USA Today is running an article on direct selling.
Amy Robinson, spokeswoman for the Direct Selling Association (DSA), says 74% of consumers have purchased something via direct selling.
“If I bring it to you in your home, there’s no real distraction, and I can get you to shop for an hour and a half. If you come in the store I’m lucky to get you to shop for 15 minutes,” says Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at marketing information company NPD Group.
Direct sellers see each party as a way of cementing loyalty to their brands.
“Today, we’re more removed from people — we pay at the pump, go through express lines at fast-food restaurants and shop online. So what they value about direct selling is the one-to-one service in a party environment,” says Jill Blashack, founder of home taste-testing direct seller Tastefully Simple. “It’s the relationship piece of this that makes the business grow.”
Industry sales, almost all accounted for by parties, were last pegged at nearly $30 billion in 2003, vs. $17 billion a decade ago, according to the DSA.
