Q Talk

[banned again]

National Retail Federation

Susan Reda VP, Education Strategy

April 23, 2020

Adapting in times of crisis with Qurate Retail, Inc.’s Mike George 

After leading QVC, Inc. for 12 years, Mike George took on an expanded role in 2018 as president and CEO of Qurate Retail, Inc. In this role, George leads a select group of retail brands — QVC, HSN, Zulily, Ballard Designs, Frontgate, Garnet Hill, Grandin Road and Ryllace — combining retail, media and social platforms to curate exceptional products, experiences and communities for consumers. George, also chairman of the NRF Board of Directors, has many years of experience in the retail industry, developing new ways to engage customers over television, ecommerce, mobile and social platforms.

We sat down with George to discuss Qurate Retail’s new Small Business Spotlight, and how the company has adapted to keep consumers and employees safe and healthy during the health crisis.

The safety of consumers and employees is the top priority for all retailers. How has Qurate Retail altered its normal operations to protect its teams right now?

Mike George, President and CEO of Qurate Retail, Inc., at NRF 2020: Retail's Big Show.

The health, safety and well-being of our team members, customers and community are our top priorities in this extraordinary time. We are staying in close contact with the appropriate government and trade entities and following appropriate protocols as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and our state and local Departments of Health.

Like many businesses, we have moved quickly to keep our team members as safe as possible — changing virtually every aspect of how we operate, on a global basis, in just a few weeks’ time. Our commitment is simple: First, ensure everyone who can work from home does so, to minimize the number of people in our buildings; second, create as safe an environment as possible for our on-site team members, with particular focus on social distancing; and third, give every on-site team member the choice to stay home, while offering options to help ease the financial burden of that choice.

We are taking a variety of additional health and safety precautions across our fulfillment centers, studios and other sites, including procuring masks and other protective gear for team members, increasing sanitation efforts, enhancing screening for business-critical guests, and other steps.

Within our studios, we have made a variety of changes to how we operate both on-camera and behind the scenes. For example, we have temporarily eliminated the participation of on-air guests in our studios — and with many of our guests now joining us via Skype, we have also changed how we present food items to minimize food prep backstage and eliminate food tasting on air. Our QVC and HSN hosts are producing more live social content from the safety of their homes, and our Cornerstone Brands and Zulily teams are finding new ways to produce and edit creative content from team members’ homes.

As this situation continues to create uncertainty, we are committed to operating with transparency, both internally and externally. In addition to open lines of communications with our teams on health and safety, we are leveraging our corporate newsroom to share the specifics on our protocols and response plans for COVID-19.

Qurate Retail offers essential items like food, cleaning supplies and home electronics. How are you seeing customer response in these categories?

As a multicategory retailer, we are seeing category trends consistent with the needs of consumers right now. We’re seeing increased interest online in food, cooking supplies, cleaning supplies and devices, wellness products, home office products and home fitness items — as well as crafts, garden and other items that are helpful to the home. In March 2020, for example, page views for food rose 66 percent on QVC.com and 48 percent on HSN.com (compared with March 2019). As restaurants close, grocers reduce hours and delivery services become stressed, we continue to offer a wide selection of convenient foods for every meal, available for purchase from home.

In addition, page views in March for home office rose 77 percent on QVC.com and 234 percent on HSN.com, and page views on HSN.com rose 143 percent for wellness, and 126 percent for health and fitness.

We’ve seen high numbers of visitors to our “Home Checklist: Smart Ideas for Challenging Times,” a cross-category online store featuring select products from more popular categories. As of March 29, the checklist had generated about 230,000 clicks across HSN.com and QVC.com.

We continue to listen closely to the customer on what they need and want right now to keep them safe and healthy, but also to provide a respite and community during these unprecedented times.

We’ve seen retailers step up in extraordinary ways to help their communities. What are some things Qurate Retail is doing on this front?

We believe in the power of relationships — now more than ever. While we all try to navigate social distancing and other impacts to our day-to-day lives, we think it’s also important to stay connected and use our resources and the power of our reach to help.

We recently announced an expanded global relief effort to support those who have been impacted by COVID-19, including a $10 million commitment to monetary and in-kind donations made directly by our brands, along with donations we are facilitating from customers, team members and vendors, and $19 million in COVID-19-related emergency pay and benefits we are offering to our team members.

Here are a few highlights:

• We will soon launch two initiatives to further support our team members worldwide: an Emergency Assistance Fund, which will offer one-time grants to team members who are most impacted by the pandemic; and an expansion of our Alternative Work Arrangements, which will offer a variety of temporary schedule options where possible to help team members manage unexpected pressures in their personal lives.
• We have provided an inaugural grant to nonprofit Nest for its personal protective equipment purchase initiative, a program designed to help artisan businesses come through this period by shifting to produce high-quality PPE.
• To help meet urgent food needs, we announced a fundraising awareness campaign benefiting Meals on Wheels America and No Kid Hungry. Qurate Retail has already met its pledge to match customer and team member donations up to a total company contribution of $1 million, so we are raising the cap for our total company contribution to $2 million.
• To help distribute important health and safety information in the U.S., QVC and HSN are donating airtime to show public service announcements from the nonprofit Ad Council, and we will soon begin sharing PSAs shot at home by a variety of actors and celebrities. We’re committed to running COVID-19-related PSAs multiple times a day through the acute phase of this crisis.

I am proud of our team for their quick and innovative work to bring these important initiatives to life. I am also inspired by how the retail industry as a whole has responded during this difficult time. Retailers are stepping up to reduce the shortage of masks and other PPE for frontline healthcare workers. Companies like Under Armour and Brooks Brothers are pivoting operations to produce masks, gowns and face shields in their own factories and facilities, while other brands including Nordstrom and Gap are tapping into their expansive supply chains and long-standing vendor relationships to immediately source PPE for hospitals in need. We’re also seeing retailers like Albertsons, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Target and Walmart reserve exclusive shopping hours for at-risk groups, front-line health care workers and first responders.

How is Qurate Retail using its platform to help small businesses?

This health crisis has also become an economic crisis for many small businesses. Retail is a critical driver for our economy and it’s important that we, as an industry, continue to come together to support the small business and entrepreneurial brands that help retail to thrive.

Qurate Retail has a long-standing history of launching and fostering the growth of brands and small businesses, and we continue to provide exposure and distribution for many small businesses impacted by the current crisis. The National Retail Federation also has a long tradition of supporting small business retailers, so it’s only natural that we would partner with NRF to help these businesses in this difficult time.

Our QVC and HSN brands are deepening our support of small business through our Small Business Spotlight initiative, in collaboration with the NRF Foundation. We are providing a visibility platform and other support to approximately 20 small businesses, jointly identified with the NRF Foundation. We will use our production resources, television broadcasts and digital platforms to help each participating business share its story with millions of consumers nationwide. In addition, each business can tap Qurate Retail team members for advice on solving a business problem related to COVID-19 through a newly formed virtual mentoring initiative.

QVC and HSN will additionally be highlighting the many small businesses within their current assortment through a dedicated landing page on QVC.com and HSN.com in the U.S.

Zulily and QVC’s international teams in the U.K., Germany, Italy and Japan remain committed to providing much-needed distribution platforms for small businesses and are exploring ways to deepen that support as this crisis continues.

As a multiplatform digital retailer, Qurate Retail is well positioned to provide social shopping experiences for consumers at home. How have you modified your social experience? And how are customers/viewers responding?

During this time of social distancing, we have unique opportunities to help our customers stay connected. As our customers continue to remind us, our programming is a welcome respite from the challenges they are facing right now. They appreciate the changes we’ve made to help keep our hosts and guests safe on air — and are enjoying new ways of engaging with us on our social channels. We’re thankful for the power of social media to extend the conversation and help us be there for our customers with engaging experiences and conversation.

We quickly expanded our programming on social when the crisis first began. For our #HostsAtHome campaign on Facebook and Instagram, our QVC and HSN hosts are producing live and pre-recorded shows from the safety of their homes. They’re sharing recipes, beauty tutorials and DIY projects, hosting virtual playdates and workout sessions, and generally giving customers a more personal view of their lives during these unusual times.

In March, for example, QVC Host and resident foodie David Venable began inviting customers to join him live on his Facebook page for a morning cup of coffee. These free-flowing “Coffee Talks” are achieving upward of 20,000 engagements per post — the highest engagement for any posts across QVC’s 40+ Facebook pages this year.

Both QVC and HSN are also encouraging our social followers to share their special moments with us and with each other — whether it's a new hobby, an amusing pet or tonight’s dinner menu — using #HomeWithQ and #HomeWithHSN. For #NationalPetDay, we asked our fans to show us their new “four-legged co-workers” and received over 200 submissions.

More about Qurate Retail's Covid-19 response

• Read part one of NRF's interview

• COVID-19 Response: Qurate Commits $29 Million (Women's Wear Daily)

Our teams at Zulily and our Cornerstone brands are also finding new ways to produce and edit creative content from their homes, so we can keep these customers connected and engaged as well. Our Grandin Road brand, a leading retailer for seasonal home furnishings, is encouraging every household in America to spread happiness and cheer by decorating their front door and sharing it on social media using #makeyourdoorhappy.

As our country spends more time at home to flatten the curve of COVID-19, social media and especially live social video are increasingly important tools in staying connected with customers and filling entertainment and engagement gaps created by social distancing measures.

QVC and HSN both run mainstay “deal of the day” programs. Have you altered plans for Today’s Special Values or Today’s Specials based on the current environment?

Our unique retail model allows us to quickly modify our product offerings based on the changes we’re seeing in customer preferences. In particular, we’re constantly reviewing and adjusting Today’s Special Value on QVC and Today’s Special on HSN.

This has proven to be a real strength for the team during this crisis. The teams, in partnership with our incredible vendor community, have modified the program to be able provide the items most important to our customers right now like food items, beauty, crafting, garden and more.

Over the past four weeks, QVC TSVs featuring Rastelli ribeye steaks, Heartland Fresh chicken, a GP66 cleaner and degreaser, and a philosophy facial cleanser have all sold out, while HSN has had sellouts with TSs on an EcoFlow mobile power station, an Apple MacBook, a Bissell carpet cleaner and a Dyson air purifier and fan.

What can retailers do to get through this difficult time and help consumers and the economy bounce back on the other side?

It’s difficult to provide a blanket answer. There are many different approaches to retail, so each retailer is facing its own set of challenges and has its own array of options for supporting its customers and communities. At Qurate Retail, I’ve challenged my team to envision ourselves a year from now and ask, “How will our customers, our suppliers, our investors and our communities look back at our actions during this extraordinary time? Will they say that we did the best we could, that we acted with humanity and dignity, even as we made hard choices? Or will they say that we took short cuts, treated our team and our partners unfairly, incurred unnecessary risks?” With these questions in mind, we’ve been able to frame strategies that we believe best support our team members, customers and communities during this unprecedented period. And we’re evolving these strategies every day.

Like many retailers, we spent much of last year laying out thoughtful plans to accelerate our businesses in an already changing retail and media landscape. We’re now considering which of these plans we can accelerate, which to reshape, and whether any should be deprioritized.

What will consumer behavior look like after the pandemic?

We simply can’t predict today what the customer’s mindset will be in our new post-pandemic world. Will they be comfortable going back to physical stores? Will their financial situation be better or worse? Will they be eager to get back to buying fashion or remain hesitant? How promotional will the competitive environment be? While at that point, the pandemic may be “over,” the world will be changed. I anticipate that consumers will embrace a digital lifestyle more fully as some remain hesitant to gather in public places, and the need for engaging experiences — both in person and digitally — will be a differentiator for many brands. I am encouraged by the rallying we are seeing behind supporting small businesses, so I think we’ll see consumers gravitating toward businesses in their local communities, as well as seeking out entrepreneurial brands with a great story and storyteller behind them. 

What steps are you taking at QRG to plan for this post-pandemic world?

With so much uncertainty, we need to plan for a balanced approach that will allow us to nimbly respond to what our customers are telling us at the time. That includes adapting our merchandising and messaging to what they value in the moment, carefully managing inventory levels while chasing critical categories, and engaging our current customers while introducing new ones to our brand.

On a personal level, I look forward to harnessing the innovative spirit and energy unleashed across our company over the past weeks. In the midst of this disaster, I am so proud of the incredible response from our teams to be agile and innovative during this time. Later, we’ll look at the adjustments we’ve made to how we work together and how we serve the customer, and determine which should be preserved, enhanced or replaced moving forward.

What’s something you’ve learned in the last few weeks since COVID-19 disrupted our world? What encourages you in these difficult times?

Over the past weeks, I have been struck by how small and intimate the world suddenly feels, united against a common threat, and by the unwavering determination proven by retailers worldwide to navigate this crisis. Though this tragedy has been and will continue to be extremely difficult, I am inspired by the extraordinary opportunities we all have to be of service to our customers in their time of need — including many who have not previously experienced our brands — to invent new ways of working, to make a lasting difference in our communities, and to connect with old and new family and friends, even at a distance.

Personally, I am especially encouraged by and forever grateful to my 25,000 colleagues at Qurate Retail for rising to the challenges in front of us. I am especially thankful for our fulfillment center, contact center, studio and support teams, who are working on-site during this critical time. I am also grateful for our retail peers coming together through organizations like NRF to support one another and our communities through this crisis.