Tupperware moved its house parties to Facebook and Zoom and sales leapt 72%

Tupperware, the kitchenware brand built on in-home house parties, was in trouble before the pandemic. Sales slid 13% in 2019, and its sellers were scaling back the parties that had defined the brand for decades.

When the pandemic made in-person parties impossible, the sellers did not stop selling. They moved the parties onto Facebook, Zoom and TikTok, livestreaming from their kitchens and sending guests to personal store links. One seller said she could now reach customers in Oregon and Oklahoma, not just a one-hour radius.

Sales leapt 72% in the US and Canada in the third quarter of 2020, Tupperware's biggest growth period in two decades. About 8,000 people attended the company's virtual annual sales conference, well above the usual 2,500 to 3,000.

The vast majority of sales still came through the independent seller network rather than the company's small e-commerce store, which took in only about 4% of revenue. That was the key lesson: the channel was fine, the venue was the problem.

US and Canada sales leapt 72% in the third quarter of 2020, the company's best growth in two decades, with 8,000 people at its virtual sales conference.

In-person parties were the bottleneck; sellers could only reach a one-hour radius.

Moving to Facebook, Zoom and TikTok let sellers reach customers across the country.

Digital parties were far bigger than the old in-person version could ever be.

The seller network, not e-commerce, drove almost all of the growth.

Virtual conferences attracted 8,000 people versus the usual 2,500 to 3,000.

A direct-selling model can be rebooted by changing the venue, not the channel; Tupperware kept its sellers and commission structure and just moved the party online.

Tupperware's pandemic earnings showed the direct-selling model could be rebooted without losing its core. Sellers stayed in the model, just on social platforms, and the brand posted growth it had not seen in years. The company also kept its retail discipline, having learned that making products available in stores cannibalised its seller network. The question was whether it could hold the growth once lockdowns faded.