Scentsy Just Had Its Third Round of Layoffs. Here’s What’s Actually Going On.

A Company I’ve Always Respected

I want to start by saying that I’ve used Scentsy products personally and genuinely enjoyed them. The warmers are well-made, the scents are distinctive, and for years the company has been one of the cleaner success stories in direct selling.

So when I see them cutting 11% of their workforce for the third time in about a year, I’m not writing this to pile on. I’m writing this because there’s a real story here that goes beyond the press release, and it has lessons that matter for anyone building a business in this profession.

What We Know

On March 10, 2026, Scentsy announced it was eliminating approximately 11% of its corporate positions. That’s 87 employees at its Meridian, Idaho headquarters, along with remote and international staff.

Here’s what makes this notable: this is not the first time. In early 2025, Scentsy laid off 94 people at its distribution center in Coppell, Texas. Then in April 2025, they cut 116 positions at the Meridian headquarters, which at the time also represented 11% of the workforce.

Three rounds of layoffs in roughly twelve months. That’s a company in a sustained period of contraction, not a one-time adjustment.

The roles eliminated in the most recent round are worth paying attention to. According to a Scentsy consultant who detailed the situation publicly, the affected departments were IT, digital marketing, strategic partnerships, and development. Manufacturing and order fulfillment were not impacted.

In other words, Scentsy is cutting the people who build and grow the business, while keeping the people who ship the product. That’s a company in cost-reduction mode, not growth mode.

The Official Explanation

Scentsy CEO Dan Orchard has been consistent in his messaging across all three rounds of cuts. During the first layoffs in 2025 he explained it this way: “During the pandemic, we experienced unprecedented hypergrowth and doubled our revenue in just one year. This growth led us to hire nearly 1,000 employees and make substantial investments.”

The most recent statement was more measured: “These decisions are not easy, but they were necessary to ensure the organization is structured to best support current and future Consultants and Scentsy’s long-term success.”

The company hit $1 billion in revenue in 2021. Post-pandemic normalization has clearly been a significant headwind. But three rounds of layoffs over twelve months suggests the normalization has been steeper and longer than the company initially anticipated.

My Theory: The Competition Is Real

Here’s where I want to share my own honest observation, because I think it matters.

I’ve used Scentsy warmers for years. I genuinely love the concept. But over the past few years I’ve noticed something at grocery stores, Target, TJ Maxx, and HomeGoods. The wax warmer and home fragrance category has exploded. You can buy wax warmers and scented bars virtually everywhere now, often at a fraction of the price of Scentsy products.

That’s not a criticism of Scentsy’s quality. Their products are genuinely better than most of what you find on the shelf. But in a category where quality differences are harder to demonstrate than in something like a nutritional supplement, price sensitivity matters a lot. When a customer can buy a similar-looking product at Target for $8 instead of paying premium Scentsy prices through a consultant, many of them will.

This is a challenge the company hasn’t publicly addressed directly, but it’s hard to look at three rounds of layoffs and sustained post-pandemic contraction without at least asking the question.

A Stat That Should Concern Every Scentsy Consultant

There’s one piece of data from the BehindMLM reporting on the earlier round of layoffs that I think is the most important number in this whole story.

As of late 2024, only 25% of Scentsy’s consultants were active.

Read that again. Three out of four consultants were not meeting the basic activity requirements to earn commissions.

That’s not a marketing problem or a product problem. That’s a field engagement problem. And it’s the kind of number that explains why the company simultaneously cut compensation plan requirements while also tightening them. They raised the Personal Retail Volume requirement from $200 to $250 per month to earn the full 25% commission rate, while acknowledging that most of their consultant base wasn’t even hitting $200.

When three quarters of your field isn’t active, your business has a serious momentum problem regardless of how good the products are.

What This Means for Scentsy Consultants Right Now

If you’re an active Scentsy consultant reading this, a few things are worth knowing.

Your orders are safe. Manufacturing and fulfillment were not affected by the layoffs. Products are shipping on normal timelines.

The compensation plan changes from early 2025 are still in effect. The new $250 PRV requirement for full commission is the current standard. If you’re not hitting that number consistently, your effective commission rate has dropped to 20%.

The company is clearly in a restructuring phase, not a collapse. Scentsy is a privately held, debt-free company with real products and a loyal customer base. This is not a Happy Co. situation. But three rounds of layoffs and a field that is 75% inactive is a company with real challenges to work through.

The Bigger Lesson for Everyone

I keep coming back to something that applies beyond Scentsy specifically.

The home fragrance category that Scentsy essentially pioneered is now mainstream. Warmers and wax bars are everywhere. The product innovation that made Scentsy unique in 2004 is no longer unique in 2026. Every major retailer has a version of it.

This is the fundamental challenge for any direct selling company that builds its business around a product category rather than a product that is genuinely difficult to replicate. The moment your category goes mainstream, your price premium becomes your biggest obstacle.

The companies holding up best right now, Nature’s Sunshine, LifeVantage, USANA, are in categories where the product differentiation is harder to commoditize. A clinically studied probiotic formulation backed by 25 clinical studies is harder to replicate at Target than a scented wax bar.

That’s not a knock on Scentsy. It’s a challenge the entire home fragrance and lifestyle category faces. And it’s a reminder that product category matters as much as product quality when you’re building a long-term network marketing business.

Scentsy built something genuinely special. The question now is whether they can evolve it fast enough to compete in a category they helped create but no longer own.

Talk soon,
Ty Tribble

Download Ty Tribble’s free book, The Online Downline, and discover the step-by-step system to grow your network marketing business online without spamming your friends and family.