working at an MLM. I’m not fond of MLMs either.
I have a question. I see you listed the fact that Pink Zebra hands to it’s members a replicated website as a positive feature. But websites that are replications of others are negatively viewed by Search Engines and it’s difficult to make them rank well. Is there a way we can avoid this with Pink Zebra’s replicated websites?
Replicated websites are indeed bad for SEO but Pink Zebra’s training focuses on marketing it through YouTube, and social media and not on driving search engine traffic.
If you have SEO experience, you could create another relevant SEOed website of your own and create links back to your Pink Zebra e-shop.
Or you could drive traffic through paid ads.
There are a lot of options to make it work 😉
Harry
I am not a fan of MLMs just like you.
With Pink Zebra I like that it’s an established company with unique products. Also, the fact that they provide a replica website is a bonus even at $11.99 per month. 47% unsuccessfully rate is not surprising when it comes to MLMs, and I even thought that figure would be higher.
I am not a fan of the sleazy sales approaches, though Pink Zebra does look better than most MLMs and might be right for someone who is a good salesperson and likes home decor and candles.
This Project 24 seems interesting.
Truth is that Pink Zebra is among the most legit MLM companies I’ve come across till now…
Let me know if you have any questions about Project 24. I’d be happy to help!
Harry
So many MLMs still hanging around.
I can’t believe that some people are still gullible for this type of advertising or money-making scheme. Pink Zebra sounds like every other crafty selling type of store, which probably goes hard during Wintertime. I can’t see anyone making money.
But what you are talking about at the bottom of the blog seems pretty interesting. I will look a bit more into that. It seems more plausible.
Well, there are still people who are earning money with MLMs… They might be just a small percentage but they exist nonetheless. And MLM is definitely not a money-making scheme but a legit business and marketing model.
It’s just that most MLM companies teach people to employ it the wrong way, focusing 99% on recruitment and this usually blows up in their face.
Let me know if you have any questions regarding my recommendations.
Harry
So I have a few questions. Are you promoting the MLM or are you trying to move people away from the business?
I really enjoyed reading about the company. I did love how you added the statistics about how many people don’t do well within the MLM model. It’s sad really.
The model could be very lucrative if promoted correctly.
I was a part of another MLM company and I am in the 75% of people who would never join another one.
I’ll try that Project 24 you mentioned!
Jay
I am neither promoting Pink Zebra nor trying to move people away from it…
I just reviewed the company as an impartial 3rd person…
Pink Zebra seems legit, it’s standing for 20 years, and its products seem high-quality and unique…
On the other hand, the MLM model, in general, is unstable and doesn’t offer great income potential for the average person.
Harry