Direct Selling by the Numbers - Calendar Year 2005

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Industry Statistics
(Calendar year 2005 unless otherwise noted)
Estimated 2005 U.S. Retail Sales
Estimated 2005 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 by Percent of Firms
Compensation Structure by Percent of Sales Dollars
Compensation Structure by Percent of Salespeople

Salesforce Demographics
(* indicates data from DSA's 2002 National Salesforce Survey)
Gender
Age*
Marital Status*
Education*
Independent Contractor/Employee Status (2003 data)
Hours Per Week Dedicated to Direct Selling (2003 data)
Average Time Spent on Direct Selling Tasks*
Main Reasons for Becoming a Direct Sales Representative*
Percent of Salespeople by Distributorship Type (2003 data)

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



Estimated 2005 U.S. Direct Sales:      $30.47 Billion

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Estimated 2005 U.S. Salespeople14.1 Million

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1-, 5- and 10-year growth rates  

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Comparison with Retail Growth Rate  

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Percent of Sales by Major Product Groups


Personal care products
(cosmetics, jewelry, skin care, etc.)		 33.6%
Home/family care products
(cleaning products, cookware, cutlery, etc.)		 26.8%
Wellness
(weight loss products, vitamins, etc.)		 19.1%
Services/other 15.5%
Leisure/educational
(books, videos, toys, etc.)		 5.0%

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


Face-to-Face Selling 73.3%
In the home64.9%
Workplace 3.8%
Temporary location4.1%
Other locations 0.5%
Remote Selling 26.7%
Phone 14.7%
Internet 11.7%
Other remote selling 0.3%

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Percent of Sales by Census Region (2003 data)

West 25.7%
Midwest 25.2%
Northeast 15.7%
South 33.4%

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

Individual/Person-to-Person selling 68.8%
Party plan/group selling 27.2%
Customer placing order directly with firm
(in followup to a face-to-face solicitation)		 3.2%
Other0.8%

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

Percent of firms92.6%/7.4%

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Compensation Structure by Percent of Sales Dollars
(multilevel vs. single level)
Percent of sales dollars 96.6%/3.4%

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Compensation Structure by Percent of Salespeople
(multilevel vs. single level)
Percent of salespeople 97.2%/2.8%

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Gender

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Age (from 2002 National Salesforce Survey)

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Marital Status (from 2002 National Salesforce Survey)

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Education (from 2002 National Salesforce Survey)

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Independent Contractors/Employees (2003 data)

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Hours per week

Part-time/Full-time (30+ hours per week) 87.3%/12.7%

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

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Percent of Salespeople by Distributorship Type

One-person distributorship 82.1%
Two-person distributorship 11.4%
Multi-person distributorship 6.5%

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