Direct Selling Association

Direct Selling by the Numbers - Calendar Year 2007

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Industry Statistics
(Calendar year 2007 unless otherwise noted)
Estimated 2007 U.S. Retail Sales
Estimated 2007 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 2008 National Salesforce Survey)
Gender
Age*
Marital Status*
Education*
Time Spent on Direct Selling*

Worldwide data
Worldwide Sales
Worldwide Salesforce

See data from prior years
Calendar year 2006
Calendar year 2005
Calendar year 2004
Calendar year 2003
Calendar year 2002
Calendar year 2001
Calendar year 2000

Estimated 2007 U.S. Direct Sales:

$30.8 Billion

Estimated 2007 U.S. Salespeople

15.0 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.)	32.8%
Home/family care/home durables (cleaning products, cookware, cutlery, etc.)	25.6%
Wellness (weight loss products, vitamins, etc.)	21.4%
Services/other	16.2%
Leisure/educational (books, videos, toys, etc.)	4.0%

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

Face-to-Face Selling 77.1%
In the home	70.4%
Temporary location	3.7%
Workplace	2.5%
Other locations	0.5%
Remote Selling 22.9%
Internet	11.4%
Phone	8.8%
Other remote selling	2.7%

Percent of Sales by Census Region

West	26.8%
Midwest	23.3%
Northeast	18.3%
South	31.6%

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

Individual/Person-to-Person selling	64.5%
Party plan/group selling	27.7%
Customer placing order directly with firm (in followup to a face-to-face solicitation)	6.6%
Other	1.2%

Compensation Structure
(multilevel vs. single level)

Percent of firms	95.0%/5.0%
Percent of Sales	97.3%/2.7%
Percent of Sellers	98.2%/1.8%

Gender

Age (from 2008 National Salesforce Survey)

Marital Status (from 2008 National Salesforce Survey)

Education (from 2008 National Salesforce Survey)

Hours Spent on Direct Selling Per Week (from 2008 National Salesforce Survey)

Worldwide Sales

Worldwide Salesforce

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