One possibility

Given the definition "les actions d’animation ... chez un distributeur pour favoriser la vente et la visibilité de ses produits" I'd want to find a way of expressing that you're selling to the general public.

Direct sales sounds a bit unspecific - it might be done on the phone or internet, as long as it's straight to the customer - so I wanted to add something about the fact that there is a physical sales presence aimed at "the general public" (I don't think "public-facing sales" is a thing, but it might work in some contexts).

Customer-facing is as close as I can get:

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/custome...

Customer-facing staff play a pivotal role in the experiences consumers have, and through social interaction communicate powerful messages directly to the consumer.
The attitude of customer-facing staff can make a big difference to the shopping experience and can really influence sales.

Customer-facing activities are those in which you are interacting or communicating directly with your customers.

Your document may be talking about metrics and techniques that focus on output, i.e., quantity of sales, as contrasted with techniques such as in-store product placement which are considered selling-in because they affect the producer's relations with the vendor. See the section on "store back, not marketing forward" and "in store execution": http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/the-new-mission-fo...

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Note added at 2 hrs (2018-06-11 13:00:20 GMT)
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http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/the-new-mission-fo...

French term (edited): sell-out

It means sales by the retailer to the end consumer, rather by the manufacturer to the wholesaler or retailer. If you don't want to use "sell-out", which I'm not sure is widely understood, you could say "retail sales".

'The sell-out forecast is the volume of the final product that is expected to be sold to the end consumer*** (which typically includes several intermediate components) in some particular geography. For example, for a mobile LCD producer, a **sell-in forecast** would constitute the number of LCD panels it expects to sell to its customers (mobile OEMs) in the course of a fiscal quarter, while a **sell-out forecast** would be the number of smartphones with its LCDs the company expects will be sold to end consumers over the course of the same quarter.'
http://actionableinsights.online/?p=71

'Sell-in gives a wrong perspective, as it takes the whole chain to behave in a way that generates excess inventory or product shortages. In other words: it doesn’t pay off for each link to only be committed to “pushing the stock forward.” What should determine the effectiveness of each step is the purchase made by the end consumer (therefore, sell-out is critically important).'
http://blogen.neogrid.com/whats-sell-out-and-how-it-can-incr...


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Note added at 4 hrs (2018-06-11 15:07:59 GMT)
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The translation would vary in each of your contexts, but this is the meaning.

Based on the French definition which you supplied, which seems to match quite well with: "The activity of promoting the sale of goods at retail. Merchandising activities may include display techniques, free samples, on-the-spot demonstration, pricing, shelf talkers, special offers, and other point-of-sale methods."

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/merchandising.h...