Our Mission
“What is Direct Selling?”
This question is one we hear often. In fact, it’s one we hear more often than we want to. And that’s why we exist.
Our vision is for the next generation of leaders, entrepreneurs and problem-solvers to understand the value direct selling as a powerful go-to-market strategy and entrepreneurial engine that helps ideas spread at a faster rate and at a relatively low-entry cost.
A Preferred Go-To-Market Strategy
A Streamlined Distribution Model
A Powerful Entrepreneurial Engine
Our Purpose
The purpose of the Direct Selling Education Foundation is to engage, equip and empower educators to provide students with an accurate understanding of the direct selling industry as a powerful go-to-market strategy, distribution model and entrepreneurial option, and to teach the correct principles of direct selling.
Practically speaking, we partner with professors and educators, primarily at the collegiate levels who are interested in including direct selling as a topic in their various curriculum. We provide resources for educators and classrooms alike to streamline this process. We also sponsor and support various events, project and initiatives, like campus days, to further support our overall mission.
Direct Selling: a Popular Choice for New and Established Companies Alike
In many ways, direct selling captures the spirit of healthy entrepreneurship like no other business model. Over the decades, there have been misconceptions about direct selling. DSEF’s goal is simply to clarify what direct selling is, what it’s not and why it’s one of the most compelling marketing strategies in today’s culture.
At a time when micro-entrepreneurship is being embraced by major business corporations, direct selling is being sought out as a modern distribution model and vibrant go-to-market strategy. The success of companies like Uber and Etsy demonstrate that more people today are looking for flexible entrepreneurial opportunities. Currently, direct selling is a marketing channel that services many industries and product categories, like beauty, health, home goods, and even services like energy and mobile phone plans. Some of the world’s largest retailers – as well as fledgling entrepreneurs – are researching and even launching new companies that leverage direct selling as its primary marketing method.
In addition, direct selling companies offer a business platform that any aspiring entrepreneur can tap into and leverage for themselves. It’s a distribution method that is gaining more and more attention from new and established business owners alike. Companies can essentially license their brand and company assets to independent distributors to amplify their own corporate activities across thousands of personal networks. Digital technology and social media enable the entrepreneur to scale at minimal cost, and leverage this business platform in a way that makes sense to them personally. Direct selling has also become a preferred method for startup companies to quickly offer their unique products or services effectively.
Direct Selling: a Growing Model
And the data backs up these trends, as the direct selling industry overall has experienced impressive long-term and short-term growth. Since 2015, direct selling in the U.S. alone has grown from a $28 billion dollar industry to a $36 billion dollar industry. Due to this incredible growth, traditional retailers have begun to look into direct selling in order to expand their market share. As of 2015, more than 20 million Americans are involved in direct selling, and that number grew by 11% from the previous year. And involvement spreads evenly over age range and region.
