Direct Selling Association

Direct Selling by the Numbers - Calendar Year 2006

Download the DSA Fact Sheet

Industry Statistics
(Calendar year 2006 unless otherwise noted)
Estimated 2006 U.S. Retail Sales
Estimated 2006 U.S. Salespeople
Growth Rate
Retail Growth Rate Comparison
Percent of Sales by Major Product Groups
Location of Sales
Percent of Sales by Census Region
Sales Strategy
Compensation Structure

Salesforce Demographics
(* indicates data from DSA's 2002 National Salesforce Survey)
Gender
Age*
Marital Status*
Education*
Full-time vs. Part-time
Average Time Spent on Direct Selling Tasks*
Main Reasons for Becoming a Direct Sales Representative*

Worldwide data
Worldwide Sales
Worldwide Salesforce

See data from prior years
Calendar year 2005
Calendar year 2004
Calendar year 2003
Calendar year 2002
Calendar year 2001
Calendar year 2000

Estimated 2006 U.S. Direct Sales:

$32.18 Billion

Estimated 2006 U.S. Salespeople

15.2 Million

1-, 5- and 10-year growth rates

Comparison with Retail Growth Rate
(vertical axis = annual percent change)

Percent of Sales by Major Product Groups

Clothing & Accessories/personal care (cosmetics, jewelry, skin care, etc.)	33.7%
Home/family care/home durables (cleaning products, cookware, cutlery, etc.)	26.7%
Wellness (weight loss products, vitamins, etc.)	20.3%
Services/other	15.1%
Leisure/educational (books, videos, toys, etc.)	4.2%

Location of Sales (reported as a percent of sales dollars)

Face-to-Face Selling 75.2%
In the home	66.9%
Workplace	3.9%
Temporary location	3.8%
Other locations	0.6%
Remote Selling 24.8%
Phone	12.8%
Internet	11.6%
Other remote selling	0.4%

Percent of Sales by Census Region

West	26.0%
Midwest	24.9%
Northeast	15.9%
South	33.2%

Sales Strategy
(method used to generate sales, reported as a percent of sales dollars)

Individual/Person-to-Person selling	67.1%
Party plan/group selling	28.9%
Customer placing order directly with firm (in followup to a face-to-face solicitation)	3.4%
Other	0.6%

Compensation Structure
(multilevel vs. single level)

Percent of firms	95.1%/4.9%
Percent of Sales	96.7%/3.3%
Percent of Sellers	97.9%/2.1%

Gender

Age (from 2002 National Salesforce Survey)

Marital Status (from 2002 National Salesforce Survey)

Education (from 2002 National Salesforce Survey)

Hours per week

Part-time/Full-time (30+ hours per week)

Average Percent of Time Spent on...(from 2002 National Salesforce Survey)

Main Reason for Becoming A Direct Sales Representative

Additional income	36%
It's your business and making money through direct sales in important to you	31%
Discount/wholesale/free products	29%
Other	4%

Worldwide Sales

Worldwide Salesforce

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