Direct selling

Direct selling is the sale of goods or services directly to consumers outside a fixed retail store, often through personal demonstrations or conversations.

Multi-level marketing: A direct-selling model in which participants earn from their own sales and the sales of recruited participants. It adds recruitment-based earnings to direct selling's person-to-person sales.
Traveling salesman: A salesperson who travels to find customers and sell goods outside a permanent shop. Traveling salespeople represent an older form of selling directly to households.
Pyramid scheme: A fraudulent scheme that rewards participants mainly for recruiting others rather than selling products to end users. The distinction turns on whether rewards depend on genuine retail sales or recruitment.
Federal Trade Commission: A United States federal agency that enforces laws against deceptive and unfair business practices. Its guidance and enforcement address earnings claims and deceptive practices in direct selling.
Single-level marketing: A sales model in which representatives earn from their own sales without recruiting a downline. It shows the direct-selling model without multi-level recruitment.
Avon Products: An American cosmetics company founded in 1886 that became known for selling through representatives. Its representative network helped establish a recognizable direct-selling model.
Ponzi scheme: An investment fraud that pays earlier investors with money taken from later investors. It is often confused with pyramid selling but involves investment returns rather than product distribution.
Business opportunity: A commercial arrangement offered to buyers seeking to start or expand a business. Direct-selling recruitment may be marketed as a business opportunity, raising disclosure questions.
Party plan: A sales method in which a host gathers customers for a representative's product presentation. Group demonstrations turn personal contact into a shared sales event.
Mary Kay Ash: An American businesswoman who founded Mary Kay Cosmetics in 1963. Her company popularized beauty sales through independent representatives and group demonstrations.

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