Q Talk

[Spurt]

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@stevieb wrote:

@Spurt  I'm going to take a wild stab at it and add my opinion, surmising that in addition to long standing feedback about costs of apparel here, shipping, stale product, quality and sizing concerns, most folks are simply not drinking the Kool-Aid about needing new things to sit in front of a computer camera and attend Zoom meetings or to lounge around the homestead... Likewise for jewelry... If you aren't paying hundreds or even thousands for the jewelry they offer, you're essentially getting actual costume jewelry or 'fine' jewelry that looks like costume jewelry... And really, who's going out enough these days to justify the cost of new jewelry... I know I'm not...

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@stevieb 

I totally agree with you about apparel & jewelry! What about the prior years when these two categories struggled and continue to struggle.

And as far as jewlery this has been a thorn in QVC's side for years and years. I realize the price of gold and silver have drastically increased, but what QVC is offering as far as I'm concerned is nothing but costume jewelry at fine jewelry prices, and the same styles over and over---box chains, byzantine styles, circles etc etc ...And for me, Diamonque is outdated, some customers prefer different styles rather than bling jewelry...Maybe the answer is just some DECENT costume jewelry...

[Spurt]

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@TY wrote:

@Spurt

Thanks for the info on Qurate's financials. At least they are doing well in a pandemic unlike many bricks and mortar retailers.

Since QxH doesn't break down the numbers for each shopping channel, it's hard to guess as to how well each channel is doing on their own.

That Qurate relies on shipping and handling revenues to boost their bottom line makes me wonder if customers, especially new ones become returning customers.

As to jewelry, who is buying, let alone wearing jewelry in a pandemic when you are washing your hands so much and wearing face masks?

Interesting that people, who presumably a lot of customers may be working from home aren't buying electronics from QVC or HSN.

I also wonder which clothes brands on QVC and HSN are the winners and losers.

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@TY 

You bring up some very interesting points.....

I've been working from home for several years now and go into the office occasionally, and I still wearing earrings ----but I may not be the norm......

And you'd expect beauty sales to be down since people are skipping foundation, blush, cover ups and the like since masks are being worn.....

Now a couple years ago Geg Maffei CEO & President of Liberty Media Corp (parent company of Qurate) really made a point to talk about the decline in apparel sales, he didnt mention specific brands, but said some were not performing up to par....It would be interesting to see exactly which lines had declines in sales....But as you can see by the chart declines in the sales of apparels  have happened before the pandemic aand even prior to 2019 as well......

Electronics are in short supply---just check Best Buy's website for inventory...so it seems this should be profitable, but too many times the Q has offered outdated models or people found better prices (I dont like how they add all the free WORTHLESS software in the supposed savings or trial offers of some software that the customer may not even want...as well as shipping which many offer for FREE.  So in otherwords the comparison price QVC shows is off a bit if your looking at BARE BONES pricing).....

[Spurt]

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@ellaphant wrote:

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@Spurt wrote:

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@mspatmac wrote:

If we have learned anything this year it's how fast things can change and we have no clue what it's all going to look like. To new customers everything is new to them on the Q. Some will stick around and are not jaded as many of us are on the boards. Posters are a minuscule number compared to the number of customers. Even on the boards there are core groups of posters. Many don't watch or buy anymore.  More complaints than compliments for sure. 

So many B&M stores have closed, shopping has changed forever so maybe QVC/HSN will survive and flourish going forward. I hope it does!

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@mspatmac 

You make some excellent points that I whole heartedly agree with.....

But there's one point, we can agree to disagree. Now as my mom used to say, "it's the squeaky wheel that gets the oil"....so although there are just a small number of posters vs QVC's total customers giving feedback and suggestions here on the Forum, some of these opinions seem to matter because we have seen a few changes that were made.....

And sometimes the volume of customers participating  doesn't seem to matter to QVC:

For example the "The Customer's Choice Awards" not  all customers even vote, but these products are given a special designation and even an award.

And the same is true of "Customer Top Rated Products"....not everyone that purchased the item takes time to provide a review yet the product still gets that rating.... 

And not everyone makes a product suggestion to improve a product, yet host and vendor on air will say, "we heard from you customers so we made these changes to our product"......

Also, QVC sends out surveys to only a handfull of customers, yet these opinions matter to QVC......

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 FYI, the silly "Customer Choice Awards" is a marketing ploy! Designed to engage the customer and make the chosen products seem "special" - as in,

gee, I must get that if everyone loves it. It's hilarious to me the way they are 'presented' w Jane in a gown and gushing/crying over the winners! LOL.

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@ellaphant 

I totally get that the "Customer Choice Awards" are a marketing ploy, still QVC counts the votes for the customers that play along....And yes, totally agree the "mellow drama" is a bit much 😄

[Spurt]

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@Lipstickdiva wrote:

I would guess that some of the reason apparel sales may be lagging has to do with the fact that people aren't going anywhere so they don't need new clothing.  While yes some people have continued to work throughout this, a chunk of them are uniformed workers who obviously don't need work clothes.

For those staying home more than they are going out, they don't need to purchase clothing.  

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@Lipstickdiva 

Yes, perhaps you have a point for declines this year, but what about prior years where apparel was struggling....this is a continuing trend....and could be other reasons---sizing, styles, prices...

[stevieb]

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@banned again wrote:

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@Anonymous032819 wrote:

One reason why jewelry sales may be down is because jewelry is a want and not a need, and right now, people are focusing on needs, and not wants.

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That might explain a decrease in sales in 2020, but what explanation is there for QVC being the self-proclaimed "largest jewelry store in the world" in 2006 upon Mike George's ascension to the presidency, to jewelry sales making up a mere 5% of their sales in 2019? Mike George took over a robust jewelry retailer in 2006 and allowed it collapse under his watch.

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@banned again He absolutely did...Infiltrating solid jewelry with the 'flavor of the year' gemstones: drusy, black spinel, Sleeping Beauty... (and incidentally, that mine is still closed)... Along with the likes of Bronzo Italia and so on and on and on... There was a long period of time when nicer jewelry never saw the light of day and then, when they tried to bring it back, my sense is it was too little too late... Now, there's very little middle ground, most offerings are either extremely pricey or, well, cheap looking...

[stevieb]

@Spurt  I so agree with you on DMQ. I wouldn't care if I never heard of it again. 

[banned again]

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@stevieb wrote:

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He absolutely did...Infiltrating solid jewelry with the 'flavor of the year' gemstones: drusy, black spinel, Sleeping Beauty... (and incidentally, that mine is still closed)... Along with the likes of Bronzo Italia and so on and on and on... 

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I didn't mind those gemstone jewelry trends in 2011-2013 because QVC certainly emphasized greek key, nailshead, tennis bracelets, by-the-yard and illusion necklaces in the 90s and threader earrings in 2004-5 didn't they? But emphazsizing bronzo was QVC's undoing. They sacrificed their silver and gold jewelry events to put three whole days a year around Italian jewelry as a move towards bronzo. Didn't work— Italian jewelry days were cancelled in 2016 and bronzo offerings became miniscule.

[banned again]

[Spurt]

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@banned again wrote:

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@banned again 

A few more home products but minimal changes on everything else....  It looks like with the pandemic people are focusing on things for the home so QVC made a good change although just a minor one...

[banned again]

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@Spurt wrote:
so QVC made a good change although just a minor one...

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Yes, minor indeed. These revenue data represent both QVC and HSN, but QVC specifically has yet to make big changes in their programming (normalized to exclude sampler programming):

QVC 2019 Q3			QVC 2020 Q3
Apparel	758	38.0%	Apparel	567	36.0%
Home	526	26.4%	Home	492	31.3%
Beauty	255	12.8%	Beauty	214	13.6%
Accessories	207	10.4%	Accessories	155	9.9%
Jewelry	149	7.5%	Jewelry	76	4.8%
Electronics	72	3.6%	Electronics	55	3.5%
Other	24	1.2%	Other	16	1.0%
Total	1989	100%	Total	1572	100%

Apparel hours on QVC fell from 38% to 36% year over year, yet revenue fell 18% to 16%! QVC has yet to largely decrease their apparel programming.

Home gained 4.9 percentage points in programming on QVC year-over-year, which is in line with the 5% growth in revenue share, yet on-air hours are still behind apparel. Beauty hours rose on QVC (normalized) despite falling revenue share for QxH.

Now that home is such a large category, why don't they split it up into home décor/improvement and cooking and dining to give us a better picture of where the revenue gains are?