TVNZ:
Companies such as Tupperware and Avon who sell straight to consumers are experiencing strong growth as more salespeople keep signing up.
Tupperware parties are today seen as a relic of the past but are now enjoying a massive resurgence as the recession hits more people than ever before, with 100,000 parties pushing the plastic this year.
Sonia McIndoe from Tupperware says sales in New Zealand at the moment are booming.
“We’ve seen an increase of over 27% already this year,” she says.
But Tupperware isn’t the only company booming while others go bust.
Avon has watched its sales soar and in just three weeks the company has had 1,500 people signing up to sell their lipsticks.
Debbie Billington, an Avon recruit, says she went for the job so that she could earn some extra money as things were getting really hard for her financially.
Garth Wyllie from the Direct Sales Association says companies dealing in direct sales always boom during periods of recession.
“When you have a recessionary period, direct sales tend to go against the trend and grow rather than the opposite as in traditional retail”.
Logo from Tupperware
Miss Masters on April 28th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
This is an inspirational piece on direct sales — it really baffles me as to why the direct sales soar when traditional retail sales plummet. I guess it confuses me because retail items sell cheaper than direct sales and w/direct sales you also have to pay for the shipping. For instance, why do consumers prefer a Tupperware Bowl (approx. retail $15 + shipping) to the Rubbermaid bowl they can buy at Wal-Mart for a fraction (up to 50%) of the cost + gas money to drive there. It doesn’t make any sense; maybe I should look into selling Tupperware?
TupperRosie on May 2nd, 2009 at 5:36 am
I was reading an article the other day about how people, during a recession, tend to make well-thought out purchases. What people look for during hard times are items that are of high quality and very useful. Plus, the fact that many Tupperware consultants take the time to build a relationship with their customers helps because customers know that if there is ever a problem with the product, they can call their consultant to fix it. (Can you imagine trying to return a cracked Rubbermaid bowl to Walmart after a year or two? Does your local Walmart store manager call you to tell you about sales they have going on? Sounds kinda silly, huh
)
Another big factor for increased sales is an increased number of sales people. The word gets out a lot faster when there are more people promoting the product. I don’t know how many times I have been told, “I haven’t even seen anything from Tupperware in years!”