One of the OGs of live shopping is hoping to cash in on around-the-clock TikTok streaming.
QVC Group this week debuted a 24/7 live shopping stream on TikTok through a strategic agreement with the app. While the company joined TikTok Shop in August 2024, the new agreement means QVC Group will be offering more brands and products featuring nonstop QVC and HSN content made just for TikTok.
QVC Group’s president and CEO David Rawlinson II said in a statement the partnership “will be a catalyst to transform shopping and discovery, not only for QVC Group and TikTok Shop, but also for social shopping at large."
According to the company, whose brands QVC and HSN have been selling through cable TV home shopping since the ’80s, it creates 40,000 hours of content, sells 40,000 products, and ships 200 million units every year.
Among the products hosts were hawking on its first day live was a slate of beauty products including brands like Anastasia Beverly Hills and Beekman 1802. The fast-growing TikTok Shop is the eighth-ranked US beauty and health e-commerce retailer, Anna Mayo, VP of NIQ’s beauty vertical, told Retail Brew last month. Livestream shopping on these platforms is still an emerging tool for retailers and brands, but is gaining momentum.
Cable cutting: The news comes a week after the QVC Group announced a company reorganization, laying off 900 employees spanning HSN, QVC US and its Global Shared Services, with a “strategy to grow by becoming a live social shopping company,” as more of its consumers spend time on social media, the company said.
In November, QVC Group unveiled its rebrand from Qurate Retail Group, which was finalized in February. It also shared its plans to expand into social commerce as part of its three-pronged turnaround strategy that includes expanding its production and development capabilities. The company last month also added media executive Alex Wellen as its new president and chief growth officer.
In its most recent earnings call in February, Rawlinson called live social shopping a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” and “the next frontier for entertainment and retail.”
QVC Group reported revenue down 6% for Q4 and 5% for the full year, driven in part by a decline in TV viewership. In a March letter to shareholders, the company said it “must hurry our expansion beyond TV to find growth.”
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