Tellus Mall
If you guessed Tellus Mall is a members-only shopping portal with an MLM opportunity, then you guessed right.
Why would a company want to reshape our online shopping experience our the SHOP, SAVE, SHARE model?
If you've never heard of Tellus Mall it's because they're brand new. Right now the whole thing is in pre-launch phase. They just formed, in late 2014, and they're based out of California (even though their contact page shows a map of Paris). Can they compete with the likes of Dubli (another online members-only shopping club run as an MLM) or the mega-size behemoth of online shopping, Amazon?
They're up against tough competition…even credit card companies offer extremely attractive shopping portals, with rewards points doubled, tripled, and even quadrupled when you shop through their portals and use their credit card. Let's see how Tellus Mall is doing so far, in their pre-launch phase:
The Company
Right away I'm disappointed. The Tellus Mall website has multiple typos- one of the very first page! How about this gem:
“We are here to support all clients, it's we do”.
That's just oversight, not bad English.
And while it's nice they even put a “Meet the Team” page on their website (points for that, seriously..many don't bother), it's kind of strange they chose the pictures they chose. Out of eight pictures, one is blurry, two are stretched and blurry, and one looks like it was meant for a comedy troupe brochure. Jane from the support team is definitely a stock image.
As for testimonials, there's no way someone named Kimberly speaks bad English! A little effort on the website would be reassuring. What good are bad photos, stock photos, and titles with no bios, background or credentials?
The Products
Judging from the sparse offerings, it must be hard at first to get people to sell their products on your shopping portal when you're brand new.
They're awfully proud of the AquaGear Tap Filter Bottles…they're a featured product as well as the major incentive to joining the network marketing opportunity.
As for other products, there's:
- an e-cig package
- gourmet coffee (6 products)
- jewelry (6)
- healthy & beauty
- sports
- toys & games (6)
- electronics
Jewelry is costume, starting at $6. Good luck with those commissions!
The Compensation Plan
Not many details yet, but they promise 70% …not sure what that means but it sounds good. They simply say “Compenstion plan paying out 70%”.
Does that mean they'll pay you 70% of the time and the rest of the time you're screwed?
The structure will be a 2 x 15 matrix with matching bonuses. That's nice but unless we get some numbers in there that means nothing.
Here's what you have to do to join.
There are four levels of membership. Each has its own one-time set-up fee, plus a monthly charge. The monthly charge is for “site maintenance”. The plans are as follows:
- Deluxe Starter Package ($99 setup fee, $29/mo).
- You get a water bottle!
- 5% discount on Tellus Mall products
- 5% discount on tickets to LIVE events and conventions
- Access to your own online store, checkout system, and online communities
- live support and training
- marketing & promotional tools
- 3 weekly live presentations
- site translation into Mandarin, Russian, Spanish etc
- Premium Starter Package ($199 setup fee, $49/mo)
- You get TWO water bottles!
- 10% discount on Tellus Mall Products
- 10% ticket discount (see above)
- all the rest of the stuff from the Deluxe Starter Package)
- Ultimate Starter Package ($499 setup, $99/mo)
- $75 Tellus credits to use shopping at Tellus Mall
- 15% discount on products and tickets (see above)
- All the rest of the packages above)
- Ultra Professional Starter Package ($999 setup, $199/mo)
- $200 Tellus credits
- 25% discount on products & tickets to events)
- All the rest as described above
The Verdict
Do I really need to spell it out for you? If you know me well, by now you know what I think about websites with errors on them…typos, incompleteness, or other incongruities. If you're launching a big new idea, why not bring your “A-Game”?
Plus, the buy-in monthly fees are steep with no clear benefit, the products are a strange and sparse collection of odd things, and there's no way in Hell this company is going to compete with DubLi, Amazon, or other shopping portals…in my humble opinion that is.
