Back to all pivots

Commerce pivot story / founded 1886

Avon pivot story

Book sales samples became a beauty empire.

Avon logo

Books -> beauty counter

Before

Door-to-door book sales with perfume samples as gifts.

to

After

Cosmetics and beauty products sold directly.

The pivot story

Customers loved the perfume samples more than the books. The business followed the demand and became Avon.

Why it worked

Direct selling matched beauty products well and created a large network of representatives.

Known for

Cosmetics

More company pivots

Keep digging

Browse all stories

Commerce

Shopify

A snowboard shop became the rails for millions of stores.

Read the pivot story

Commerce

PayPal

PalmPilot security software found its destiny in payments.

Read the pivot story

Commerce

Groupon

Collective activism turned into the daily deal craze.

Read the pivot story

Made by a human on the internet

Big companies were weird once too.

Designed and developed by Vishva Variya. Weird ideas into code, one oddly specific experiment at a time.

PortfolioLinkedInX.comBuy Me a Coffee

No spam. Only tiny internet experiments when they ship.