Direct selling background: An entrepreneurial business model

Do you know someone in the direct selling industry? Chances are you do, considering the popular, entrepreneurial business model where people sell products or services directly to consumers is a multi-billion-dollar global industry.

In fact, close to 115 million people across the world participated in direct selling in 2022, offering everything from fitness products and dietary supplements to beauty and home care items to clothing and accessories.

Direct selling has been around in various forms for a long time. Some of the earliest direct sellers include the age-old Yankee peddlers who traveled between New England homesteads in the 18^th and 19^th centuries offering various wares for sale to those they met along the way.

Direct selling has undoubtedly come a long way since then, evolving and expanding so that independent entrepreneurs have the opportunity start a business selling almost any product or service imaginable directly to consumers either in person or online with little start-up costs.

Over the years, many people and companies have had an impact on what the industry looks like today and how independent distributors can earn income. Not least among them are the founders of Amway and its Nutrilite™ brand of vitamins and dietary supplements.

Amway origin, history and founders

Amway founders Jay Van Andel and Rich DeVos started the company from their basements in 1959, but that was not the first time the two worked together. Friends since high school who were committed to owning their own business, they actually failed at seven different ventures before finding success, including a flight school, a restaurant and manufacturing toy horses.

Their first success came, not with Amway, but with Nutrilite. With that came the framework of the Amway business model, parts of which are still used in the industry today.

It started with Nutrilite

It was 1949 when the pair was introduced to Nutrilite Products Inc., at the time a California-based company founded in 1934 selling what was believed to be the first multivitamin-multimineral dietary supplement.

Nutrilite founder Carl Rehnborg had spent years working for American companies in China and recognizing how people’s health there was linked to what kind of foods they ate. It propelled Rehnborg to follow his quest to create plant-based supplements filled with phytonutrients, or plant nutrients. He took a holistic approach to good nutrition and developed a line of products with ingredients sourced from his first farm – a tiny plot in California’s San Fernando Valley.

To help distribute his Nutrilite line, Rehnborg and his team were among the first to develop a compensation model for direct sellers sometimes called multi-level marketing where distributers earned income by selling products to customers and also when distributors they trained sold products to customers.

Under the name Ja-Ri Corp, Rich and Jay became Nutrilite distributors and rose in the ranks to be among the company’s top sellers. In fact, when they launched Amway in 1959, their Amway business model was based largely on what they saw as the successful parts of the Nutrilite model.

They continued selling Nutrilite products as Amway grew. In 1972 they acquired Nutrilite, allowing Amway Independent Business Owners (IBOs) to sell Nutrilite products and opening the door for Nutrilite to be sold internationally.

Amway ethics: Industry standards and protections

Responsible direct selling companies follow a strict code of ethics to protect consumers and the people who sell their products. Throughout Amway’s history, company founders and leaders have been champions for ethical standards and protections

The company is a prominent and active member of regional, national and global direct selling associations. In the U.S., Amway has been a member of the Direct Selling Association since 1962, and over the years company leaders have held various positions within that organization as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the World Federation of Direct Selling Associations.

Amway also proudly employs some of the strongest consumer and business owner protections in the direct selling industry to ensure the integrity of the business is protected, including a satisfaction guarantee. If anyone, for any reason, is dissatisfied with their Amway purchase, most products can be returned within 180 days for a full refund.

Amway IBOs must meet exceptionally high standards, too, including following the company’s Rules of Conduct. IBOs leaving the Amway business also have a right to return Amway products with limited exceptions.

Thanks to its successful business model, an offering of more than 350 high quality and innovative products developed by a team of researchers and scientists and hardworking IBOs who sell those products to customers, Amway is nearing its 65^th anniversary and is the number one direct selling company in the world, operating in more than 100 countries and territories.

Want to learn more about the low cost, low risk business Amway offers? Visit WeAreAmway.com or go to the Start a Business page of Amway.ca.