Internet network marketing is the most important technology for many companies and distributors.

The Internet will have great effect on the network marketing industry. Of course, now the Internet hasn't yet realized its industry-wide potential-but it's starting to, and some companies have been very successful in using the Internet.

In June of 2002, the DSA released a survey of distributors from many companies. At that time, eighty-seven percent of these distributors had Internet access and used it in their businesses.

There are several companies with sales in the hundreds of millions dollars annually, who enter between seventy and ninety percent of their orders via the Internet or automatic touchtone ordering. The distributors use this system because they choose to. Those who feel the least bit uncomfortable with technology are free to call an 800 number to place orders with live operators. Most, however, recognize and take advantage of the benefits of the newer technologies. 

On the other hand, the Internet has reduced the window of opportunity for maximizing profit for a cutting-edge product. Everything moves faster in Internet time, and the length of time before a product becomes a commodity is constantly shrinking.

The core job of a company and its distributors is to motivate, educate, train, and support their consumers and downline. Technology allows distributors to accomplish their responsibilities on a level never before imagined. Technology, by allowing distributors to accomplish more in less time and to communicate more effectively to more people, is essential to new network marketing companies.

Some other effects of these technologies are:

It's possible for a company to go international almost at once, even if they don't want it to!

Companies no longer have to start out locally, building gradually over several years to a significant market presence. Most successful companies have spurts of meteoric growth. I worked with one company that signed up over a million distributors in less than three years! Such rapid growth creates enormous challenges for the company, but also creates enormous opportunities. 

Commission plans have become much more complex. Thirty years ago, commissions had to be simple enough for distributors to calculate by hand. Such is no longer the case. 

Even more subtle changes have been caused by the technological revolution of the past twenty years. Now that a distributor no longer has to devote so much of his or her time to a single sale, the money a company spends on paying its distributors has gradually shifted from sales commissions to downline commissions.