Purchasing power is shrinking for prospective buyers as record-high home prices feed inflation, and data from LegalShield’s Housing Construction Index showed the steepest decline on record (7.8 points) as homebuilders manage supply chain and labor challenges. 

IT’S HARD TO BELIEVE that school has been in session for more than a month. DSA, too, has been in back-to-school mode as we continue our webinar series that has reached 5,000+ executives during the past year.

The U.S. Direct Selling Association (DSA), in its 2021 Growth & Outlook Study, reported a predicted growth between 4%-7% for the channel in 2021. With this forecast, direct selling retail sales are expected to reach between $41.7 billion and $42.9 billion, a record high for the industry.

LegalShield’s Consumer Stress Index showed that while overall consumer stress remains subdued, the expiration of federal assistance programs, combined with rising rent and housing costs, as well as the chaos created by the Delta variant, have increased the demand for legal services related to employment and tenant issues.

The Shaklee U.S. Health and Wellness Study recently revealed that the millennial generation, the largest adult population in the U.S., are “more stressed out than ever before” (60%) and concerned that they may now have “permanently low energy levels” (58%).

AS DIRECT SELLERS and other businesses begin the careful process of emerging from the limits of the last eighteen months, the Direct Selling Association (DSA) is also starting to cautiously shift toward a more in-person world after 18-months of virtual advocacy and education interaction.