Back in February, Amway reported their 2008 sales at $8.2 billion globally. In a break from previous years, the data for Amway Global/Quixtar  in North America was not reported separately. In what was clearly a bit of spin, Amway PR explained they were moving away from reporting individual market data. The US press releases rarely mentioned individual international data in the past, and many Amway affiliates around the world have continued to release their sales data. Quite obviously, Amway Global’s sales (confusingly, Amway Global is actually only Amway North America) must have suffered in the continuing fallout from the dispute with TEAM, as well as the initially unpopular decision to revert Quixtar back to the Amway brand.

Well – now we know. Last week it was announced that Amway Global has again been ranked the #1 online Health & Beauty retailer by Internet Retailer. This is the sixth consecutive year Amway has topped these rankings, with an astounding market share of nearly a third. Hidden in the press release though, it was reported that Amway Global’s sales were $904 million in 2008, a drop of nearly 10% from 2007 sales of just over a billion, which were themselves a 4% drop from Amway North America’s best ever year in 2006.

With the publicity surrounding Amway’s 50 year anniversary, and the Orlando Magic’s challenge for the NBA Championship at Amway Arena, as well as other great initiatives like the Amway Global LA Sol and San Jose Quakes, it’s clear to me that the decision to move back to the Amway name was the right one, though as I said in February, it will probably take a few years to really have an effect.

UPDATE: Please read this post for important new information – Amway Global sales up 5% in 2008?