Direct Selling, a million peso industry in our country today, is very popular and widely accepted among Filipinos. It has continued to grow since 2015 as more Filipinos choose to purchase products this way because of quality and affordable products and familiarity of consumers with the sellers, who are usually family members or friends. In addition, there are also a lot of people who are encouraged to enter direct selling and become distributors because of minimal start-up capital and the limitless profits and opportunities they can gain from it.
But what makes direct selling so attractive to start-up entrepreneurs, housewives, students, and to other part time business-minded folk is the convenience of working on their own time and operating from their own house - a home based business they can do wherever and whenever. But is it really? Is the promise of owning and starting a home-based business really possible in the current traditional direct selling set up?
Traditionally, distributors would have to go to a depot or business center to restock on
products after their initial inventory (the one that comes with their membership package) is sold out. For some, especially those who live in the metropolitan areas, this could be as convenient as a ten to fifteen-minute drive if the depot is close by. Still for others this could mean two to three hours of travel if the depot is located in a neighbouring city or if traffic is heavy. Home-based? Arguable. Convenient? Not really.
Then thereโs the marketing of the products. Traditionally, distributors would have to go out and meet their clients and do product demos or opportunity meetings. For most distributors, this means long hours spent travelling to and from the venue of the meetings with little assurance of making a profit but a guarantee of spending quite a lot of time, money and effort just to make a sale. Cost-efficient? Definitely not. Time-consuming? Absolutely.
Direct Selling On-Line
Now there are those who have discovered how to sell their products online or over the phone. Their biggest challenge would be logistics or how to ship the products to the customers and collect payment. A possible solution would be partnering with a third party delivery service. This could mean queueing for hours at their nearest branch office just to get products shipped out. And to collect customer payments, line-up again at banks or other financial institutions if their delivery service doesnโt offer Cash on Delivery. And if by chance COD is available, distributors can expect a waiting time of at least two weeks or more for payments to be remitted to them. Then there is the concern of failed delivery or clients cancelling their orders that result to packages sent back to the shipper otherwise know as RTS (Return to Sender).
If this all sounds like a nightmare to you, itโs because it is. And so the start-up entrepreneur, who was initially so eager to begin his journey to financial independence through a home-based direct selling business realises that his business is neither home-based nor convenient. Reality versus Expectation.
But what if distributor expectations can actually be made into reality? Wouldnโt it be convenient if distributors could keep selling without having to go to the nearest business center to restock on their products?
Wouldnโt it be nice if instead of providing distributors with a credit line (utang) to replenish their inventory, the company would instead give them access to its full inventory?
Wouldnโt it be simpler and more efficient if instead of having to market offline, distributors would have access to their own online store and back office system?
And wouldnโt it be better if instead of distributors working with third-party logistics, the company provides drop shipping, COD and payment collections services to all its distributors?
If youโre a believer in direct selling and hoping for answers to these questions, allow me to share with you Shantahl Direct Sales. And itโs the future of Direct Selling in the Philippines.
Shantahl Direct Sales is a Better Way to do Direct Selling
Shantahl Direct Sales offers to its customers high quality products that are trending, in demand and highly consumable. For its distributors Shantahl provides end to end business solutions. From providing its members with their own free online store/ecommerce website, a centralised inventory system (distributors do not need to maintain physical stocks on hand as they can sell directly from the companyโs inventory), order monitoring (online back office), logistics (company delivers for you), payment gateway (they collect the payment for you too), fulfilment system and yes, even sales training, Shantahl is committed to providing direct sellers with a truly home-based business where they can truly earn from the comfort of their own home.
Now you can do business whenever and wherever you have access to the internet.
Join us and be part of our growing team.
Why?
Because weโve just found a better way of doing Direct Selling.
