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“We have lots of high-tech infrastructure and
we operate in a digital environment, but it’s
not because we have some great affinity for high
technology,” Rose says. “It’s because we’ve
found that there are certain technologies that
customers like.
“We don’t care to be cutting edge: we care about
being customer-driven,” he says.
Case in point: late last year a customer
expressed difficulty in determining the size of
a handbag and how it would “fit” her height. The
QVC representative monitoring that community
forum presented the problem to Myers and his
team: Within two weeks they came up with a
solution – silhouettes of models of varying
heights that provided shoppers with a better
idea of size and “fit.”
Shortly after the new system debuted, conversion
rates spiked. Today, the system is provided on
some 300 handbags.
“The best stores have the best merchants, and
we’re no exception,” Myers says. “What makes a
good merchant is someone who really listens to
the customer. At QVC, technology provides the
tools for creating that dialog.”
In-store sales spinoff
Rose insists that the QVC shopper is really not
very different from the women who shops by
catalog or roams the mall on a Saturday
afternoon. “They’re not choosing to shop with
QVC instead of shopping elsewhere,” he says.
“They’re shopping here because they think
shopping is fun. They really enjoy browsing to
see what’s new.”
Data analysis shows that less than 2 percent of
the hourly audience is actively shopping; the
rest are browsing. Interestingly, QVC vendors
report that shortly after an item is presented
on air, they routinely observe an uptick in
sales at traditional retail shops that also sell
the product.
While characterizing the typical shopper can be
tricky, determining what types of products are
most likely to resonate with them is much less
so. Rose looks for offerings that are “confident
in their brand equity. My primary job is to
approach suppliers and talk with them about why
they should think about selling product on QVC.
Those who are passionate about their product
recognize the value of being able to present it
in front of an audience of 90 million viewers."
About one-third of the products sold by QVC are
national brands; another third consists of
proprietary brands like QVC’s Denim & Co. The
remainder is items brought to the company by
entrepreneurs or small companies looking to
break into the retail business.
“We’re all about building organic items into
brands, and over the years we’ve been
instrumental in doing that for several vendors,”
Rose says. The shapewear collection Spanx “is a
good example of an item we launched many years
back that today has evolved into a full-fledged
brand.”
So what’s next for the QVC? “I think a lot of
shopping sites are starting to look the same and
deliver the same functionality,” says Myers, who
expects to perform a “major update” of QVC.com
this fall, adding web applications that make it
more interactive and easier to shop.
QVC has had “20 straight years of double-digit
growth, so we’re not looking to make radical
changes,” Rose says. “The future will be defined
by the customer. We’re experimenting with other
platforms to serve her electronically, so that’s
something to keep an eye on.
“No one here is brave enough to predict the
future, but we agree that the best way to be
prepared for it is to listen carefully to the
customer,” Rose says. “When we make her happy,
the results follow.”
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