QVC makes multi-channel click

From September 2007

By Susan Reda, Executive Editor

Sitting in the green room during a presentation of beauty products, one can almost feel the adrenaline rush. . . . Four minutes are allotted to present the product. . . . Before it’s even officially presented, hundreds of units have sold thanks to a sneak peek at the top of the hour. The minute the cameras start rolling, data starts pouring in. . . . The “medium” shade is selling fastest. . . . Every time the camera shows the model in the center, sales spike. Viewers are calling in, online shoppers are clicking the “buy” button, the number of products remaining tumbles precipitously and – just 2 minutes, 47 seconds into the segment – a red “sold out” banner flashes across the screen.

"Congratulations if you got that,” host Lisa Robinson says as her attention quickly shifts to the next item. Welcome to QVC. Though best known for its TV shopping broadcasts, it has emerged as a multi-channel powerhouse, flexing its merchandising and marketing muscle on air and online using a variety of media to educate, entertain and engage shoppers – and to sell a few million units along the way.

QVC shoppers can watch an on-air broadcast or tune into a live streaming feed from QVC.com, where they also can read product reviews, watch video archives, blog with other shoppers – even take part in a live chat with a celebrity.

Still, vice president of merchandising, brand development Doug Rose insists the phrase “multi-channel” is not really part of the QVC vernacular.

“Our approach is to think of our various ‘store windows’ the way a customer would,” he says. “She doesn’t distinguish between online and on air: She’s shopping from QVC and she defines us by our point of view. We try to be true to the customer perspective rather than a retail-channel-centric perspective.”

Bob Myers, senior vice president of QVC.com, agrees. “It’s really about having a seamless, integrated experience, regardless of which channel the customer chooses.

“When the vision is that it’s one brand in the customer’s eye, it makes everything clear,” he says.

The first major step toward achieving the ‘one brand’ vision was the launch of the live stream broadcast. Since it debuted more than five years ago, the number of shoppers watching QVC from their PCs has grown by double digits every year. “We did over $1 billion in sales just on QVC.com in 2006, which makes the site bigger than most of the top 400 online retailers,” Myers says.

The online side is now leveraging QVC’s video archives and tapping into the social power of its shopper base to introduce new features intended to lift the retailer’s entertainment and education value and shift the emphasis from being a shopping website to an interactive shopping community.

“Where else can you watch a product presentation given by the CEO or the designer or the entrepreneur who developed the product?” Myers asks. “The whole idea of being able to demonstrate how to operate the latest camcorder, for example, and giving shoppers the ability to watch a broadcast over again to pick up additional tips, is an incredibly powerful differentiator that can change the way people shop online.”

Connecting with shoppers
Even as store-based retailers dabble in digital signage and video, Rose feels that QVC and QVC.com retain a considerable advantage. “What we do is build trust through live television in a way that pre-produced video can’t replicate. If all we were was a video retailer then all we would do is pre-produce everything and it would be like a 24-hour infomercial.

“You only need to watch for a short time to know the callers are real people expressing real feelings and opinions,” he says. “That’s what people connect with.”

It also goes a long way toward explaining the out-of-the-gate success QVC.com has experienced since online product ratings and reviews debuted in April. In the first month, more than 80,000 reviews were launched on QVC.com, making the retailer the largest client of Bazaarvoice almost overnight.

“We’ve done testimonials on air for nearly 21 years now, so we knew that product ratings and reviews would be meaningful to our customer base,” Myers says. “We didn’t advertise it or promote it; we just put it out there and shoppers instantly began sharing. It’s part of the interactive community.”

Blogs and live chat sessions also keep the dialog going among QVC shoppers, merchants, hosts and product representatives. Leveraging QVC’s multiple channels to connect with shoppers, the presenters often discuss questions that came up in the course of the live chat during their next “on air” appearance.

QVC is one of the most technologically advanced retailers in the world, yet executives shy away from spotlighting advances on that front. The company relies on systems that are largely home-grown and has layered on applications, including Endeca for search, Coremetrics for web analytics, Scene 7 for rich media and Commerce Hub for drop shipping.

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