Amway, a direct selling company and manufacturer, has launched an official iPhone application geared towards its distributors.

Amway’s application gives its distributors access to a complete product catalog, show consumers videos and other product information and place orders with or without an Internet connection. The application is free to download.

“A key strategy for Amway is to provide our distributors with the necessary tools to help them be more successful in growing their businesses,” said Mike Edwards, director of digital and experiential marketing at Amway, Ada, MI. “Our distributors often find themselves on the road and there was a need to provide them with key product and business information that they could access anytime and anywhere.”

Mr. Edwards said that Amway is looking at new technology platforms to help it better meet the needs of distributors and that the iPhone and iPod touch presented the opportunity. 

Amway is a direct selling company that that uses multilevel marketing to products primarily in the health, beauty and home care industry.

Offices on-the-go
The Amway application is at the No. 4 position for free business applications.

Amway said that some direct sellers offer a PDF of a catalog or other content for iPhone users, but the application is now a native service on the device.

Distributors can register new customers and place orders directly from the application.

The Amway Store on iTunes have free downloads of videos and podcasts designed to help Amway distributors sell products to their customers.

The application is available in Canada and the United States with a 2010 launch in Japan and Australia.

Mr. Edwards said that the primary challenge that this application addresses is the need for information. 

“This application is basically allowing our distributors to take their home office and put it into the palm of their hand,” Mr. Edwards said.

While developing the application with Ubermind, a software engineering firm, Mr. Edwards said that Amway’s key goals were to make it easy to use, simple and fast so that all distributors, from the tech-savvy distributors to our pencil and paper distributors, would be able to use the application.

“Our distributors are on the go so our ability to provide business information must also be available on the go,” Mr. Edwards said.

“Mobile commerce is the future,” he said. “Pretty much any consumer trend information you read today is pointing to the power of mobile.”