Is Stella & Dot a Scam? Legit Fashion and Jewelry MLM or Pyramid Scheme?

Stella & Dot Review

The overview and rankings

What to look for in a MLM:

What is Stella & Dot?

Stella & Dot is a woman-owned  Multi-Level-Marketing company that sells jewelries, handbags, clothing, and other fashion items.

Their collections are mostly designed by professional designers from New York and other top fashion places.

They have also been featured numerous times in TV and magazines just like in In Style, Lucky Magazine, Gossip Girl, and In Style.

Here is a 5-minute talk show video of Stella & Dot...

Who is Jessica Herrin?

Jessica Herrin is the CEO and founder of Stella & Dot.

She is also a professional author who has written top-selling books such as “Find Your Extraordinary.” She is also one of the founders of the Wedding Channel.

Is Stella & Dot a pyramid scheme?

No, Stella & Dot is not a pyramid scheme.

It’s because their members can still earn and make good money by selling their fashion items without recruiting people.

But a better and more fit question to that would be… Is Stella & Dot a pyramid scheme in disguise?

What is a pyramid scheme?

The members who are making money are those that recruit loads of people into this supposed business opportunity.

But if you were to look closely at the diagram, you can see that it’s impossible for members to make significant cash inside a system such as this as you are going to eventually run out of people that you can recruit.

Here is a 5-minute video on how you can find these “pyramid schemes in disguise.”

That surely lead you to think if...

Success is rare with Stella & Dot

This happens because of their sales quota, which means that members can only stay active and get commissions if they are able to sell a certain number of products monthly.

If they are unable to sell and reach the sales quota, then they have to buy the products for themselves so that they can stay active.

This leads to members losing tons of money because they can recruit a single person into the company.

How does Stella & Dot Work?

Stella & Dot is an MLM company selling jewelry and fashion products such as necklaces, handbags, and clothing.

The company also offers normal people an opportunity to work from home by selling their products and getting commissions. Sounds like a win-win situation, eh?...

But there’s a catch, and that is Stella & Dot saving millions of dollars in marketing and advertising campaigns because they just let their members do all the promotion and hard work.

Before we see if that’s really what’s happening here, let’s find out more about...

Stella & Dot products

It’s important that you know the products that Stella & Dot is selling before you decide joining the MLM.

You should also be prepared to take the risk. If possible, it would even be better that you try the products yourself so you can somehow increase your chances of success.

But if not, then just proceed knowing what their products really are.

I checked their website and I see that Stella & Dot divides their products into 6 categories:

• Jewelry
• Charm Jewelry
• Bags and Accessories
• Clothing
• Beauty
• Gifts

Here are their most popular products:

• Modern Bohemian Statement Necklace ($139) - A 17-inch necklace that features a long pendant strand alongside some vintage gold plating. The strand is removable.

• Essential Weekender Duo ($199) - A small and compact handbag made from glossy quilted nylon. It can easily slide into your carry on bag.

• Chalet Vest ($49) - A soft fabric vest made from 100% polyester and Faux fur. It warms you up without feeling too heavy.

It’s necessary that you are aware that there are numerous other brands out there that are offering similar products.

There are also hundreds of MLM companies that are offering a similar product such as:

• LulaRoe
• Dot Dot Smile
• Paparazzi Jewelry
• Vantel Pearls
• Trades of Hope

All of them also say that they have something special that’s why they stand out from the others. But in fact, they are just offering the same opportunity.

So if that is the case, then what makes Stella & Dot special?

Stella & Dot flagship product

Pegasus Necklace Gold ($219) - A gold necklace which features gold feather designs that are hand sewn with organza cascade material. It measures 16.5 inches long and has a 2-inch extender.

You can check out this 3-minute video showing how Stella & Dot designs their products...

So, if there's quality products...

Can you make money with Stella & Dot?

How to make money with Stella & Dot

There are 2 ways that you can make money from Stella & Dot:

• Sell their fashion products
• Recruit people into the company and let them sell the products

Note that you can only earn from the bonuses of your downline’s sales and not solely from recruitment.

So, before diving deep into the compensation plan, let’s learn...

How much does it cost to join Stella & Dot?

There are 3 subscription options you can choose from if you want to join Stella & Dot.

• Essentials Kit ($350)
• More To Love Kit ($499)
• Ultimate Kit ($699)

The Essentials kit includes basic items that are in the low-tier price category such as regular bags, clothes, and necklaces.

The More to Love Kit includes mid-range items, while the Ultimate Kit has all the premium items including their flagship product which I’ll be discussing later on.

Stella & Dot monthly cost

Stella & Dot also has a quarterly sales quota of 500 PV, which means a monthly quota of 167 PV.

What this means is that you need to sell at least 167 PV or around $170 worth of items every single month to stay active.

If you cannot then you can either buy it for yourself, or sacrifice your active status, thus rendering you unable to receive commissions.

The costs for 1 year are…

• $350 - $699 x12
• $500 x 4

Minimum costs for a year is $6,200 - $10,388.

And this is before you add up the other costs such as training, marketing, gas, and other miscellaneous expenses.

Stella & Dot compensation plan

The thing with MLMs is that they always make their compensation plans confusing. Well, Stella & Dot is no different…

No worries, though, as I’ll try to keep this straightforward and simple…

There are 3 ways that Stella & Dot will pay you as one of their members:

Retail Commissions

Earn 25% commission if you can sell 500 PV every 3 months. This increases to 30% for every 2500 PV sold quarterly and 35% for every 10,000 PV respectively.

Residual Commissions

Earn 3% to 10% commission bonuses depending on your rank and current level.

Smaller Bonuses

Earn a variety of bonuses such as generation, rank achievement, and star maker.

For sure you’re confused with all that. Well, these MLMs use fancy terms and complicated acronyms so that members will see that there seems to be loads of ways to make money.

When the fact is, there are only 2 ways that you can do:

• Sell their products
• Recruit people

You can check out their full compensation plan here.

Is Stella & Dot a scam?

No, Stella & Dot is not a scam. The MLM company sells legit and real products and they pay their members like what they say they will.

However, some members are disappointed when they realize they’re losing more money instead of earning. This is why there are some that might call the company a scam.

The remainder of this Stella & Dot review will help you discover the real facts about this company so that you can come up with an informed decision if it’s worth the try or not...

Just to be fully transparent with you, I am not a distributor myself and I do not endorse it in any way.

I have researched the website, testimonials and information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what this program genuinely does. This is because I have been burnt from programs just like this in the past and I want to prevent others from making the same mistakes. If you’d like to learn how to “Spot an Online Marketing Scam” then click the highlighted text.

What I like about Stella & Dot

Key Terms:

• Pyramid Scheme – recruits members via a promise for payment from referring others to the service rather than providing a product
• Affiliate Marketing- Connecting a customer to a product they are looking for and receiving a commission for doing so
• Red Flag - A warning sign

#1 Proven history

A fun fact would be knowing that 1 out of 3 MLM companies go beyond their first 10 years.

Well, Stella & Dot has been around since 2003. So, that means a full 16 years. Thus, it’s safe to say that this won’t be gone tomorrow or anytime soon just like other companies out there.

It’s also a great sign that Stella & Dot haven’t encountered any FTC shutdown issues.

#2 Positive product reviews

Another nice thing I found out about Stella & Dot is that their products have a lot of positive reviews. Here are some of them…

But be cautious because there’s a chance that these people are just members.

#3 Wide Choice

What separates Stella & Dot from other fashion MLM companies is that they are selling a variety of products, which gives you and buyers a lot of choices to choose from.

This range from bags, to clothes, jewelries, and more.

What I don't like about Stella & Dot

#1 Hidden monthly expenses

Did you remember seeing that members must sell 167 PV every month or 500 PV every 3 months just to stay active. Sad to say that this just makes no sense.

167 PV means that you need to sell more than $170 worth of items every single month.

If you can’t, then you buy them yourself to be eligible to earn commissions.

Here’s the truth that many people don’t know…

Stella & Dot’s biggest client base is their members who just keep buying their stuff and hoping that someday soon, they’re going to be their own boss.

#2 Is Stella & Dot  a pyramid scheme in disguise?

If you must spend more than $167 every month just to stay active, then there is only one way that you can do to avoid losing $167 monthly.

And that is by recruiting people to become your downlines and passing the buck to them.

Here's a diagram to help you see what's exactly going on here...

What does this mean?

Well, letting them do the selling and maintaining of 167 PV every month.

That is a clear sign that this one’s a pyramid scheme in disguise.

#3 Saturated market

There are already a lot of fashion and jewelry MLM companies out there. This means that you’re just going to have a hard time selling those items because of the amount of competition you have to face.

#4 Only 1 in 183 members earn over $18k a year

You can see in the Stella & Dot income disclosure that 90.7% if all members earn a minuscule $1,200 in a year, while 98.8% are earning $10,600 annually.

Furthermore, all members are losing an average of $6,749 every month, which is an awful lot of money…

That means 0.54% of members earn just $18,000 a year.

And in English, this means just 1 out of 183 members make more than $18,000 annually...

My opinion - Stella & Dot

Stella & Dot surely sells interesting products compared to other MLMs.

But what do I see about their business opportunity?...

The only legit way that you can make money (that’s if you can make money) is by recruiting hundreds of people in a single month and encouraging all of them to sell aggressively just to stay active and earn.

Letting them do that just means that they’ll just end up losing money instead of earning money from Stella & Dot.

No way does that seem like an ethical business model to me...

How I make passive income online

MLMs are not scams or illegal. However, I'm not a fan of them because of the restrictions to the expensive products you have to promote.

Once I learnt about affiliate marketing, I realised it's a far superior business model because:

• You can promote anything you want and truly own the business
• You never need to sell to friends and family
• It's completely free to start

In 2018 I had no idea what affiliate marketing was.