WFDSA Announces 2021 Direct Selling Business Results

The World Federation of Direct Selling Associations (WFDSA) today announced global direct sales of USD 186.1 billion for the year-ended December 31, 2021.   Excluding China¹, worldwide retail sales showed a year-over-year increase of 3.3% with three of the four regions around the globe showing increases in sales versus 2020.  Global results, including China, increased 1.5% compared to 2020 on a constant currency basis.   The industry continues to grow at a healthy pace with 3 year Compound Annual Growth of 3.8% (excluding China) and -0.1% Globally (China Included).

Global sales force is at 128.2 million independent representatives/distributors, a 0.7% increase over 2020.   This figure includes over 70 million Independent Representatives who are actively working to build their direct selling businesses either as a full-time career or part-time to earn supplemental income.

Around 40% of Direct Selling markets are now reporting inclusion of Preferred Member programs by their member companies, with almost 30 million participants in these programs reported in 2021.  Many of those joining Preferred Customer programs would previously have joined as independent representatives primarily to access discounted products.  The benefit of these programs is that they often provide a more customer oriented experience for these participants, more consistent with their goals at this stage of their journey with Direct Selling.  Many eventually go on to pursue the business opportunity based on their richer experience as a customer.  We expect to see this trend continue as these programs develop further, ultimately providing a much clearer view of how participants engage with the Direct Selling industry.

The COVID-19 pandemic continued to be one of the most significant factors impacting the industry in 2021.  The universal factors that impacted most industries, including prolonged community lock downs, job displacements and global supply chain disruption also impacted the Direct Selling industry both positively and negatively.  While supply chain challenges likely created some drag on inventory availability, the flexibility and entrepreneurial nature of Direct Selling and the increased demand for supplemental income likely favored the Direct Selling channel.  The number of men participating in Direct Selling in 2021 increased to 30% compared to 26% in 2020.  We also noted a significant increase compared to 2020 in the number of participants estimated as participating full time (up 12%) and part time (up 15%), with a corresponding decrease in those classified as Other (down 11%).  We believe that both these shifts are most likely attributable to the pandemic and the increased demand for supplemental family income.

China was again significantly challenged by the pandemic in 2021, while the market was still recovering from the unrelated government restrictions on meetings¹ during the first part of 2019, when COVID-19 hit with another major prolonged disruption.

While the results varied significantly from market to market based on local conditions, the overall the global industry growth during 2021 underscores the strength and adaptability of the industry.

Founded in 1978, the World Federation of Direct Selling Associations is the leading international, non-governmental, voluntary organization representing the global direct selling industry in more than 170 countries through more than 60 regional and local direct selling associations.

1. During Q1 of 2019, the Chinese Government implemented a 100 Day Review of the nutrition supplement industry. While this action was not related specifically to the direct selling industry, it had a significant impact on certain sectors of the industry.

https://wfdsa.org/global-statistics/