Based on abstract, sounds like a good article – requires purchase for full PDF though.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V7S-3VWC7DN-8&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1176732359&_rerunOrigin=scholar.google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=68d0df2338
HOME SHOPPING MASTER QVC STRUTS ITS STUFF ONLINE, TOO
(On moving into Internet market)
Williamson, D. (1999). Home shopping master QVC struts its stuff online, too. Advertising Age, 70(39), 48. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
Section: Interactive
INSIDE THE WEB
Don't go to iQVC, the online arm of TV home shopping channel QVC, expecting the best prices.
You won't get the best shopping experience, either: The site is clunky and difficult to navigate. Though there are 80,000 pieces of merchandise for sale, from computers to grills to diamonds, you would hardly know it.
So how exactly did QVC become one of the Internet's most popular and top-selling retailers?
The 3-year-old QVC.com site is the most-visited general retailer on the Internet, and consistently ranks among the top 10 or 15 shopping sites overall in traffic, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. IQVC, the QVC unit that manages Internet operations, reported $44 million in net sales last year, a figure that's expected to at least double this year.
And unlike most of its online competition, QVC.com has been profitable since its third month of operation.
Sure, we've all laughed at QVC's low-brow shows hawking costume jewelry or Kansas City steaks. But just as this West Chester, Pa.-based company has turned itself into a $2.4 billion (net sales) TV retailing powerhouse, it's building an equally powerful online operation.
"We're a broadcast company. We also know how to sell online. There are not a lot of companies we can name that combine that,'' said Steve Hamlin, VP of iQVC.
When iQVC launched its site in September 1996, retailing on the Internet was but a glimmer in the eyes of a few savvy salesmen.
SALES COULD HIT $100 MIL
IQVC racked up $15 million in net sales in 1997 and soared to $44 million in 1998, recording some 35% of its annual sales in November and December alone. Though Mr. Hamlin won't divulge his 1999 sales prediction, its sales could top $100 million this year if iQVC is growing as fast as other online retailers.
Much of iQVC's success comes from its tie-in with the QVC shopping channel. Seventy-nine percent of iQVC customers have also purchased on QVC, Mr. Hamlin said.
Both properties share juicy demographics: Seventy percent of its online visitors and 80% of TV viewers are female; 53% of QVC TV viewers own a computer and 41% have Internet access.
The URL appears on the TV screen throughout the day, and the site gets up to 10 minutes a day of commercial time on the network. On the back end, the tie-ins become even more important: the 32-person iQVC unit reports directly to the chief information officer of QVC and shares a product inventory database with the TV network.
MORE INTEGRATION
IQVC also manages a ''virtual warehouse,'' an electronically linked network of 300 manufacturers, distributors and fulfillment houses.
Ask Mr. Hamlin if he thinks iQVC could ever be spun off, and he's firm in his answer: ''There's nothing to prevent us from spinning off, but it doesn't make sense unless you're after the money.''
Instead, he speaks of integrating iQVC even more tightly with the network. A redesign, handled by Sapient, New York, scheduled to launch next month, will make the site easier to navigate.
QUALITY, VALUE, CONVENIENCE
Shopping on QVC.com will never be a bargain, a fact Mr. Hamlin freely admits. On a recent day, iQVC was selling a Palm V organizer for $446.71, more than $100 above what competitors Buy.com and NECX were charging online.
"Is that [heavy discounting] a sustainable business model and will that bring brand loyalty?'' Mr. Hamlin asked. ''QVC stands for quality, value and convenience. What customers are looking for is trust.''
Online shoppers would seem to agree: A recent Harris Interactive poll gave iQVC top marks in customer satisfaction in four product categories: clothing, electronics, health/beauty and toys.
What could slow the iQVC steamroller? Its biggest competition is other merchandisers that are coming around to the Internet.
Wal-Mart Stores, Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Dayton Hudson Corp.'s Target will relaunch their retail sites this fall, while Nordstrom will roll out a major presence in time for the holidays. Federated Department Stores, meanwhile, is amassing a formidable online team that includes Macys.com and Fingerhut.
IQVC also faces internal challenges. Its ambitious online shopping mall concept, dubbed the Square, is a year overdue, and the man who conceived it, former General Manager Stuart Spiegel, departed in June for Inktomi.
The Square is a venue that will allow visitors to the iQVC site to simultaneously shop at other online merchants and pay for all the merchandise on one bill.
As originally conceived by Mr. Spiegel, the Square was to have launched last fall with a host of partners. Mr. Hamlin now says the Square concept will emerge as a ''test'' this fall with two or three partners that have yet to be signed.
It's a tall order, but if Mr. Hamlin and the iQVC team can make the Square a success, QVC could once again redefine retailing, this time on the Internet.
A chip off the old block
OTC QVC.com
Launched 1986 September 1996
Available products 50,000 80,000
Demographics 70% female 80 female
1998 sales $2.4 billion* $44 million
Average price per order $49 $70
Audience 70 million US 822,000 unique
households** visitors in July '99
PHOTO (COLOR): A chip off the old block
~~~~~~~~
By Debra Aho Williamson
Contributing Editor Debra Aho Williamson writes the monthly Inside the Web report. Send any Internet case study ideas to or Editor Bradley Johnson at .
Copyright of Advertising Age is the property of Crain Communications Inc. (MI) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
QVC CHALLENGES FELLOW RETAILERS WITH UNIQUE IMAGE/QUALITY CAMPAIGN
Underwood, E. (1995). QVC challenges fellow retailers with unique image/quality campaign. Brandweek, 36(23), 3. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
ADVERTISING
In its first image advertising campaign, electronic-shopping network QVC is spotlighting something few bricks-and-mortar retailers have the cash to focus on: the dedicated service of its employees.
The three-spot campaign takes a unique brand-building tack for a retailer, electronic or otherwise, and gets $10 million in airtime through the end of the year. The creative follows a quality assurance worker nitpicking her way through product shipments, a QVC buyer hopping the globe and a customer service manager repeatedly hanging up on direct-marketers who want to buy the network's customer list. QVC is putting up approximately $1 million to purchase spot broadcast time, with approximately $9 million in air time coming from its partner cable system operators.
The shopping network, purchased by Comcast Corp. on Feb. 10, a major cable-system operator, reported $1.4 billion in sales in 1994.
A print campaign kicks off in July's edition of Good Housekeeping with other women's service books to come. The first ad details why shoppers should call QVC for gold jewelry.
QVC's superior-service ad message comes as most retailers continue to push specific products and prices in ads. "The ads have two audiences: one, to tell our current customers they are making the smart choice when they shop with us," said Fred Siegel, QVC senior vice president of marketing and a former Ketchum Advertising exec, who created the campaign in-house. "[The other], people who think television shopping is about lower quality products, close-outs and cheap jewelry."
QVC rival HSN is airing ads that spotlight the abundance of brand names currently available on the network including Sharp, Toshiba and Adrienne Arpel.
PHOTOS (BLACK & WHITE): Buyers and testers give QVC personality.
~~~~~~~~
By Elaine Underwood
Style -- In Fashion: Isaac Mizrahi Meets QVC --- The network creates a part-pitch, part-reality show to capture the designer's outsize persona
Rachel Dodes. Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Jul 25, 2009. pg. W.4
Abstract (Summary)
DODES, R. (2009, July 25). Isaac Mizrahi Meets QVC. Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition, p. W4. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
(This article will help to validate QVC’s strategy to attract designer names)
Furiously sketching a tartan-plaid version for Christmas, Mr. Mizrahi suggested "a chocolate-crumb moment" to add some crunch and asked for the cheesecake to be "enrobed" in white chocolate dyed red, with green and navy plaid stripes. [...] the growth of collaborations with mid-American retailers, the rise of cable television, the birth of reality television and the Internet have created a surge of opportunities -- opportunities that happen to suit Mr. Mizrahi's persona.
New York -- Clad in a navy jacket with hot-pink piping, his toenails painted orange, Isaac Mizrahi embarked on his latest project: cheesecake design. Furiously sketching a tartan-plaid version for Christmas, Mr. Mizrahi suggested "a chocolate-crumb moment" to add some crunch and asked for the cheesecake to be "enrobed" in white chocolate dyed red, with green and navy plaid stripes.
"In spring, we will do a polka dot, obviously," he said.
In December, Mr. Mizrahi will be selling those cheesecakes -- along with his designs for everything from potpourri to furniture -- on a new program on QVC airing eight hours a month to start, the company says. The show, called "Isaac Mizrahi Live!," will be a significant departure from the standard sell of cable shopping channels. Part pitch, part reality television, it will follow Mr. Mizrahi around as he pitches items like a $200 handbag or $80 shoes while he engages in his other activities, riffs extemporaneously about his life and takes questions from callers.
QVC is erecting an expensive set within Mr. Mizrahi's New York studio that can capture his day-to-day life in high-definition video, a first for the network. "Once in a while you make a calculated bet," says Mike George, president and chief executive of the Liberty Media unit. QVC, which reported a 10% drop in first-quarter sales to $1.6 billion, says it aims to turn Mr. Mizrahi into one of its top five brands, like Philosophy or Bare Escentuals -- brands the network says garner more than $100 million in annual sales apiece. Mr. Mizrahi will receive a percentage of sales as part of the arrangement.
Doug Howe, chief merchandising officer of QVC, says he was fascinated by the way Mr. Mizrahi spoke, leaping from tea patterns to sheets then rain boots. "We were just sitting there watching him talk, thinking, 'My God! On air, you are going to resonate so strongly with our consumers!" Mr. Howe says.
The resurgence of Mr. Mizrahi, a designer known as much for his charisma as his clothing, is tied to the many changes sweeping the fashion industry. With cost-conscious conglomerates increasingly in control, many designers are searching for ways to broaden their sales beyond the high-fashion customer. At the same time the growth of collaborations with mid-American retailers, the rise of cable television, the birth of reality television and the Internet have created a surge of opportunities -- opportunities that happen to suit Mr. Mizrahi's persona. Mr. Mizrahi often says he's adapted to the times, but it's also true that the times adapted to suit him.
"The idea of having an entertainment-type of personality is important today," says Marc Beckman, founder of Designers Management Agency, a seven-year-old company that represents fashion designers. "That atelier model -- where a designer would slowly build a clientele that was mostly local -- is just not a practicality anymore."
The very qualities that QVC finds praiseworthy -- his short-attention span, his many diverging interests -- dogged Mr. Mizrahi early in his career. In 1987, when he was 25, he started his own label that was an immediate hit with fashion editors and quickly picked up by top retailers. Riding high, he sold a stake in his firm to Chanel in 1992. But sales were poor; critics sniped that Mr. Mizrahi's penchant to quickly leap from concept to concept made it impossible for consumers to associate him with a "signature" look. In 1998, Chanel pulled the plug after four years of losses. (His business partner Marisa Gardini says the closure was a joint decision.) His name disappeared from the lineup at New York's Fashion Week that same year.
With his high-fashion career moribund, Mr. Mizrahi decided to reinvent himself. "People have to make the most of what they're good at," he says, likening cable home shopping to a trunk show at Bergdorf Goodman. "So there are different ways of getting things done. That's called adapt or die, the Darwin thing." He launched a talk show on the then-fledgling Oxygen network and in 2002 he shocked the fashion world by agreeing to design an affordable collection of women's clothes for Target. His deal started in apparel and accessories but later expanded to include bedding, pet products, home products and bridal dresses -- tripling in sales volume over five years, according to a person familiar with the business.
Now 47, Mr. Mizrahi seems to be having his moment. He designs for the Liz Claiborne brand; while sales are struggling amid the recession, retailers say he's added buzz to a line that's been considered frumpy for years. He's hosting a fashion reality TV competition on the Bravo network and has been a frequent guest judge on the Food Network's "Iron Chef America." Two seasons ago, he resumed showing a high-end line under his own name at New York's fashion week. In August, he opens his first boutique on Madison Avenue.
His company denies any concern about overexposure. "I think we are being strategic about the brand and its channels of distribution," says business partner Ms. Gardini.