Why is Avon so much more dependent on its foreign operations than on its home (U.
Avon is so much more dependent on its foreign operations than on its home operations for many reasons. First, Avon realized that the level of competitiveness in the United States market has grown vastly. Furthermore, there is almost no "remaining untapped market for cosmetics, fragrances, toiletries. To grow rapidly in the United States would mean taking sales from competitors, and the U.S. beauty market is very competitive. A consumer can go into almost any department store and purchase a cosmetic or fragrance whenever they want. Therefore, unless a consumer is unable to travel to purchase their own cosmetics, they may be less willing to buy from Avon unless they are familiar with the same and seek a representative for purchase. Furthermore, the United States only makes up 5% of the world's population. Therefore, there are so many more potential consumers. Avon originally creates its sales pitch by providing door to door sales. People no longer enjoy someone coming and knocking on their door to sell them a product. It is unsafe in today's society and is much of a burden. Therefore, the original concept of Avon has diminished here and in foreign countries, where services are less competitive, they can use that thought process and provide services to remote places, that other cosmetic companies may not.
2. Discuss socioeconomic and demographic changes that could affect Avon.
The socioeconomic changes that could affect Avon are the vast majority of individuals that do their shopping online. This is a positive and negative for Avon. Avon needs to tap further into the internet market so that they too can be a successful online sales company. Previously Avon was a company that did direct sales and now has the capability to provide services through online stores, which can increase their sales. Avon rebounded in the 1990s, posting annual sales of $5 billion in 1997, most coming from the company's worldwide sales force of 2.
