This form of retailing originated several centuries ago and has mushroomed into a multibillion-dollar industry consisting of companies selling door-to-door, office-to-office, or at private-home sales meetings. The forerunners in the direct-selling industry include The Fuller Brush Company (brushes, brooms, etc.), Electrolux (vacuum cleaners), and Avon (cosmetics). In addition, Tupperware pioneered the home-sales approach, in which friends and neighbours gather in a home where Tupperware products are demonstrated and sold. Network marketing, a direct-selling approach similar to home sales, is also gaining prevalence in markets worldwide. In the model used by companies such as Amway and Shaklee, distributors are rewarded not only for their direct sales but also for the sales of those they have recruited to become distributors. In 2007 Amway’s parent company tested an Internet recruitment model by launching Fanista, a Web site that sells entertainment media such as books, movies, and music while rewarding users for bringing other customers to the site.

Direct marketing is direct contact between a seller (manufacturer or retailer) and a consumer. Generally speaking, a seller can measure response to an offer because of its direct addressability. Although direct marketing gained wide popularity as a marketing strategy only in the late 20th century, it has been successfully utilized for more than one hundred years. Sears, Roebuck and Company and Montgomery Ward & Co. began as direct marketers in the late 1880s, selling their products solely by mail order. A century later, however, both companies were conducting most of their business in retail stores; Montgomery Ward ceased operations in 2001 but was revived as an e-commerce company in 2004. Many contemporary department stores and specialty stores supplement their store operations with direct-marketing transactions by mail, telephone, or the Internet. Mail-order firms grew rapidly in the 1950s and ’60s in continental Europe, Great Britain, and certain other highly industrialized nations. Modern direct marketing is generally supported by advanced database technologies that track each customer’s purchase behaviour. These technologies are used by established retail firms, such as Quelle and Neckermann in Germany, and are the foundation of mail-order businesses such as J. Crew, The Sharper Image, and L.L. Bean (all in the United States). Direct marketing is not a worldwide business phenomenon, however, because mail-order operations require infrastructure elements that are still lacking in many countries, such as efficient transportation networks and secure methods for transmitting payments.

Direct marketing has expanded from its early forms, among them direct mail and catalog mailings, to include such vehicles as telemarketing, direct-response radio and television, and Internet shopping. Unlike many other forms of promotion, a direct-marketing campaign is quantitatively measurable.

Automatic vending is a unique area in nonstore merchandising because the variety of merchandise offered through automatic vending machines continues to grow. Initially, impulse goods with high convenience value such as cigarettes, soft drinks, candy, newspapers, and hot beverages were offered. However, a wide array of products such as hosiery, cosmetics, food snacks, postage stamps, paperback books, record albums, camera film, and even fishing worms have become available through machines.

Vending-machine operations are usually offered in sites owned by other businesses, institutions, and transportation agencies. They can be found in offices, gasoline stations, large retail stores, hotels, restaurants, and many other locales. In Japan vending machines now dispense frozen beef, fresh flowers, whiskey, jewelry, and even names of prospective dating partners. In Sweden vending machines have developed as a supplementary channel to retail stores, where hours of business are restricted by law. High costs of manufacturing, installation, and operation have somewhat limited the expansion of vending-machine retailing. In addition, consumers typically pay a high premium for vended merchandise.

While merchants can sell their wares through a store or nonstore retailing format, retail organizations can also structure themselves in several different ways. The major types of retail organizations are corporate chains, voluntary chains and retailer cooperatives, consumer cooperatives, franchise organizations, and merchandising conglomerates.

Two or more outlets that have common ownership and control, centralized buying and merchandising operations, and similar lines of merchandise are considered corporate chain stores. Corporate chain stores appear to be strongest in the food, drug, shoe, variety, and clothing industries. Managed chain stores have a number of advantages over independently managed stores. Because managed chains buy large volumes of products, suppliers are willing to offer cost advantages that are not usually available to other stores. These savings can be passed on to consumers in the form of lower prices and better sales. In addition, because managed chains operate on such a large scale, they can hire more specialized and experienced personnel, who may be better able to take full advantage of purchasing and promotion opportunities. Chain stores also have the opportunity to take advantage of economies of scale in the areas of advertising, store design, and inventory control. However, a corporate chain may have disadvantages as well. Its size and bureaucracy often weaken staff members’ personal interest, drive, creativity, and customer-service motivation.

These are associations of independent retailers, unlike corporate chains. Wholesaler-sponsored voluntary chains of retailers who engage in bulk buying and collective merchandising are prevalent in many countries. True Value hardware stores represent this type of arrangement in the United States. In western Europe there are several large wholesaler-sponsored chains of retailers located across multiple countries, each store using the same name and, as a rule, offering the same brands of products but remaining an independent enterprise. Wholesaler-sponsored chains offer the same types of services for their clients as do the financially integrated retail chains. Retailer cooperatives, such as Ace Hardware stores, are grouped as independent retailers who establish a central buying organization and conduct joint promotion efforts.

Consumer cooperatives, or co-ops, are retail outlets that are owned and operated by consumers for their mutual benefit. The first consumer cooperative store was established in Rochdale, England, in 1844, and most co-ops are modeled after the same, original principles. They are based on open consumer membership, equal voting among members, limited customer services, and shared profits among members in the form of rebates generally related to the amounts of their purchases. Consumer cooperatives have gained widespread popularity throughout western and northern Europe, particularly in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Great Britain. Co-ops typically emerge because community residents believe that local retailers’ prices are too high or service is substandard.

Franchise arrangements are characterized by a contractual relationship between a franchiser (a manufacturer, wholesaler, or service organization) and franchisees (independent entrepreneurs who purchase the right to own and operate any number of units in the franchise systems). Typified by a unique product, service, business method, trade name, or patent, franchises have been prominent in many industries, including fast foods, video stores, health and fitness centres, hair salons, auto rentals, motels, and travel agencies. McDonald’s Corporation is a prominent example of a franchise retail organization, with franchises all over the world.

Merchandising conglomerates combine several diversified retailing lines and forms under central ownership, as well as integrate distribution and management of functions. Merchandising conglomerates are relatively free-form corporations.

Because marketing functions require significant expertise, it is often both efficient and effective for an organization to use the assistance of independent marketing facilitators. These are organizations and consultants whose sole or primary responsibility is to handle marketing functions. In many larger companies, all or some of these functions are performed internally. However, this is not necessary or justifiable in most companies, which usually require only part-time or periodic assistance from marketing facilitators. Also, most companies cannot afford to support the salaries and operating expenses required to maintain marketing facilitators as a permanent part of their staff. Furthermore, independent marketing contractors can be more effective than an internal department because nonemployee facilitators can have broader expertise and more objective perspectives. In addition, independent contractors often are more motivated to perform at high standards, because competition in the facilitator market is usually aggressive, and poor performance could mean lost business.

There are four major types of marketing facilitators: advertising agencies, market research firms, transportation firms, and warehousing firms.

Advertising agencies are responsible for initiating, managing, and implementing paid marketing communications. In addition, some agencies have diversified into other types of marketing communications, including public relations, sales promotion, interactive media, and direct marketing. Agencies typically consist of four departments: account management, a creative division, a research group, and a media planning department. Those in account management act as liaisons between the client and the agency, ensuring that client needs are communicated to the agency and that agency recommendations are clearly understood by the client. Account managers also manage the flow of work within the agency, making sure that projects proceed according to schedule. The creative department is where advertisements are conceived, developed, and produced. Artists, writers, and producers work together to craft a message that meets agency and client objectives. In this department, slogans, jingles, and logos are developed. The research department gathers and processes data about the target market and consumers. This information provides a foundation for the work of the creative department and account management. Media planning personnel specialize in selecting and placing advertisements in print and broadcast media.