From Door-to-Door Bibles to a $200 Billion Channel: A Timeline of Direct Selling's Founding Firms

The nineteenth-century foundations

The industry's origins are usually traced to 1855, when James Robinson Graves founded the predecessor of what operates today as Southwestern Advantage. The business sold books and Bibles through students going door to door, and Graves also used the operation as a vehicle for teaching entrepreneurial skills — an early link between selling and training that would recur throughout the channel's history.

In 1883, Carl and Adolf Vorwerk established Vorwerk in Wuppertal, Germany, initially as a carpet and textile manufacturer. The company later became a product-driven direct seller, introducing the Kobold vacuum cleaner in 1929, the VKM5 kitchen machine in 1961 and the first Thermomix multifunction kitchen appliance in 1971. Vorwerk also diversified beyond hardware, founding akf bank in 1968; the institution is now among Germany's larger leasing and financing companies. Vorwerk today operates in more than 60 countries and reported roughly $4.1 billion in 2024 revenue, placing it fifth on the DSN Global 100.

Three years after Vorwerk's founding, David H. McConnell launched the California Perfume Company in 1886, the business that would later be known as Avon. McConnell built the company by engaging women as sales representatives — a model that, at the company's peak, extended to more than 100 countries, over ten million recruited sellers and annual revenue in excess of $10 billion.

Brushes, vacuums and the rise of the home party

Alfred C. Fuller founded the Fuller Brush Company in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1906, starting with brushes sold door to door. In the 1940s the company introduced female agents known as 'Fullerettes,' broadening the profile of its field force.

Jim Kirby formalized a direct sales model for his vacuum cleaners by 1920. The Kirby business is now operated by Right Lane Industries, which acquired it from Berkshire Hathaway in 2021.

The party format arrived with Frank Stanley Beveridge, who founded Stanley Home Products in Westfield, Massachusetts, in 1931 and shifted to direct selling in 1938, introducing the 'hostess party' with a line of more than 220 products. The format proved formative for a generation of industry figures, including Brownie Wise, Mary Kay Ash and Mary Crowley.

Earl Tupper patented his airtight 'burp' seal in 1946, the product foundation for Tupperware. From 1951, Brownie Wise developed the company's party-plan demonstrations, and in 1954 she became the first woman featured on the cover of Business Week. The party model carried Tupperware into more than 100 countries and made it one of the most widely recognized household brands.

Compensation structures and the supply chain behind the brands

Carl Rehnborg founded Nutrilite in 1934, developing one of the first plant-based multivitamin formulations. The company's more lasting structural contribution came in 1945, when it introduced the first modern multi-level commission system, allowing sellers to receive commissions tied to the performance of the sellers they recruited.

Nutrilite also served as the training ground for Jay Van Andel and Rich DeVos, who went on to found Amway. Amway acquired a controlling interest in Nutrilite in 1972.

Manufacturing capacity developed alongside the sales models. J.O. Riegal founded cookware maker Regal Ware in 1945, producing private-label and co-branded cookware for numerous direct selling companies. In 1979, Regal Ware acquired Saladmaster, the waterless cookware system company founded by Harry Lemmons in 1946.