Amway seeks more local resellers despite digital shift

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATE 1 4:13 p.m. Sept. 8) — While most companies lay off workers, direct selling giant Amway Corp. plans to increase the number of its local agents by a tenth this year, capitalizing on people’s desire to earn more income during the pandemic.

That would mean an additional 8,000 jobs as local resellers of Amway Philippines, whose health products such as Nutrilite vitamins and food supplements surged to a “double-digit” growth in sales, offsetting a slump in demand for its cosmetics. 

“The numbers keep growing,” Leni Olmedo, country manager, said in an online briefing on Tuesday. Last year, Amway has around 80,000 resellers in the country.

“That is, of course, a direct result of people who are trying to find means to augment their income during this difficult time,” she pointed out.

In June alone, just as the economy reopened from broad lockdowns, Amway clocked a 130% jump in reseller sign-ups as against the level in April when restrictions were enforced to fight the coronavirus. While at the time, Olmedo said hiring never stopped, lockdowns forced a “supply gap” on products that eventually hit sales.

However, a “V-shaped recovery” appeared underway in both hiring and sales, she said. “We're not saying like 100% it has completely surged in terms of growth because you have to take into account the period of stock out as well,” Olmedo said. 

“We're well on our way to recovery and growth,” she added, without going into specifics.

Amway employs distributors, who in turn, may recruit others to sell products and earn a percentage from sales. The company is said to not earn from recruitment of new distributors even as 100% of Amway’s revenues come from product sales, including those from resellers. 

While hiring new distributors this year, Olmeda said the company will also join the shift to e-commerce through “Amway Exclusive Shopper,” an online portal where individuals can directly purchase products. In turn, distributors, including new hires, may be deployed to attend to online shoppers.

Even ahead of the opening of an exclusive portal, 70% of purchases by Amway distributors, which in turn they sell to customers, already shifted purchases online. This was up from just 8% before the pandemic struck when resellers typically visited Amway branches for their supplies. 

The digital shift is helped by Amway's acceptance of cashless payments for its products. “Direct selling is not immune to digital transformation,” Olmeda said.

“Despite the many changes that we’ve experienced in the past six months, the core of any business, regardless of industry, remains to be creating personalized experiences for customers,” she added.

Editor's Note: Clarified use of Amway's online platform, shift to digital payments for distributors, continued hiring of resellers even during lockdowns.