Payoneer Mastercard: Field Representatives
Often misunderstood, Direct Selling companies racked-up sales of over $10
billion in the United States in 2008. Companies like Amway, Avon, Herbalife,
Tupperware, Mary Kay, and others contributed significant amounts of income to US
households. In addition to these billion-dollar giants, thousands of smaller
direct sellers like FreedomRocks and Kyani are driving a vibrant and lucrative
sector of the economy. One of the most interesting challenges for these
companies is the distribution of compensation to marketing representatives.

Sometimes known as Multi-level Marketing (MLM) or Network Marketing, many of
this industry’s companies contain multiple layers of sales agents. Managing the
payment distribution process can therefore be a daunting experience, especially
in large organizations. What's more, direct sellers are beginning to extend
their business models across international lines, where regrettably, paying
agents can be troublesome.

Direct Selling describes a marketing structure designed to create a sales
force by compensating promoters of company products not only for sales they
personally generate, but also for the sales of other promoters they introduce to
the company. This multi-level marketing creates a structure of downstream
“distributers” resulting in a hierarchy of multiple levels of compensation or
“commissions.” These companies make extensive use of word of mouth, as well as
personal and professional networking to propagate their businesses. Such
enterprises are generally geared to consumer-direct sales; however, MLMs
targeting businesses are not uncommon.


In the US, distributors, agents or representatives have traditionally been
compensated by means of paper check or direct deposit (ACH). In some cases,
agents are even paid-in cash. Payment by paper check can be inefficient, and
requires that the payee possesses a bank account. The company or the distributor
issuing checks incurs real processing costs cutting checks on a regular basis.
There are also the costs associated with lost and stolen checks, and the effort
it takes to reissue these checks. Direct deposit is more efficient than paper
checks, but still requires that the representative receiving payment have a bank
account. Both methods require a lot of record-keeping. While cash is an
expedient and fluid method of paying agents, it makes bookkeeping very difficult
and can cause problems with taxing authorities.


While certainly not perfect, payment systems in the US are generally superior
to payment methods available to multi-level marketers abroad. With the exception
of several EU countries, the ability to pay agents by check or ACH within a
particular country is far from convenient. This is certainly true in
underdeveloped countries, where ACH systems may not exists and many people do
not possess bank accounts.

Paying distributors, agents or reps across international borders creates its
own set of difficulties. The principal method of payment in this scenario is by
wire transfer. Wire transfers can be expensive and can take days to post to the
payee’s account, and the payee must possess a bank account. What's more,
transferring foreign funds into local banks may require import/export
documentation and may trigger certain tax considerations in certain countries.
Furthermore, once repatriated, the payee’s funds may not enjoy the liquidity of
the originating currency. There are intermediary-based payments solutions like
Western Union, however, these methods can be expensive and cumbersome to
use.


Payoneer is a simple and powerful Direct Selling compensation solution. Since
2005 our industry specific solutions have securely delivered millions of
payments to hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Utilizing a
prepaid MasterCard^® card, we enable marketers of all sizes to
affordably deliver compensation to their downstream representatives.

Payoneer issues prepaid MasterCard cards to payees on behalf of our Direct
Selling customers. These companies can then load the prepaid cards when rep
commissions are due. Reps can then withdraw funds from more than one million
ATMs in over 210 countries. These prepaid cards can also be used to purchase
goods from merchants accepting Debit MasterCard worldwide.


The payoneer solution is perfect for companies and networks needing to pay
sales commissions at home and abroad. Our systems provide a comprehensive
end-to-end online payment solution that incorporates registration, issuance,
funding and reporting. Extensive fraud controls protect payers and payees alike.
Our integrated approach gives MLMs unparalleled visibility and control over the
entire payment process -- from loading cards to stopping payment on fraudulent
transactions. And because we leverage the sophisticated MasterCard system, our
online payment distribution solutions are faster and more cost effective than
traditional funding methods. In fact, the Payoneer system can reduce cost per
payment by as much as 75%.


It is said that marketing is all about the brand. That’s why Payoneer
provides Direct Sellers with the ability to co-brand their prepaid MasterCard
cards. The co-branded Payoneer Prepaid MasterCard will instill feelings of
stability, achievement and pride in your marketing force. The card also helps
improve brand awareness, and can be very valuable in recruiting new marketing
representatives.


There are a lot of reasons why marketing representatives will prefer to be
paid on their Payoneer Prepaid MasterCard. Simply put, our prepaid card is the
most convenient and liquid payment instrument available. No bank account or
credit check is required – payees can avoid annoying trips to the bank. Reps
have access to their funds in as little three hours after funding. They can
retrieve hard cash from over one million ATMs worldwide. Until spent or
withdrawn, all funds reside in the US as US dollars, projecting strength and
simplifying tax planning. What’s best is that reps receive all these benefits at
virtually no cost.


Perfect for companies, and ideal for marketing representatives, the Payoneer
solution represents the fastest and most efficient worldwide payments
distribution platform available. Payoneer allows its users to avoid the cost,
complexity and delays of traditional banking systems and eliminates the need for
intermediate payment providers. Utilizing a prepaid MasterCard card, Payoneer
provides companies with a highly functional payment management system, while
offering representatives a compensation option with unmatched liquidity.