West Europe, composed of 17 advanced economies such as United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Germany has registered a solid growth (CAGR of 3.4%) and the number of distributors (14 million) has been growing rapidly over the last few years. In 2014, Europe represented 17% (32.6B USD) of the industry revenue and 15% of the number of distributors globally, a sum equal in size to the Latin and Central America region.

 

We can explain the development of the Western European market by looking at several factors such as the arrival of numerous U.S. based Direct Selling companies over the last few years providing exciting opportunities to people. Complicated economic conditions (unemployment) within the region has also propelled more people to supplement their income. Finally, the efforts of the European Direct Selling Associations (Local DSAs, DSE & SELDIA) to promote the image of the industry and encourage entrepreneurial spirit among the populations has positively impacted the industry.

 

In terms of product categories, the repartition between the 2 European sub regions is unequal: Cosmetics and Skin Care category represents 60% of the channel revenue in East Europe while in the West, Wellness (26%) is the largest category followed by Cosmetics and Skin Care (24%) and Home Improvement (13%).

 

West Europe represents approximately 75% of the European revenue and has the highest revenue by distributor ratio on average (approx. 7,000 USD/distributor in 2014) among all regions. The Direct Selling industry has been able to offer an opportunity to more than 10 million people in Central and East Europe (13 Countries + Russia). Russia, Turkey and Poland are the billion Dollar markets within the zone.

 

Sources: ASENSHIA, World Bank, WFDSA, Euromonitor, Wikipedia

CAGR: Compound Annual Growth Rate expressed in Constant USD 2014, between 2011 and 2014