- Multi-level marketing and direct sales growth continues
- Social media set to further boost multi-level marketing
- Monthly company revenues now exceed $1 million
Sharing Services, Inc. (OTC: SHRV) has put a new spin on the old business of multi-level marketing. Originating in the 1920s, the model has, with its unique union of direct selling and recruitment, transformed thousands into entrepreneurs over the past century. Enthusiastically embraced by the California Perfume Company, multi-level marketing established that venture into a household name after it re-branded as Avon Products. Now, Sharing Services is promoting a renaissance of multi-level marketing in the age of social media. The company is enabling home-based entrepreneurs, which it has christened ‘Elepreneurs’, through a variety of avenues to enhance their incomes. Its recent performance reflects the success of that strategy. Sales are climbing steadily, with ‘gross sales for the one month of February exceeding total sales for the past quarter’.
Through social media, direct selling and multi-level marketing are breaking new barriers. A Forbes feature highlighted some of the techniques multi-level marketers are utilizing to reach their target markets (http://ibn.fm/hdwca). Facebook’s Live Streaming was touted for its ability to ‘create an intimate atmosphere that makes viewers feel they’re connecting with the speaker much more personally than they ever could through a pre-recorded video.’
Paradoxically, the medium works better the less polished and rehearsed it is, for its authenticity is more likely to evoke a favorable emotional response. Of course, in today’s social media universe, content is king, as industry specialists are fond of saying. Live streaming video offers an opportunity to provide helpful information in a way that doesn’t appeared stilted and stale, its immediacy often acting as a call to action. Perhaps this is the reason that direct selling is still alive after a hundred years.
The World Federation of Direct Selling Associations (WFDSA) reports that global direct sales increased 1.9 percent from $179.2 billion in 2015 to $182.6 billion in 2016. The report also indicates that the United States is the largest direct selling market, valued at $35.5 billion in 2016, while China takes second place at $33.9 billion. Revenues at Sharing Services, however, far exceed that modest growth. Sales in February 2018 topped $1.1 million, buoyed by developments in its health and wellness division (http://ibn.fm/dpxoV).
The company recently signed a joint venture agreement with Health Wealth & Happiness Limited (“HWH”) to expand its Elepreneurs brand and market its products throughout Asia. The newly formed company will be named ‘Elepreneurs Asia Limited’ and will have marketing and sales rights to China, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Papua, New Guinea. A soft launch of the Elepreneur program is scheduled sometime later in 2018, with HWH CEP Fai Chan and his team leading the effort. Formed in Hong Kong, Health Wealth & Happiness Limited is dedicated to working with visionary partners like Sharing Services Inc. to deliver the best products and services to improve the well-being of consumers.
The Elepreneurs concept was created by Robert Oblon, a veteran of the travel and direct selling industry. Oblon began designing and developing online travel websites in the mid-1990s, and, by 2004, he had embarked on plans for creating a unique business model in network marketing and travel. In December 2005, he co-created WorldVentures, which is now the leading travel-related network marketing company. After leaving WorldVentures, Oblon became determined to create a model that truly helped a much larger number of people instead of the select few at the top of organizations, which marks an all-too-common trend in the direct selling profession. The result is Sharing Services.
For more information, visit the company’s website at www.SharingServicesInc.com or call (714) 203-6717
