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(Photo illustration by Ted Crow and Jon Fobes, The Plain Dealer / Smithsonian Archives Center, National Museum of American History )
UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Liz Ferrante regularly declined invitations to home shopping parties.
“There wasn’t anything enticing enough to get me to shop,” said Ferrante, a University Heights mother of three.
But when a good friend hosted a Stella & Dot party in 2010, Ferrante wandered down the street for a glass of wine and some girl talk. A year later, she was selling the company's jewelry at her own parties.
Sorry, “trunk shows,” in Stella & Dot parlance.
The San Francisco-based business -- founded in 2003 and boasting more than $200 million in annual sales -- is one of the popular kids in a new class of direct sales companies proffering blouses and bras, bags and bracelets and beauty products.
The companies have attracted scads of admirers, as well as salespeople, even during the recent recession. That’s because of their highly specialized product lines, proponents say, the busyness of modern life and the long arm of social media.
“Direct selling is a great way to reach a very broad audience,” said Amy Robinson, spokeswoman for the Direct Selling Association, a trade group based in Washington, D.C. “When a person buys a product, they post it on their Facebook page and all their contacts notice it. It’s amplified the traditional word of mouth.”
Direct sales amounted to $31.6 billion in the United States last year, up 6 percent over 2011, according to the Direct Selling Association. About 15.9 million salespeople were involved, up 1.9 percent from 2011.
"It's a time-honored model of retailing," said Sara West, spokeswoman for Thirty-One Gifts LLC. "Our consultants are able … to provide one-on-one service that they can't find in stores. They can find out more about customers and help them find solutions they need."
Thirty-One, a Columbus-based company founded in 2003, ranks 18th on the Direct Selling News’ list of 100 biggest direct sales companies in the world (Avon is No. 1).
Its growth was slow and steady for years, West said, but it now has nearly 120,000 consultants in the United States peddling its bags and organizational solutions. And it’s still growing; this year it unveiled a new line of purses.
Shopping parties have existed since the 1910s when Madam C.J. Walker and Annie Malone sold beauty products to women in their homes, said Helen Sheumaker, a Miami University lecturer in history and American studies.
The sales method took hold in the 1930s, when a former Fuller Brush door-to-door salesman named Frank Stanley Beveridge founded his own company, called Stanley Home Products. Salesmen demonstrated the products in the living rooms of hostesses who invited their friends.
The queen of them all, the indomitable Tupperware party, was born when Earl Tupper began molding with plastic for his company, which he founded in 1939.
“It’s definitely a feminized way of shopping and selling,” Sheumaker said.
Parties were successful because women were in charge of buying household items and were stuck at home in the suburbs without a car all day, she said. Plus, the gatherings harnessed the power of women’s friendships.
“You’re assured you have no requirement to buy, but it’s your friend who’s selling. Sheumaker said. “And you yourself might one day want to sell.”
Companies have made the model work for decades.
New companies are less overt in their sales techniques.
Stella & Dot calls consultants "stylists." For Origami Owl, a charm-necklace company created by a teenager in 2010, they're "designers." And Origami Owl parties are "jewelry bars."
“People will be surprised at how casual it is, how much more modern the approach feels,” Ferrante said of Stella & Dot events, where the jewelry is laid out while women mingle. “It’s really much more about women having a nice night out together.”
Friendships remain the foundation to sell, though.
Hostesses, who receive free gifts or product discounts for having a party, invite their friends to see the line of clothing or jewelry or bags.
"People don't have time to go shopping," said Kelley Horn, a consultant for the clothing line Carol Anderson by Invitation. "I think people like the idea that they can have their girlfriends over, they can shop, all in the comfort of their home."
Horn, 34, of Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood, had never head of Carol Anderson, or CAbi, before her friend saw a woman wearing a sweater she liked. Her friend talked her into attending a party, where she bought $700 worth of clothes.
She then quit her corporate sales job to work for the company, which was founded in 2002 and offers two lines -- fall and spring -- each year.
The average direct sales consultant makes about $2,400 a year, said Holly Hanna, publisher of The Work at Home Woman. But with commissions of 25 percent or more, some women make more than $100,000.
Generally, companies provide training and office support for their consultants, who pay for samples of products to show and sell.
“With literally thousands of choices in product and services, most women can find a product or service that they’re passionate about,” Hanna said. “From high-end clothing designers, botanical-based skincare products to gourmet foods and children’s products, there is something for everyone.”
Consultants are no longer limited by people they know, though. Or people their friends know.
“With social media, Facebook, people have a bigger reach to get the name out there, so people know what it is,” Horn said.
Consultants have their own websites, and customers often can order online.
“More people are looking at Facebook than are looking at TV advertising,” said Robinson of the Direct Selling Association.
And with Facebook – or Twitter or Instagram or Pinterest –potential customers see stuff their friends like, rather than just an ad.
Technology has helped Stella & Dot become the 57th largest direct sales company in the world, in just a few years. The company says its goal is to bring together social media and personal service to “create the ultimate home-based business for today’s modern woman.”
It may be modern, but it works the old-fashioned way, Sheumaker said.
“People enjoy being part of a network,” she said. “Not only do you get invited to the party, but when you buy something, you’re participating.”