Retail sales of direct selling companies in the United States approximated slightly over US$35 billion in 2019. Globally, retail sales in 2019 were around US$180 billion, generated by almost 120 million independent contractors. Direct selling is a retail business model that markets various types of goods and services such as wellness, home and family care, personal care, clothing and accessories, and leisure and educational offerings. While direct selling enables consumers the benefits of a variety of offerings, there is more to direct selling than consumption and retailing. Direct selling provides an opportunity for entrepreneurially minded individuals to work independently to build a business. Unlike more traditional entrepreneurial start-ups, the direct selling micro-entrepreneur has low start-up and overhead costs since the direct seller is backed by established brands that essentially provide a business-in-a-box comprised of quality products, marketing tools, business training, and technological resources.
While direct selling has been practiced since the mid- to late-1800s, information about the business model is limited in terms of providing a comprehensive understanding of its key components. Thus, the intent of this book is to capture component parts in an easily consumable format compiled by both scholars and practitioners who have spent numerous years understanding and assisting in the growth and development of the direct selling business model. This book takes the reader through the entrepreneurial and historical underpinnings of the business model and then moves to an intensive treatment of compensation and ethics/compliance in direct selling. From there, the book provides a look at the importance and impact of direct selling in the global marketplace and the benefits of direct selling to consumers, participants, and the larger economy. Wrapping up, the book offers a front row seat to the opportunities and challenges in direct selling based on interviews with executives of prominent direct selling companies.
The overarching goal of this book is to educate the reader on the valuable and sensible role that direct selling plays for the individual direct selling companies, the distributor participants, and the society as a whole. For the company, direct selling is a sensible way to approach many geographic and product markets. For the distributor participants, direct selling is an option for entrepreneurial development, income, and social interaction. Societally, the economic impact of direct selling affects the economy as a whole and the social impact of direct selling assimilates into both professional and personal life skills of the direct selling participants.