Direct Sales And Network Marketing: Dynamics, Structure And Tendencies in a Global Aspect

Direct sales and network marketing in particular are a growing area in non-store retail trade to which until the present moment there has been paid little attention in Bulgarian economic science. That area forms a global industry, which in 2012 realized a turnover of 167 bln dollars, owing to 90 mln independent direct representatives all over the world. The present study aims at presenting an analysis and a global survey of the dynamics, structure and trends in its development during the past 1-2 decades. Taking into account the peculiarities of this area in the tertiary sector of the economy – the service sphere, the ambition of the author is to perform a comparison with the peculiarities of the world economy as a whole, which have emerged in the period under consideration, and on that basis to point out some conclusions on the prospects created by direct sales and mostly their main form of manifestation – network marketing.