herbalife-transformationsIn the United States and much of the northern hemisphere, September means Autumn and “back to school”. It’s also a time of new beginnings. There’s nothing better than a fresh start and a clean slate. And so it is with Herbalife. Fall is a great time to reconnect with your customers and get them back on the program. Our routines are returning to “normal” and this is a great time to take a look at your business and get started again, with Herbalife and with Herbal Nutrition.

And speaking of “new beginnings”, some of you have emailed us regarding Herbalife’s rule “Retail Websites: U.S. and Canada” which relates to online retailing, and what it means for Herbal Nutrition. There’s no doubt, September 15th will bring some changes to Herbal Nutrition, but we are confident that there’s never been a better time to use Herbal Nutrition for your Herbalife Independent Distributorship!

Retail Websites: U.S. and Canada

If you didn’t see the announcement, effective September 15th, 2014, distributors in the United States and Canada must retail exclusively through GoHerbalife. Here’s the section that will affect your Herbal Nutrition account:

Member Websites

All Members who use the Internet to sell products for delivery in the United States and Canada must do so exclusively through the GoHerbalife platform. Links or redirects from other sites are also not permitted.

In summary, if your customers are going to pay and checkout online, that needs to be done through your goHerbalife account. Online retail is now in the domain of goHerbalife exclusively for distributors in the USA and Canada. However, Herbalife still does permit you to run your own independent website. I’ll include the relevant rules at the end of this post, but the most recent Rules of Conduct (6149-US-31 Rev. 05/14) make it clear that you may do the following:

  • Advertise in Directories (Rule 6.2.9)
  • Use an independent website (Rule 7.2.1)
  • Use third party websites for advertising and promotion (Rule 7.2.4)

Therefore, your Herbal Nutrition account can easily remain compliant with Herbalife’s new retailing rule by simply disabling the online checkout ability. This will still allow you to obtain customer leads from our directory, and then follow up with the customer personally to complete the sale and complete payment. In fact, we will make this process even easier through the use of the new Herbal Nutrition invoicing tool, which will allow you to create a custom program for a new or existing customer, and then easily collect the payment for this order. Direct invoicing (similar to what is offered by Paypal and Propay) is not prohibited by the new rule, and can be an effective tool for collecting payment from your customers.

More than Retailing!

Herbal Nutrition has always been about much more than retailing. We will be working with you to bring your site into compliance with all of Herbalife’s rules by September 15th, but you’ll continue to have access to the following features:

  • The Herbal Nutrition distributor directory
  • Wellness evaluation
  • Recipes
  • Testimonials
  • Work from Home System
  • LoseBig

Thank you for your continued use of Herbal Nutrition! We’re here to help you through this transition and will do everything we can to help you market Herbalife’s fantastic products around the world!

Regards,

The Team @ Herbal Nutrition

P.S. Here are the rules in the current policy handbook which explain the value of third party services and websites, emphasis ours.

6.2.9 Telephone Directory Listings

Members may list themselves in the telephone directory under the heading “Independent Herbalife Member.”

7.2.1 Members Must Disclose Relationship with Herbalife

Members operating independent websites that use Herbalife trademarks or offer Herbalife® products for sale must clearly and conspicuously display the Member’s personal name and business address along with “Independent Herbalife Member”:

7.2.3 Hyperlinking and Associations

Members may link their websites to:

  • The home page on Herbalife.com (or any other website produced or maintained by Herbalife).
  • Any other website maintained by the Member to promote the Herbalife® product and opportunity.
  • Any third-party website that will assist the Member in promoting the Herbalife® products and opportunity, so long as such websites are compliant with Rule 7.2.4.

7.2.4 Third Party Advertisements on Member Websites

Members may feature third-party advertisements on websites they use in connection with their Herbalife business

7.2.5 International Business

Members conducting or seeking to conduct business in international markets via their own or other websites may sell only products approved for sale in the country to which communications are directed.