BDD Direktvertriebskongress 2026: A Networker’s View

Network marketing is no longer the guest at the German direct selling table. It is starting to set the pace.

By Dirk Schiffner
Fractional Executive + Author 

 
On 5 and 6 October 2026, the Bundesverband Direktvertrieb Deutschland (BDD) gathered 142 participants in Potsdam for its annual Direktvertriebskongress.

The motto was “Gemeinsam. Mehr!” (“Together. More!”). This report looks at it through the eyes of networkers and network leaders.

From a traditional club to an open door

For decades the BDD was the home of traditional direct selling: classic door-to-door and party-plan companies, lobbying in Berlin, and the national DSA voice in Germany. Many network marketing companies stayed outside.

That has changed only in recent years. Network marketing companies are now admitted, but only after a thorough check and audit of their business model, compensation plan and practices. Membership is a quality seal, not a formality.

Network marketing professionals now even help steer the association. The board confirmed for the next two years includes Patrick Bacher (PM-International) and Dr. Michael Russ (RINGANA), alongside Elke E. Kopp (Mary Kay), Daniela Paul (Vorwerk), Stefan Hummel (AMC) and Markus Hölle (Ha-Ra).

Yet many network marketing companies are still not members, and their sales are not counted by the BDD. That is worth remembering every time someone quotes the size of the market. Officially it is €21.24 billion. The real figure is probably much higher, because so many network marketing companies are not yet counted.

New members from Korea, Switzerland and Italy

The BDD welcomed three new members this year, and they show how international German direct selling has become:

• Déesse, from Switzerland, founded in 1971
• Atomy Europe, from Korea, founded in 2009
• Union Energie, from Italy, founded around 2020

Union Energie is one of the first in country to combine network marketing with energy supply, a product every household buys every month.

It also fits a wider development. Energy and service suppliers such as badenova, RheinEnergie, Stadtwerke Duisburg and lekker collected awards this year. Door-to-door selling and services are coming back, just as in the US.

The market is growing

The BDD market study, led by Prof. Dr. Florian Kraus (University of Mannheim) and presented with Prof. Dr. Manfred Krafft (University of Münster), confirms the trend. Direct selling in Germany reached €21.24 billion in sales in 2025, up 1.7% on 2024 and 30% over ten years.

The 128 companies surveyed expect 3.7% growth in 2026. The number of sales partners held almost steady at 906,433, with 57% of them women.

The overall market dynamics are intact. And since the official numbers leave out so many network marketing companies, together with networkers, the real picture for the entire direct selling market is likely even stronger.

Two network marketing companies on the podium

The BDD company awards rank members by percentage growth. In the large-company category, for companies with at least €50 million in annual revenue, the podium was:

1. RINGANA
2. PM-International
3. Vorwerk Gruppe

Two of the three fastest-growing large companies are network marketing companies. Vorwerk, the icon of German direct selling, is in third place. For PM-International it is the tenth company award in a row.

The Innovation Award goes to lekker

There is only one Innovation Award, and the attendees voted live. It went to energy supplier lekker for its environmental education in primary schools in Heinsberg. A worthy project.

My own vote would have gone to PM-International. Year after year, PM improves its partner conditions, little by little, step by step. That is incremental improvement as a strategy.

“At PM-International we run a marathon, not a sprint,”

as Patrick Bacher, CEO of PM-International Europe, put it in Potsdam. For networkers, that is the innovation that actually reaches their pockets.

Science Awards

The BDD is probably the only DSA that has a Science Award honouring students and PhDs working on direct selling-related topics. This year, three researchers were honoured for their work on direct selling, and all three topics matter to networkers:

• Giulia Kuznik (best doctoral thesis) studied how B2B companies build social selling into their organisation. For networkers, social selling is everyday business.
• Eva Mandl (best master’s thesis), from RINGANA, looked at job satisfaction and commitment of salespeople in network marketing: what keeps partners on
• Anne Seelmann (best bachelor’s thesis) found that salespeople value their offer lower than their customers Many networkers undersell what they bring.

What networkers should take away

• The numbers understate us.  Treat the official market figure as a minimum, not the full picture.
• Network marketing has arrived.  Audited network companies now sit beside traditional direct sellers in the BDD, and are outgrowing most of them.
• New categories are opening.  Energy in a network marketing model, as Union Energie is attempting, could become a new product category in Germany.
• Steady improvement wins.  Better partner conditions, improved year after year, build long-term growth.

“Gemeinsam. Mehr!” was the motto. For networkers, Potsdam 2026 showed that “together” now also includes them, and “more” is what they are delivering.

The next Direktvertriebskongress takes place on 18 and 19 October 2027, the year the BDD turns 60.

About Dirk Schiffner, Fractional Executive + Author

Dirk Schiffner has spent 21 years in the direct selling profession — selling, leading and managing at every level, from intern to country manager. He has worked with companies such as Amway, Vorwerk, PartyLite, Ringana, Soluni, Riman and Bravenly Global all over Europe and speaks five languages fluently.

He is the author of a book that explains direct selling from the inside and from the outside, published in German in 2024 and in French in 2025 by the FVD, the French Direct Selling Association. He is a Recommended Partner of the BDD, the German Direct Selling Association.

His passion is to follow, observe and study today’s best direct selling companies and to find out what makes them excellent.

Working from Switzerland, he serves as a fractional executive and strategic advisor to some of the industry’s most innovative companies. With one of the strongest networks in Europe across associations, lawyers, consultants and executives, he helps companies apply the best practices of the world’s leading direct selling companies and to open up in Europe.