Direct Selling 12#
Direct selling refers to a scenario whereby a company's products are not sold through intermediary channels, but are available directly from the manufacturer or service provider. In this way, the company skips the retail margin or any additional costs associated with the intermediates. These savings can be forwarded to the customer and a standardized sales experience established. Additionally, such close contact can improve customer relationships.
Examples: Iconic Cases
How they do it: American Express markets its credit cards directly to end customers with targeted advertisement at events, in publications or also direct via mail.
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How they do it: Carnegie steel and its affiliated companies pioneered steel technology by directly supplying large scale construction projects (e.g. Eads Bay Bridge) in the 1890s, an important proof-of-concept for steel technology.
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How they do it: Dollar Shave Club only sells through its website, eliminating vendor margins, allowing to bring cost savings directly to the customer.
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How they do it: Harley Davidson has a range of brand store’s selling both its motorcycles as well as its brand merchandise. In addition it also has stores that focus exclusively on the brand and merchandise in popular locations such as malls and airports.
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How they do it: H&M’s products are exclusively distributed through its chain of retail stores, catalogues and online store. This allows the company to have full control over their value chain and profit from earning the full retail margin.
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Below, the top industries for the pattern "Direct Selling" are displayed, in order to get insights into how this pattern is applied across different industries. We've collected data from 5 firms using this pattern.
Top Industries
57% of firms using pattern
33% of firms using pattern
24% of firms using pattern
All Industries
Below, the pattern "Direct Selling" is analyzed based on co-occurrence, in order to get insights into how this business model pattern is applied in combination with other patterns within the firms we studied.
Top Co-Occurrences
9 pattern co-occurrences
6 pattern co-occurrences
5 pattern co-occurrences