Avon.

com
ARNAB SAHA
14010102030
Sl no-031

About Avon

Worlds largest direct seller of beauty products

Annual sales ~$5.3 billion
Growth rate: 2-4%
2.8 million sales rep worldwide, around half a
million in US
Ventured online in 1997

Product line & competitive prices

Being a direct seller company, Avons products
priced way below other competitors who dealt
through traditional retail channels

Avon

Other mass (Revlon)

Prestige(Lancme)

Lipstick

$3-$7

$6-$9

$12-$16

Nail polish

$2-$4

$3-$5

$8-$12

Anti-aging treatment

$16-$24

$13-$22

$30-$60

Fragrance

$20

$20

$45

Sales force
All the sales reps were independent contractors
Most of the representatives were organized into a single
level, as opposed to multilevel organization in other
direct sellers
Unlike most other direct sellers, Avon avoided the party
plan approach
Two types of representatives1. Full time representative
2. Part time representative

Attrition was very high(100%) specially among part time

sales representatives

Selling process

CAMPAIGNING:

sales reps purchased

brochures,
distributed and
placed purchase
orders

SELLING:
creating network
through existing
customers

LOGISTICS:
shipping products
to customer,
expenses borne by
sales reps

Introduction of Avon.com
Stage I,1997: used as commerce-only website for selling a
few products
Stage II: Eve.com or iVillage?
Eve.com strategy: to build a commerce-only website
iVillage model: build communities for women, by engaging
them in deep discussions
Strategies

PROs

CONs

Eve.com

Existing model for Avon

Online market will not

be fully realised

iVillage

Will fit to Avons image of

company of women

Will require overhauling

of website, incurring
huge cost

B2B vs B2C
B2B: Between Avon and its representatives
B2C: Between Avons representatives and
customers
B2B is more costly, incurring a cost of $60 mil
in 3-5 years. However it will make issuing
purchase orders easier
In B2C Avon directly interacts with customers.
For that extra cost will incur in marketing
website, shipping products etc.

 B2B will be adopted by Avon as it will make

process smoother and faster. At the same
time, retaining customers will be easier
because of retaining sales reps.