1970s party plan is back with an e-commerce twist

Monday, September 14, 2009 | Posted by: Fiona Cullinan
Categories: Retail sector | Tags: recession, entrepreneur, Ros Simmons, VIE at home, direct sales, flexible working, e-commerce, launch, party plan, consultant, Virgin, women in business

Ros Simmons, CEO, VIE at home: The 70s are back. It’s boom time for a new era of ‘at home parties’, thanks to the recession and people’s need for flexible working and extra income. But there are new challenges to the industry in the form of ecommerce – and here’s how we at VIE at home are facing up to that and making it work for our consultants…

But firstly, after last week’s post on my rules for work-life balance, I was asked why I work so late. To tell you that, I need to explain the special business of Direct Sales Party Plan.


Many of our 10,000 consultants have full-time or other part-time jobs. Holding a VIE sales party in the evening gives them an extra income.

Our consultants will hold parties initially with friends and family. Then, from this contact list will come new contacts and the numbers grow and grow. Consultants invariably arrive at someone’s home at 7.30pm, do a makeover or facial, then give one-to-one tips on products. In an ideal world they would have taken orders for over £250 at least on the night, with two new bookings, and then pack up and leave by 10.30pm. They will have earned around £75… not bad for three hours’ work at £25 a hour!

So, as chief executive, why am I on call?

As most sales occur in the evening, many of us at Head Office are on call to be a voice at the end of the phone. I am also quite happy for anyone to call, text, or email me as I love having an ear to the ground about what’s working, what they love and maybe what to change. I often get texts to say how excited they are after a successful party, or that they have signed up new people from a meeting that day.

Direct sales is definitely a flexible way to earn money, but the industry has changed significantly since Tupperware and Avon first came across from the USA.

Back in the 70s, the number of women with children who worked was much lower than it is today and part-time work was very hard to come by. Now women have a lot more choices on work, careers, bringing up their families.

Back in the 70s, women would do parties as their only income. Now it’s mainly to supplement income from a full-time job or other part-time work.

Certainly the recession has helped us recruit more consultants, with people joining to ‘pay for Christmas’, ‘pay off their credit cards’ or ‘save for a family holiday’ – many different reasons.

One issue within the industry is the arrival of e-commerce, and how customers prefer to shop, which most direct sales companies have had to (or are still to) address. 

Many of our top sellers were nervous about e-commerce as they were worried that their customers would shop online, rather than through them. But I think we have found a modern way of approaching multi-channel sales which gels e-commerce with our much bigger party plan business – and this is through a change in commission structure.

Initially we gave our consultants 10% commission, but we have just changed this to 25% commission once they have achieved £500 party sales. This has helped remove the fear factor, and has given them a lot of confidence because when we said we would be a party plan business first and foremost, with our consultants and customers being our number one priority, they can see that we have been true to our word.

It’s a win-win situation. We see new customers through ecommerce who have not had parties and our consultants receive full commission if any of their customers choose to shop online.

I will let you know the results as we are in our first full month of this major change – but I think change is usually for the better!

You can catch up on Ros’s previous posts from our Entrepreneur’s Diary series, in which we follow a male and a female CEO to discover what life is like behind the scenes of their business.