It grew tremendously throughout the late 1800s and into the first quarter of the 1900s with an approach called "The Larkin Idea" that transformed the company into a mail-order conglomerate that employed 2,000 people and had annual sales of $28.6 million (equivalent to $434,986,000 in 2023) in 1920.

To establish brand identity and keep up with competitors, Hubbard inserted a modest premium into every box of soap starting with a color picture of the company's logo.

[2] This coincided with the growth of the company's mail-order business and the strategy of gift premiums escalated quickly into larger and more interesting souvenir picture cards than his competitors.

The Greensburg, Pennsylvania Glass Company produced all of the bottles and related glassware and contracts were negotiated with Oneida to furnish plated silverware and the Buffalo Garment Center made men's apparel.

By 1905, the catalog was offering over 115 products, including soaps, toiletries, shampoo, coffee and teas, extracts, cocoa, spices, chocolate, soups, perfumes.

By 1920, a home could be completely decorated with Larkin goods, from furniture to rugs, silverware, table lamps, curtains, clocks, school supplies, toys, jewelry, clothing, and bibles.

[3] By 1925, Larkin had approximately 900 catalog items and factories covering sixteen-and-a-half acres[1] and reached peak levels in the late 1920s with over 1,000 products and average yearly sales were $15.5 million[4] and over 4,000 employees.

[1] Elbert Hubbard retired in the 1890s, and went on to found the Roycroft artisan community in East Aurora, New York, a realization of the Arts and Crafts Movement.

[5] He created a unique card ledger system for tracking sales and maintaining accounts which is utilized by many corporations, in various formats, to this day.

The growth of department stores, the growing usage of the automobile and the volatility of the marketplace, especially during the Great Depression, damaged the Larkin Company's mail-order business.

Martin, and William Heath, Larkin's brother-in-law and the head of the Legal Department, suggested Frank Lloyd Wright.