Direct Selling by the Numbers - Calendar year 2000

Industry Statistics
(from DSA's 2001 Growth & Outlook Survey)
Estimated 2000 U.S. Retail Sales
Estimated 2000 U.S. Salespeople
Percent of Sales by Major Product Groups
Location of Sales
Percent of Sales by Census Region
Sales Strategy
Compensation Structure by Percent of Firms
Compensation Structure by Percent of Sales Dollars
Compensation Structure by Percent of Salespeople

Salesforce Demographics
(from DSA's 1999 National Salesforce Survey)
Gender
Age
Marital Status
Education
Independent Contractor/Employee Status
Hours Per Week Dedicated to Direct Selling
Average Time Spent on Direct Selling Tasks
Main Reasons for Becoming a Direct Sales Representative
Percent of Salespeople by Distributorship Type



Estimated 2000 U.S. Retail Sales:      $25.57 Billion

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Estimated 2000 U.S. Salespeople11.0 Million

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Percent of Sales by Major Product Groups


Home/family care products
(cleaning products, cookware, cutlery, etc.)		 33.7%
Personal care products
(cosmetics, jewelry, skin care, etc.)		 26.4%
Services/other 16.9%
Wellness 16.5%
Leisure/educational 6.5%

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


Face-to-Face Selling 78.2%
In the home64.4%
Workplace 8.7%
Temporary location4.1%
Other locations 1.0%
Remote Selling 21.8%
Phone 14.7%
Internet 5.5%
Other remote selling 1.6%

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Percent of Sales by Census Region

West 25.4%
Midwest 23.8%
Northeast 17.0%
South 33.8%

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

Individual/Person-to-Person selling 70.3%
Party plan/group selling 27.7%
Customer placing order directly with firm
(in followup to a face-to-face solicitation)		 1.7%
Other0.3%

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Compensation Structure by Percent of Firms
(multilevel vs. single level)

Percent of firms77.5%/22.5%

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Compensation Structure by Percent of Sales Dollars
(multilevel vs. single level)
Percent of sales dollars 73.9%/26.1%

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Compensation Structure by Percent of Salespeople
(multilevel vs. single level)

Percent of salespeople 83.1%/16.9%

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Gender

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Age

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Marital Status

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Education

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Independent Contractors/Employees

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Hours per week
Less than 30 hours per week/30-39/40 or more 81.6%/8.6%/9.8%

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Average Percent of Time Spent on...
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Main Reason for Becoming A Direct Sales Representative
Additional income 32%
Believe in the product/good product 20%
Discount/wholesale/free products 10%
Liked the presentation/organization/people 3%
Be able to stay at home with children/parent 3%
Personally use the product 3%
Flexibility 3%
Asked by relative 3%
To be able to get the product more easily 3%
Other 20%

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Percent of Salespeople by Distributorship Type

One-person distributorship: female 63.7
One-person distributorship: male 16.7
Two-person distributorship 16.6
Multi-person distributorship 3.0

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