Gen Y and the Direct Selling Industry in Australia

Ding, dong! Avon's Gen Y Sellers Call on Your Inbox

Helen Pitt September 18, 2010
ONE in four Gen Yers expect to be self-employed at some time in their working life, according to independent research which has found an increasing number of under-25s are selling door-to-door style products such as Avon, Amway and Tupperware.
But instead of leaving the catalogue in the letterbox, it's more likely to be in your email inbox. Gen Yers use their online social networks to sell Amway products and organise Tupperware parties.
The generational group portrait which paints Gen Y as having an increased sense of entitlement has a flip side that seems to be leading to increased entrepreneurial activity in this age bracket. Direct selling companies report an increasingly younger sales force and are changing their product range accordingly: Avon has introduced a skincare range for the under 20s to target university and high school student sellers and Amway has introduced protein shakes and vitamin supplements to attract a younger clientele.
A social researcher, Mark McCrindle of McCrindle Research, which studied Australian entrepreneurial activities with 1000 Gen Yers aged between 18 and 25, found a quarter of them wanted to run their own business, which is much higher than the national rate across all age groups, which is not even one in 20.
''It's not daggy like it was in the past to sell products such as Amway and Avon,'' Mr McCrindle said. ''The heroes in the Gen Y world are the guys who start a small business in the garage or the friends who start an eBay-like business online. Scoring the job at the big Fortune 500 company is not the status symbol of success like it was in their parents' day.''
John Holloway, the executive director of the Direct Sellers Association of Australia, whose members sell $1.6 billion worth of products annually in Australia, says a 12.5 per cent sales rise in the past three years has been driven largely by online sales in the under 25 age group.