MassGenie launched in 2017, so it’s definitely the new kid on the block.  When I came across this site I was super excited to review it for you because I'm always trying to find the BEST OF THE BEST sites for our wholesale buyers to sell on.  Let's get started!

What sets MassGenie apart from basically all other selling sites is their method of pricing in combination with basically being a referral program. Don’t worry - I’ll do my best to explain how this works.  WARNING:  It's so strange that it's almost comical.

Looking at their logo, I seriously thought it said "misogyny" with a unique spelling.  But, 100% for sure, it is "Mass Genie", although I would have no problem reviewing a marketplace called Misogyny...in fact, I wonder what that would look like.  Would the seller criteria be having blonde hair and DD-Cups? "Only Pam Anderson Types can sell here.  Your application is a 5x7 glossy print photo" - LOL! They would have like 3 total sellers. Ok, enough silliness, let's discuss MASS (pause) GENIE. 

OVERVIEW

To start, MassGenie is all about referrals, referrals, referrals.  If buyers want lower prices THEY have to find people to also buy the same item as them. In most cases, the item is available in a couple sizes, so they have to really hustle and convince their friends, family and social media circle that they REALLY, REALLY need to buy the same thing that they want…. But IF the buyer can convince other people to make the same purchase, the price of the item (*supposedly*) goes down, which (*supposedly*) is supposed to make referring others worth it... supposedly.  Oh, and did I mention that sometimes they are on a 3-hour countdown timer to gather all the referrals, get them to want the identical item and make the purchase?  

… Interesting…. *perplexed look*

...Very interesting… *squints at screen*

...Hmmmmm....*scratches head in utter confusion* 

Right out the gate I am not sure how much sense this makes; maybe it’s just me, but I am not the type of person to beg people on social media to also buy the same blouse as me so I can get a tiny discount off of the price. It even sounds weird, just typing it, "Hi guys! I am making tacos and thinking about buying this black and white polka dot scarf! Who wants to also buy this identical scarf in the next 20 minutes so we can both get it for 5% less!?!"

...BUT, I have a completely open mind and I don’t want to prejudge anything. Heck, I'l try damn near anything once... except for Goat Yoga, hard pass. 

Anyways, here's the MassGenie promo video (It has 5 Likes and 6 Dislikes on Youtube - you don't need to watch it because we will be discussing it):

I'll be honest, I only made it to the 45-second point because I couldn't take it anymore and I got the jest of it.  So let’s instead just check out the MassGenie website and judge for ourselves...

When I went to the MassGenie.com, I immediately clicked on Brands then ADIDAS. This is the page that appeared:

As you may notice, there’s information on this page that doesn’t make sense at all:

If you can't see what I highlighted, the tennis shoe on the left is labeled "backpacks", the soccer ball is labeled "plumbing", the sock is labeled "Audio" and the backpack is labeled "Computers".  So, we are off to a pretty sketchy start. (Note: According to the internet, MassGenie has 50-75 employees!!!  What do they do??? I have no idea, but it definitely IS NOT creating a great website.) 

I scrolled down the page to “Power Deals” (because who doesn’t want something called a friggin' Power Deal? Hell yes, count me in! If it’s a POWER DEAL, give me two!!). This is what I see...

And I clicked on the Power Deal $89.99 Womens Adidas Shoes. (wait, $89.99??? I thought it was a Power Deal? Hmmmm….)

I immediately notice the circle icon on the right of the screen:

As you can see, it says if 3 buyers purchase then it becomes the “Power Buy” price of $89.99, but if 1 buyer does the “Buy Now” option instead, it is $49.99. I have absolutely no idea how that makes sense. I definitely would not want to ever refer anyone to this site if the price is going to increase.... Let alone, increase by double. I assume I am misunderstanding something, but that is what it looks like, doesn’t it????  Or maybe it is $89.99 total for 3 people to get shoes?  That would be $29.9966666667 per person? How the F would that even work??? I highly doubt it's $89.99 TOTAL.  I think its $89.99 EACH (based on more research, shown below).  

Quick note: If you were wondering why the term "Power Deal" changed into the term "Power Buy", it's because Mass Genie uses both terms to describe the same thing.  So some places on their site it's a Power Buy and other places its a Power Deal.  Just didn't want you thinking *I* was making a terminology mistake.  After all, I don't need you to hunt me down and flog me.  

The other thing I noticed is the limited size selection:

So now I’m trying to imagine how this is supposed to work. This is how I see the conversation going -

Me: Hey mom, I know you just had hip replacement but can you PLLLLLEASE buy these running shoes?

Mom: What? Why?

Me: Because if I buy them, and you buy them at the same time, then we can find more people to buy them with us, and it will be a Power Buy Deal!  Also, they don’t have size 8, but can you fit into a 7? We could cut off the toe and try to make it work for ya

Mom: Get out of my house.

Me: Ok, but can I ask Dad a question really quick? It’s about this Power Buy… it ends in 6 minutes so time is of the essence!

Mom: *Sprays me with Mace*

I then decided to see what the price for the same shoe would be on Amazon, just for kicks (pun intended). Although Amazon does not appear to have the pink/black version shown above, they have a lot of different colors and a pretty full size selection with prices ranging from $34.95 to $59.99 with a couple being higher priced:

And on eBay the exact shoe is $55:

So, if you make sure you don't refer anyone to the Power Buy listing on MassGenie you can get it for a couple bucks less than ebay, but not as cheap as Amazon (providing you are willing to settle for a different color).

I decided to look at a different ADIDAS listing on MassGenie.  This one is also a "Power Deal" /"Power Buy":

This listing does make a little more sense.  If you Buy it Now it's $35.99 but if you do the hard work to refer 2 or 3 more people then you can get literally $3 off.  Let me just say this - We can't even get our buyers to check their own tracking numbers on a $500 purchase of wholesale merchandise that they need to resell.  I genuinely can't imagine a buyer doing the work to get 2+ friends to buy this same shirt, let alone in a 3 hour time limit, just to save $3. Especially when the same shirt is $9.99 on eBay:

I really don't think we need to even get into the "pros and cons" of becoming a seller on MassGenie.com because the site makes little sense.  The platform is all about getting other people to join to get discounts, but the discounts are so marginal that it's just not worth the effort.  Hell, I don't even waste time clipping coupons because the 25-cents savings isn't worth the time I have to spend clipping it... but also, the non-name-brand can of beans is always cheaper than the coupon-can, but that's beside the point.  But let's get back to MassGenie...

Here's some more examples (these were all randomly selected from MassGenie.com on 4.14.20):

If you get ONLY FIVE people (lol) to buy this makeup bag, you can save literal pocket change ($11.99 Buy it Now, or $11.15 with 5 referrals).  5 referrals blows my friggin mind!:

Power Buy HDMI (hey, that rhymes! They should make it a jingle) saves you even less:

I have no idea what this even is, but if I somehow got a bunch of friends to buy it, we would save less than 10% "Hi guys! Who needs WC Tar Twine? I was about to buy some but if you also buy it too, right now, literally NOW 'cuz the deal ends in 39 seconds, we can save ALMOST $1! HURRY!!!":

I would rather fold small origami swans with a toothache than try to convince THREE of my friends to shell out $140 (+$5 Shipping) for a refurbished "Scratch and Dent" iPad TODAY... like, RIGHT NOW, drop what you're doing because there's only 19 seconds left...

I would also like to add, I am all about Capitalism.  I am a firm believer in businesses should be able to price their stuff at whatever price they would like because Capitalism goes both ways; the market (you) will choose not to buy something grossly overpriced, which means the business that is price-gouging can't stay in business. Capitalism really is a win-win for both parties IF you sell a good product at a price the market determines is worthy of your offering.  Why are iPhones so expensive?  Because Apple makes a damn good phone.  But if you don't want to pay the price you can buy a cheaper phone, or even a minute-phone... but you don't want the cheaper phone because it isn't nice, so you buy the iPhone even though it costs you an internal organ plus a limb. 

BUT, at some point, prices can seem just outright dishonest:

You're seriously telling me I need to find FIVE people to buy this overpriced McCormick mix so we can "save" 45-cents, which means STILL overpay but $2+?  Come on now.  How is this "Deal-Not-Deal-Power-Deal" fair for anyone, let alone the person who is supposed to gather the masses to buy it for less-more?  "Mom, Grandma, Brother, BFF's Pat and Glen... lets ALL buy this $6.13 Guac seasoning! Why aren't you returning my call? Don't you want to buy this POWER DEAL with me?? Never mind, the deal just ended. TTYL."

OUR RATING

With that being said, it's time to give MassGenie our rating for SELLERS...

...drumroll.... 

I know, you're like "Ouch!  Dude, why so low?" (We encourage you to focus on reasons #4 - #6...but also reasons #1-3.  Then refer people to read this article... then tell them to refer more people... then get a group of 5 or more people to read this article in the next 3 hours...)

Here's our reasoning:

1. Errors in the site that are painfully obvious, like having the very first thing I click be a soccer ball labeled "Plumbing".  I was on the site not even 8 seconds and found errors. Major turnoff. 50+ employees and the site isn't right??? With the amount of funding and staff this company has their website should be flawless. It's not even an "error", it's friggin' laziness and lack of caring.  It's like going to an empty restaurant and the staff is all sitting around, chatting meanwhile the tables are dirty and the ketchups aren't filled, salt shaker is missing and the sugar packets are wet. There's plenty of staff to clean the tables and restock the condiments, they just don't give a sh*t.  Our little, tiny family business moves mountains because we CARE and TRY... we actually VALUE our resellers and their experience. 

2. Completely unrealistic expectations with no reward whatsoever. With MassGenie I have to find all these people who will buy the identical (often overpriced) item as me so we can get it at a fraction of a discount and still pay more than LITERALLY ANYWHERE ELSE.  It's actually insulting to my intelligence that anyone would ever think that a real person would want to do this. I would be ashamed of my company if we were riding up to our customers in a gold plated chariot and telling them "We will give you $5 off your purchase if you get 5 more people to buy the same thing... clock is ticking... hurry you broke little peon! BAHAHAHA!" *cracks whip and rides away*

Meanwhile, sites like Jet.com have a "Stockup Shop" that allows you to quickly and easily get a discount if YOU buy more than 1.  So simplistic. No work involved.  Or, sites like BigBrandWholesale.com automatically price quantity purchases lower; no games, no gimmicks. I get that MassGenie is trying to do something different; although the concept of the idea might be ok, the execution of the idea is terrible and borderline illogical.

3. It's like this business makes no sense... for anyone.  Let's examine this:

• If you have money and a social media following you don't need to dick around with this "saving pennies" run-around. 
• If you have money but no following you can't participate in Power Buys because you gotta gather 3-5+ people to go in on it with you.
• If you have a following but no money you can't afford to participate and the discounts don't make the item any more affordable; are you telling me you don't have $35.99 for an Adidas Shirt, but somehow if it's $32.99 it's magically within your budget? Uh, no.
• If you are a regular person on a budget you probably shop Amazon, eBay or other sites that are like, "Here's our Price and we ship fast. You want it or naw?"
• If you are broke and don't have a following you won't even be window-shopping this site. 

I guess anyone can go the MassGenie "Buy it Now" route, but then, what is the point of that when every other site out there is seemingly cheaper????

4. (Seemingly) Dishonest Advertising (AKA "THE MATH DOESN'T MAKE SENSE"). On the MassGenie site is this graphic:

Looking at the above graphic, it genuinely APPEARS that "Power Buys" are this massive market that is bringing in MILLIONS (I mean, it literally says, "Proven Growth with Power Buy" and it depicts 7.7 Million in the first half of 2019) ... which makes it sound like MassGenie is BOOMING with sales, sales, sales, right? People must be joining these Power Buy groups like it's the last Tar Twine they will ever get their little social-network-loving hands on! BUT...  I flat out don't believe it. In fact,  I'm calling Shenanigans (and I'm 50% Irish, so I can officially call Shenanigans whenever I feel the need). Here's why:

For unknown reasons, MassGenie left their "confidential slideshare slideshow for investors" available to the public (I'm sure when they read this they will turn it to private, but for now, here's the link). MassGenie launched in 2016 according to their filings (shown below). They started off with around 1 MILLION dollars in seed money then, according to CrunchBase.com (shown below), they RAISED $4.7 million in FUNDING in 2018:

Unless this is some totally ironic, utterly insane coincidence, they did NOT "sell 4.64 Million" worth of "Power Buy" stuff on their site, despite the graphic seeming to depict that Power Buys are responsible for 4.6 million in revenue. This means they are flat-out counting 4.6 million investment capital as "Power Buy" growth.  

I assume (but have no proof) that the additional 3 million in the first half of 2019 is additional investments because this company does a LOT of funding rounds and seems to have people chomping at the bit to hand them money.  We absolutely know for sure that at least 1 million of the 2019 "growth" it is funding, and if you add that to the 4.6 million from 2018 that is about 6 million that has came purely from DOCUMENTED funding:

Regardless, the seemingly dishonest advertisement is more disturbing than anything else.  Why be deceptive?  What's wrong with saying "We are a small business who is trying a new concept.  We don't have a lot of growth yet but we are thankful for investors who want to help us try to build this concept into something HUGE!"  But instead, they get 4 million in investments and also claim they sold 4 million worth of Power Buy nonsense in the same year.  To be blunt, that's F'd up. 

On top of that, the math, as a whole, makes even less sense.  They claim to have generated 7.7 Million (let's just call it "8 Million") in the first 6 months of 2019, so we can assume by the end of 2019 they would make roughly 16 Million, which would be equivalent to 1.333 million per MONTH.  What time is it kids? It's BASIC MATH TIME!!! Open your text books to page 145.

If this site has only 86,000 visitors a month, that would mean that their conversion rate is abnormally, exponentially sky-high and/or their bounce rate is crazy-low. Here's a comparison, numbers have been rounded for easier math:

US: 60,000 Visitors a Month (36-38% bounce rate) = $100,000 a month 

THEM: 86,000 Visitors a Month = 1.333 MILLION

But wait, let's factor in the Bounce Rate and reevaluate. A "bounce" is when someone comes to your site and just leaves.  For example, if you want to buy a canoe so you type Dicks.com into your browser.  HOLY YIKES! You quickly realize the actual site is DicksSportingGoods.com NOT Dicks.com.  You thank the lord that your kids weren't in the room for that one!  Ok so back to bounce rates - 

I don't know that Mass Genies Bounce Rate is.  With a site full of error and confusion, I would guess it's in the upper 40%+ range, but I have no proof, so let's just say BigBrandWholesale.com and MassGenie both have a 40% bounce rate.  This means we have to adjust the traffic levels of ACTUAL SHOPPERS accordingly:

US: 36,000 ACTUAL SHOPPERS a month = $100,000

THEM: 51,000 ACTUAL SHOPPER a month = 1.33 MILLION

You're seriously telling me that this company, with this error-filled, highly confusing site with astronomical prices and fewer sellers than eBid makes $900,000 MORE than us every month off only 20,000 more visitors?  I'm telling ya, the math doesn't make sense. 

Now turn to page 223...

BUT WAIT...IT GETS EVEN MORE SKETCHY... The math I just provided to you isn't accurate because it just occurred to me that we are a business.  We get to keep the money we make but MassGenie is a MARKETPLACE, so they don't get to keep the money from the "Power Buy". The SELLER keeps the money and MassGenie's fee is 6-15%.  This means, in order for MassGenie to make $35,000 a day, the Mass Genie Sellers would have to generate $350,000 or more, every single day... through Power Buys.  

But let's play along and assume that the sellers are generating over a quarter million A DAY in Power Buys...

Which would also mean if 500 sellers are generating $350,000 a DAY (combined total), then each seller is making $700 A DAY (=$250,000 a YEAR). Which makes me wonder why this isn't the top selling site in the WORLD.  I mean, wouldn't you make the switch right-this-damn-second from eBay or Amazon if you could make 6 figures off Mass Genie?  Why isn't this in the news paper? Why isn't there an HBO documentary called "Sellers Leave eBay and strike it rich on Mass Genie...not to be confused with misogyny"

5. The cost for sellers is laughably outrageous.  It really seems to me that the founders of MassGenie have never sold online AND didn't spend any time really researching their competitors from a SELLERS point of view. I can almost bet they never held a focus group to ask SELLERS what they want in a platform.  Here's MassGenies costs, according to their investor slideshow and their site (on 4.14.20):

So, to actually have ANY form of success you are going to be paying $50 a month to have a "Store"... but this is just a base fee.  According to MassGenie's investor slideshow, they also charge 6%-15% COMMISSION on every flippin' sale:

6. On top of that, this just ruffled my feathers... if you look at the "Low Volume Seller" option, one of their bullet-points is "access to support" - WTF and SERIOUSLY? How is accessing support some kind of benefit?  I would absolutely EXPECT a marketplace to provide friggin support to it's sellers.  That's like CVS telling you "Complimentary receipts with purchase!".
 Another bullet-point is "Manually Manage Orders" - well thank you so much for allowing me to manually manage orders.  How the hell else would they possibly be managed?  Semi-Automatically? Fully Automatic?  Is it an AK-47 or an online order I need to ship?   Again, it's like kroger saying "We let you use our U-Scan for FREE!".  Gee, thanks Mister!  Thanks for letting me scan the crap myself so you don't have to pay an employee and so my milk isn't set on top of my bread!

On that note, Walmart who gets 469 MILLION and charges NOTHING to list. You only pay commission on sales. The commission ranges but is about 8% - 17%, depending on Category. You can read our Walmart Review here. So, to review: You can sell on MassGenie who has low traffic for $50 a month plus 6-15% fees or you can sell on the 3rd biggest platform in the world for FREE and pay about 15% after it sells. I know, its a VERY difficult choice here. 

7. Terrible lack of social media use/  presence / following. Here's another reason why I find it nearly impossible for MassGenie to have SOLD over 7 Million dollars worth of Power Buy products in the first half of 2019.... they are relatively inactive on social media, don't have many followers, don't have much interaction with posts, their posts suck, etc. Here's their Twitter:

Like I told you way long ago, its all about referrals, referrals, referrals. I especially love how that post says "Think about all the things you can buy with your shopping credit!"... yet they fail to mention how low the credit is.  We shall discuss in a min. 

Their facebook has a little over 5,000 followers (our company has around the same number, give or take) and they do post on here, but marginal-or-no interaction.  It also appears they have chosen to "hide reviews" which is not cool at all; my "dishonesty radar" goes beep... beep...beep.  If your sellers and buyers are 7-million-dollars-happy with the Power Deals where's the reviews?  And this is the kind of stuff they post...

Who wants to pay ONLY $18.49 for a can of Power Deal Healthy Choice soup??? ! Apparently the 1 guy that "shared" the post and the two people who "Liked" it.  Don't run too fast, you might twist your ankle

They also do post these crazy "deal-not-deals-Power-Deals-Power-Buys" on Instagram:

And apparently 8 people like this deal. Sooooo... yeah, there ya go. 

6.  At the end of the day, it is more of an referral program than anything else.  If you have never heard of MLM program, it's all about referrals, referrals, referrals.  Some people call it a "pyramid scheme", but that is subjective.  The way people make money through MLM programs is by getting other people to sign up.  Then those people get other people to sign up and so on... visually, it forms a pyramid, hence the name:

BUT MassGenie isn't even that.  Let me explain how MassGenies referral program works:

You join. You don't have to buy a single thing, you just need to get OTHER PEOPLE to buy. You then refer people and try to get them to purchase.  When they buy stuff you earn a commission which is
 "$2 - $5 in Genie Bucks".... 

So, the more people you convince to join AND buy from a Power Deal, the more "Genie Bucks" you make. BUT you have to use your Genie Bucks towards making a purchase on the site, which makes the program not totally an MLM program.  Again, its a TON of work for such a marginal payout. Even if you convince your Aunt Judy to purchase the $18 can of soup you would only get $2 in "Genie Bucks", meanwhile your dear Auntie overpaid by $14.  I think it would be a lot kinder just to ask your aunt to gift you $2 cash money. But this is how MLM programs work; you use your time, energy and influence to convince others to join, meanwhile you're not even an active buyer, you just tell people how much you love the company. The more people you get to join, the better the odds that you will make money... well technically, you don't even make money, you just get lesser-overpriced products in this case.  For referance, we also have a referral program.  We give the referrer a $25 gift card to our store AND we let the referrer give their referral a coupon for 10% off entire 1st purchase.  

WITH THAT BEING SAID, I am not sure if MassGenie pays for 2nd-tier referrals.  A 2nd tier referral is when you get Aunt Judy to buy the almost-$20-soup (and you earn $2) then Aunt Judy get her son, Johnny to buy it (and she earns $2).  A true MLM program would give YOU a commission on Johnnys purchase.  But, from what I see, it looks like MassGenie doesn't even give you the 2nd tier commission, so it's basically just a crappy referral program without the added bonus of your hustle ever really paying off.  MassGenie also runs referral programs for bloggers.  I could have signed up for the referral program then wrote this article telling you how AMAZING the site is and telling you that you really should join so I could make money off you and my lies.  But I would never do that to you because I value you, you trust me and I have human decency... in addition to enough logic to see that the math doesn't add up. In fact, there's not a single link to MassGenie in this article.  

Once again, I ponder... out of that "7.7 Million" how much has MassGenie put into figuring out what people actually WANT?  

IF you have other data and if you can explain how a site with high prices, lower traffic, ranks 151st place out of 150, an inactive forum, poor social media presence and an overall concept that is confusing, makes over 7 million dollars in the first half of 2019, WITHOUT counting investor funding (fraudulently) as "Power Buys", I would absolutely LOVE for you to explain it to me... seriously. Explain it. I am happy to listen and I am happy to correct this article if I am wrong, I just can't get the math to work no matter how hard I try. 

In closing, I genuinely wish I could tell you that there are "pros" to selling on this site.  I wish I could have made this review "the BEST selling site you have never heard of!" but you are sooooo much better off going with ANY other site.  Here's more of our honest reviews on other selling marketplaces: 

Amazon & eBay ALTERNATIVE: ASOS - The 2nd Biggest Fashion Marketplace in the WORLD!

SITES TO SELL ON OTHER THAN AMAZON OR EBAY: Bonanza - An Honest Review

BEST Amazon Alternative for Sellers: Walmart.com - Its FREE!! Plus FREE Marketing! Everything You Need to Know

Alternatives to eBay & Amazon Selling: eBid - a Brutally HONEST REVIEW

HONEST REVIEW: Selling on Sears.com Marketplace (Amazon / eBay Alternatives 2020)

150+ Sites to Sell On World Wide - MASSIVE List of Marketplaces

SITES TO SELL ON OTHER THAN AMAZON OR EBAY Sears vs Walmart vs BriskSale

Disclaimer: As you know, as a wholesaler we advocate on behalf of sellers. We want our wholesale product buyers to join the best selling sites because the quicker they sell, the faster they come back to us to restock. So when it comes to reviewing selling sites, we are ONLY LOOKING AT IT FROM A SELLERS POINT OF VIEW. A buyers perspective could be completely different. The opinions in this article are just that; opinions. All "facts" are backed up by screenshots taken on 4.14.20 as well as links to the source(s). We always encourage sellers to do their own research and form their own opinions. But here's our opinion based on our research...