I'm guessing that Beachbody coaches make their commissions primarily from sales of supplements and equipment rather than from selling P90X or other workout DVD series. After all, if you buy
P90X from Beachbody's website, it costs $139.75 including shipping costs, but it may take a week or more for the product to arrive at your doorstep. Meanwhile, if you buy
P90X via Amazon.com, it costs $139.80 (with free shipping), and it'll show up within a few days -- and faster still if you're an Amazon Prime member. It's still sold by Beachbody, but if the package is lost in transit, misdelivered or damaged, you can deal with Amazon rather than Beachbody's notoriously inconsistent customer service team. I bought my P90X DVDs from Amazon, and was very satisfied with the speed with which the set arrived; in contrast, I purchased Insanity directly from Beachbody's website, and it took the company a week before it bothered to ship the DVDs to me.
P90X was Amazon's bestselling product in its "Sports & Outdoors" category in 2009, so it's no mystery why Beachbody's using Amazon as an additional sales channel. But why aren't Beachbody coaches (who are no doubt losing commission-eligible sales to Amazon) demanding that Beachbody do more to match the customer experience delivered by Amazon, or alternatively, to raise the price of P90X on Amazon?
