In 2015, Direct Sales Reached 183.7 Billion in Revenue
What was your take?
When was the last time you recommended a movie or health related tip
or product to a friend, family member or colleague. Millions of people
do this every day – and get paid for it.
The Network Marketing and Direct Sales profession hit a new record high in 2015 with $183.7 Billion in global sales.
1
Roughly $73.4 Billion (40%), was paid directly to distributors via
commissions. That’s $6.1 Billion per month and $201 Million each and
every day – 365 days a year.2
.
Graphic Source:
NFL: $13 BILLION Source:
CNN
VIDEO GAMES: $67 BILLION Source:
Fortune
MOVIES (box office): $10.8 BILLION Source:
Statista
ORGANIC PRODUCTS: $91 BILLION Source:
Statista
NETWORK MARKETING: $183.7 BILLION Source: WFDSA: Global Direct Selling – 2015 Retail Sales Report.
The Network Marketing and Direct Sales industry profession hit a new
record in 2015 with $183.728 Billion in global sales. The U.S. was
ranked as the top direct selling market in the world with 20% of
worldwide sales, China came in second with 19%, S. Korea third with 9%,
followed by Germany at 8% and Japan at 8%. Other counties making their
mark was Brazil, Mexico, France and United Kingdom to name a few.
Direct sellers include individuals who are career minded
entrepreneurs (full or part-time), building their own business within
their respective company.
Sales figures are expressed in USD and are estimated retail level and
exclude sales tax and VAT with international sales being converted to
USD using the exchange rate as of February 2015.
Figures are based on DSA Members only and do not include the entire industry.
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HOW BIG IS CARD PROCESSING INDUSTRY? WEELLLL, WIKIPEDIA SAID THIS A LOOONG TIME AGO:
Payment Processing Industry Overview
The
payment processing industry provides merchants with credit, debit, gift
and loyalty card and other payment processing services, along with
related
information services. The industry continues to grow as a result of
wider merchant acceptance, increased consumer use of bank cards and
advances in payment processing and telecommunications technology.
According to The Nilson Report, total
expenditures for all card type transactions by U.S. consumers were
$3.3 trillion in 2007, and are expected to grow to $4.8 trillion by
2012. --
AND IT HAS JUST BEEN GOING UP UP UP EVER SINCE !!
**********
Surely that's big enough for even YOU to haul yourself out and help a merchant this week!
Like, oh, say, your favorite restaurant!
By Lee Holman, Lead Retail Analyst, IHL Group
| February 16, 2017
Hospitality Technology’s
Restaurant Executive Summit,
offers restaurant leaders ample opportunities for invaluable
peer-to-peer networking and idea-sharing. During an informal roundtable
discussion at the 2016 summit on Nov. 8, industry colleagues discussed
the current state of EMV adoption in the restaurant industry. Foregoing
prior history, the mandated liability shift for EMV for non-fuel U.S.
retailers and hospitality providers occurred in October 2015, more than a
year before this discussion.
While the deadline had long since passed, these restaurant operators
revealed that that prior to EMV becoming buzz-worthy, they were already
doing their homework on how best to deal with the mandated liability
shift. Operators at the table represented chains ranging from less than a
dozen restaurants to nationwide outfits of more than 1,000 locations.
These restaurateurs had performed cost analyses and expected value
calculations on likely scenarios that were representative of what they
might face.
In some cases, the rational decision was to deploy the hardware,
software and services necessary to fully meet the deadline and thereby
avoid any fees or penalties. Two companies at the table did just that.
In other cases, the decision was made to do something other than a full
technology deployment. That ranged from doing nothing at all (and
happily paying whatever fees/fines/chargebacks were levied) to deploying
sufficient technology to mitigate (but not eliminate) the full
potential risk. One restaurateur stated the entire level of chargebacks
the previous year was considerably less than the tens (if not hundreds)
of thousands of dollars necessary to fully meet the liability shift’s
requirements.
When discussing the chargeback issue, the restaurant industry
professionals mentioned that they were being affected in different ways.
For instance, in the case of chains that had yet to be certified as
being EMV compliant, some had noticed a spike in chargeback activity,
including for lost and stolen cards. This was concerning because
retailers and restaurateurs are not supposed to be liable for this type
of activity under guidelines. To that point, one restaurateur indicated
that even after providing time-stamped video footage of a charged-back
transaction that clearly showed the perpetrator, the bank refused to
reverse the chargeback.
According to some restaurateurs, this increased chargeback activity
wasn’t limited to those who were not yet EMV compliant. Lost and stolen
cards are being targeted at restaurants where Chip & Signature is
employed, since the card is (typically) still a valid card even though
the user isn’t a valid user. Less-than-honest consumers are getting in
on the act, as well. If the consumer claims a charge on a valid card by a
valid user is invalid, the path of least resistance for the financial
institution is a chargeback to the restaurant. Transactions involving
large gift card purchases and large dining parties were cited by some of
those at the table as being the cause of many chargebacks.
In a move that sounds like it came right out of Joseph Heller’s
Catch 22,
some retailers and restaurateurs have responded to the fraudulent
chargeback activity of the financial institutions in a unique but
entirely foreseeable manner. Simply, in clear violation of PCIDSS
standards, some retailers and restaurateurs are storing the very Track 2
card data that PCI and EMV was supposed to protect. They are doing this
in order to maintain an audit trail in an effort to contest
the
increasingly fraudulent chargeback activity.
How have the banks responded? This particular discussion occurred within
six months of a handful of lawsuits filed on behalf of merchants of all
shapes and sizes. Some of the lawsuits are progressing. Restaurants are
hoping the outcomes of the lawsuits might provide some relief down the
road. At this particular table, the restaurateurs were almost unanimous
in feeling that banks and financial institutions did not show much
concern about the plights faced by restaurants. This seems to be
particularly evident from the bank's willingness to issue chargebacks
and their lack of responsiveness to requests for EMV certification.
Some operators commented that the banks and card issuers didn’t really
show much interest until after lawsuits started getting filed.
Lee Holman also co-authored the IHL Group study titled EMV: Retail’s $35Billion “Money Pit,” published in May 2015.
