GSB Professor Olga Tretyak Participated in a Conference ‘Direct Selling Today and Tomorrow’ of Direct Selling Association
Olga Tretyak, professor of the Department of Marketing and the head of the Laboratory of Network Organizational Forms of HSE Graduate School of Business, took part in the conference.
Among other participants of the conference:
- Tamara Shokareva, president of Direct Selling Association (DSA);
- Irina Menshikova, Senior Executive: Sales and E-commerce, Finance, Operations, Amway Russia and Kazakhstan;
- Katrin Alakbarov, Vice President and Head of Oriflame Russia and Belarus, CEO of Oriflame Russia;
- Maria Kutyreva, Independent Consultant, Mary Kay.
The research ‘Independent Consultants as a Foundation for Direct Selling Business Model’ had two main aims: to define a social-demographic profile of an independent consultant and specifics of his/her communication with colleagues in a changing environment.
Olga Tretyak presented the main conclusions in the online conference:
In general, the industry of direct selling demonstrates long-term stability compared to the past studied periods. There is also a considerable growth of the segment of independent consultants aged 31-34 years old (from 8% to 18%), which implicitly indicates young population’s trust to the industry.
DSA President Tamara Shokareva noted:
Important features of the industry are personified approach to clients, adaptation of communication channels, constant learning. This allows the industry to stay flexible regardless of surrounding circumstances. Direct Selling is becoming more social. Independent consultants often turn into micro-bloggers, creating their own communities in which they are opinion leaders. This focus of the industry helped to successfully cope with this year’s challenges and be confident about the future. In 9 months of 2020, the industry demonstrated growth of sales figures by 7.3% to 92.2 billion rubles.
Watch the recording of the online conference
Direct Selling Association (DSA) is a national association of leading companies that produce and sell goods and services directly to customers. Founded in 1996, DSA is a member of World Federation of Direct Selling Associations (WFDSA) and the European Direct Selling Association (SELDIA).