Many questions have been raised recently about the price of Quixtar’s products. Specifically, some have wondered how Quixtar Independent Business Owners can possibly compete with the Wal-Marts and Costcos of the world, given the premium price of many of our exclusive products.
I think it’s important to understand that many of our brands, especially ARTISTRY® skin care and cosmetics and NUTRILITE® vitamins and supplements, are high-quality products intended to compete in the marketplace on the value and performance they provide – not on the basis of being the cheapest moisturizer or multivitamin you can find. In other words. People pay more for a Volvo than a Volkswagen because they view Volvo as providing more value. The same applies to our exclusive brands like ARTISTRY and NUTRILITE. These and other Quixtar brands are premium priced and designed for a specific target market seeking prestige, quality and performance.
Price comparisons on our products should take into consideration that Quixtar's exclusive brands are:
• supported by world-class research and development
• contain the highest- quality ingredients, and often feature attributes not available in other products
• backed by the latest technology, a state-of-the-art distribution system, and more than 600 worldwide patents
• sustained by seven manufacturing facilities and five distribution centers
You won’t find value propositions like these on the shelves of your corner discount store:
• NUTRILITE products are the world's leading brand of vitamins, minerals, and dietary supplements.* With total quality control of its plant concentrates from seed to tablet, NUTRILITE is the only global vitamin and mineral brand to grow, harvest, and process plants on its own certified organic farms.** NUTRILITE supplements often deliver more key phytonutrients per serving than the competition.
• The ARTISTRY brand's high-quality formulas, elegant packaging, and technologically advanced product innovation have placed ARTISTRY among the world's top five largest-selling prestige brands of facial skin care and colour cosmetics.*** It's priced competitively with others in this distinguished group, which includes well-known brands like Clinique®, Lancôme®, Estée Lauder®, and Chanel®.
• Home brands like L.O.C.® Multi-Purpose Cleaner and the SA8® laundry system are often priced lower than the competition on a cost-per-use basis. When comparing apples to apples, home products meet or beat the competition on product performance, cost, or both.
• XS™ Power Nutrition products include sports drinks, protein shakes, energy bars and energy drinks that have all of the “energy,” and none of the sugar of other energy drinks. XS products are priced very competitively with many other sports nutrition brands.
• The ATMOSPHERE™ Air Purifier, as seen by the 44 million viewers of ABC’s hit TV Show “Extreme Makeover Home Edition,” purifies with advanced technology that automatically monitors the quality of the air in your home - effectively removing up to 99.99% of the contaminant and pollutant particles that are drawn through the system, down to sizes as small as .01 microns.
• The eSpring® Water Purifier effectively removes greater than 140 health-effect contaminants and destroys more than 99.95% of bacteria, viruses and cysts with a patented dual technology filter cartridge. It is more cost effective over time and consistently outperforms bottled water, pitcher filters and faucet filters.
These products not only deliver unsurpassed performance and value, they come with the personalized attention, product knowledge, and customer service provided by Quixtar IBOs. Those who argue that we must compete on product price alone are completely ignoring the value that IBOs bring to the sale. IBOs are knowledgeable product experts who work by a customer’s side to make recommendations based on needs, explain features and benefits, answer questions, or help check out. This level of service is not to be found at the big box discount store, but is part of what Quixtar customers pay for when they choose one of our products over one that they could buy cheaper from a store shelf.
Thanks to the value provided by our products and by the IBOs who sell them, Quixtar is the leading online retailer of health and beauty products, according to Internet Retailer magazine* for the fourth consecutive year. That means we sell more health and beauty products online than Avon, Sephora, Clinique and anyone else.
We stand behind the quality of all our products and guarantee customer satisfaction. If for any reason a customer tries a product and is not completely satisfied, they can return it within 180 days of purchase for an exchange or refund of the product price and applicable tax.
Ultimately, the market decides the value of the products sold by any given company. Quixtar's product pricing reflects the high esteem with which our products are held.
*Based on 2006 sales. **Based on a survey of global vitamin and dietary supplement brands conducted by Euromonitor International. ***Based on a 2006 Euromonitor Consultancy study of global retail sales.
Editor's Note: Many commentators appear to be focused on Wal-Mart in their comments to this post but please understand that it is not Quixtar's intention to disparage Wal-Mart. In fact, we respect their obviously successful business model. It's just not our business and it never will be. That is the point of this post.