A new survey of UK retail CEOs in the direct selling channel, which includes businesses such as Avon, The Body Shop at Home and Usborne Books at Home, has reported a significant new focus on digital technology to support the sector’s 631,000 independent sales representatives to do more business online post-pandemic.
94 per cent of CEOs that took part in the Direct Selling Association research stated that investment in digital/online is one of their top priorities for the next five years, with 60 per cent stating that they felt Covid has changed shopping habits for the long term.
The sector, perhaps best known for its Tupperware party-style shopping events undertaken by a growing army of ‘side-hustlers’, reported a 12 per cent increase (to 631,000) in people joining brands to earn additional income as independent sales representatives in 2021.
Susannah Schofield OBE, Director General of the Direct Selling Association which represents leading direct selling brands, comments: “The 45 per cent year-on-year growth reported by the direct selling channel in 2021 is one of the strongest annual growth periods on record since the 1970s, and the pandemic has also served as a major catalyst for digital innovation across the channel.
“The fact that CEOs in the sector are putting so much emphasis on digital investment reinforces the significant evolution taking place in the channel today, and its growing relevance to a new generation of consumers wanting more convenient and increasingly personalised ways of shopping.
“Also helping to drive this evolution is a new demographic joining the industry to earn this way. We’re seeing a lot of people signing up to our member companies, disillusioned by forced and inflexible returns to offices and keen to maintain the flexibility they may have enjoyed by working from home during the pandemic.”
Direct selling is a channel of retail where products are sold directly to consumers outside of a fixed retail environment. This could be via social events, ‘Tupperware-style’ parties, digital social sharing or through brochure distribution. Individuals act as independent representatives and earn through commission paid on product sales.
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