Door-to-door selling in Japan
Besides mail and telemarketing, the door-to-door form of direct marketing also exists. Presently, door-to-door sales make up 60 percent of direct marketing sales. Sales of cleaning supplies by companies like Duskin dominate this market.
American firms also have made it big in door-to-door selling. For example Amway has the fifth largest sales of a majority-foreign-owned company in Japan. Avon had a successful, publicly listed subsidiary in Japan until it sold out to a Japanese company at a rich price in the late 1980s.
In spite of these successes, the door-to-door market in Japan seems to have limited growth. While the mail-order segment has grown at double digit rates over the past few years, door-to-door sales have been flat. Much of this may be because Japanese women are marrying later, and more of them continue to work after marriage thus leaving their homes vacant during the day.