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Before folks go jumping down my throat about this, let me say it for you. The statements presented on this page will be opinions, arguments, and speculation. They are in no way intended to be considered as facts or insider information. I am not now, nor would ever consider being, a Quixtar "IBO". Information about about the topics presented is based on my own shopping experiences at Quixtar, my communication with Quixtar sign-ups, and my general familiarity with e-commerce as a programmer and web devotee. That's all you'll get from this page. If that's what you expected to find, maybe you'll find it interesting.
First of all, let me be completely clear about this: Quixtar Is Amway. You will rarely hear anyone involved with Quixtar acknowledge this when they are attempting to sign you up. It would almost seem that they want to distance themselves from the bad reputation that Amway has developed.
To be more precise, Quixtar is the much ballyhooed internet mall started by Amway. In typical form, Amway hyped the September 1 opening of Quixtar like crazy, sending customers to a website labeled http://www.countdown9199.com and assuring everyone that their lives would change when it finally came. From about the beginning of 1999, distributors were switching from recruiting people to be distributors for an incredible new business opportunity, to recruiting people to be "Independent Business Owners" (IBO's for short, in the current Quixtar lingo) for an incredible new online business opportunity.
Thus, Quixtar was in an interesting position when it opened. Very few e-commerce web sites open up with a ready-made, built-in customer base of potentially several million. To clarify this comment, what I mean is that every single existing Amway distributor with a computer and internet access undoubtedly wanted in as soon as their upline started hyping it, and those who were not computer literate probably wanted to get literate as quick as possible. This is in addition to whatever new recruits were signed up for Amway in the meantime based on the perceived benefit of having "your own e-commerce business" instead of just "your own home business." Here in the late 1990's / early 2000's, computer buzzwords sell.
Lest there be any confusion about my point of view on this, I'll say that I'm a fan of e-commerce. I LOVE buying stuff over the web. Most holidays I do all my shopping online. You can buy anything, at any time of the day or night, and have it delivered to your door.
Interestingly enough, these aspects of e-commerce are similar to the hype that is frequently used to promote Amway. Distributors enjoy saying that it's very convenient not have to go to the store, to have everything delivered right to you. In the past, I have had two issues with these claims.
First: I've said before that a price comparison would reveal that the products are very expensive, far too much to justify catalog buying. Second: Stories I've heard by email indicate that most distributors who are not Direct level or above don't have as easy a time as they would like you to think. (Remember that I am talking about Amway now, not Quixtar.) Until recently, products have been mailed to the nearest upline Direct's house. This is fine and good if your Direct lives closer to you than your supermarket (though maybe not likely, since most neighborhoods I know have a supermarket less than five minutes away). However, if you have a Direct living twenty miles away or more, the highly touted time savings may be illusory. There have been exceptions to this, but overall, pickup at the upline's house seems to have been the rule.
I'm going to assume that Quixtar has taken the logical step of acting like a real e-commerce business, and made it a policy of shipping things to every individual's door. I assume this because they presumably want to act like a competitive shopping site as well as a "business opportunity". I will assume this in the absence of further demonstration, until a few people send me feedback by e-mail to confirm or deny it. So, my first objection to Amway's convenience argument is now dismissed. As I said, I like e-commerce.
Hmmm, here's where we start to run into a problem. Amway has correctly identified some of the draw of the internet shopping experience, but they've failed to recognize the other side of the coin: instant, rapid competition. Let me give you a quick demonstration right here.
Suppose I'm shopping on Yahoo.com for a new DVD player, and I suspect that the price is going to be too high. I have a number of alternatives that can be explored quite easily. With a couple of clicks, I can switch over to Amazon.com and check if they offer a better price. Or, I can use my favorite search engine to find other online dealers, and check THEIR prices. I can click on over to Consumer Reports Online to see what they think is a reasonable price (maybe even choose a different model based on their recommendation). And finally, I can go straight to the manufacturer and look up their sales venues, both online and offline. All of this could be accomplished in five to twenty minutes, depending on how experienced a surfer you are. It's the most gloriously efficient free market environment yet created.
But these features, which amount to a dream come true for the consumer, are not always good news for the dealer. This is especially true when the dealer is Amway, notorious for having extremely high prices which they claim are low. No longer any need to take it on faith that your bargain "wholesale" price is cheap: just click your mouse a few times and you're shopping the competition.
There are other factors to competitiveness besides price. A site which is quick to navigate and makes it easy to find what you are looking for will be viewed more charitably by users than one that obfuscates their products under many pages and layers. Such a site can generate a high number of repeat customers based on the shopping experience alone, even if their prices happen to be slightly higher than normal. (Not a LOT higher, mind you. There are limits to customer appreciation.)
This page is under construction