Qurate's 1st Q financials - Page 3

stevieb · ‎03-10-2010

Not surprised. This is what happens when you keep doing things that aren't working and expect a different outcome. For years, many of us have been lamenting the on-air approach to sales, the redundancy of programming and products featured and the noxious host behaviors. Now, what you see as part of this decline is that the on-air component is not moving the goods... Add to the aforementioned factors overall costs, largely unfriendly customer incentives, slow shipping at high cost and BAM... They might be convinced they have the right 'model', but it would seem their customers, or, former customers, as it were, don't necessarily support that conclusion... Qurate needs less arrogant and more effective leadership and they need to listen to their customers, you know, while they still have some...

In my pantry with my cupcakes...

BirkiLady · ‎02-22-2015

No surprise their stock dropped 22% today. That was to be expected following the release of the first quarter report with a 4% decline (which isn't as bad as I would have expected). The stock will return; that's just a blip in the market.

I'd be watching overhead costs like crazy if I were TPTB. Hopefully, they have been.

Money screams; wealth whispers.

Daysdee · ‎03-09-2010

Not buying from either channel unless I absolutely cannot buy the product elsewhere. Also, will try to wait for free shipping. I miss all the free shipping that HSN had before the merger. QVC needs to step it up. Last Sunday afternoon I placed two separate orders from Amazon. The next day before 10:30 a.m. both items were on my porch and in the same box.

SleeplessinSD · ‎11-01-2010

@pupwhipped , HSN does offer specific garment measurements too. Like you, I vary in size depending on the item. Click on “Add Measurements”....

~H~

Daysdee · ‎03-09-2010

@Daysdee wrote:
Not buying from either channel unless I absolutely cannot buy the product elsewhere. Also, will try to wait for free shipping. I miss all the free shipping that HSN had before the merger. QVC needs to step it up. Last Sunday afternoon I placed two separate orders from Amazon. The next day before 10:30 a.m. both items were on my porch and in the same box.

@Daysdee wrote:

Of course the shipping was free.

meem120 · ‎03-09-2010

Also, now at the Big A, you can try on clothes for free and send them back if you dont like them and keep what you want. Then theyll bill you for what you keep.

TY · ‎03-10-2010

https://www.philly.com/business/retail/qurate-retail-group-qvc-hsn-home-shopping-philadelphia-earnin...

Qurate stock was down 27% today.

Even Zulily's numbers were down and they don't have a TV broadcast, they are totally online. So are millennials dumping them too? Remember that you can't return anything to Zulily as all sales are final.

I also suspect that a lot of retailers took a hit in the first calendar quarter - Jan to March - due to the U.S. federal government shutdown that covered part of that time period. When you don't have extra money to spend you cut back on non-essentials and what's more non-essential than what Qurate and its sister brands sell?

pupwhipped · ‎03-11-2010

@SleeplessinSD wrote:
@pupwhipped , HSN does offer specific garment measurements too. Like you, I vary in size depending on the item. Click on “Add Measurements”....

@SleeplessinSD, thank you very much. I will look more closely next time I'm over on HSN. I do have to laugh sometimes when QVC hosts say, "Just order your regular QVC size." Huh? Sizes vary not only between brands but even within brands. I have one LOGO cardigan in a size medium, and another LOGO cardigan in a different style in a 1X...and they both fit! I do truly appreciate that QVC gives specific garment measurements so at least I have a fighting chance of getting something that fits. 👚

Thanks again for your reply!

Caaareful Shopper · ‎10-09-2012

I listened to their earnings call today (you can find it archived on Qurate's website) where Mike George talked about the 1st Q 2019 financials. I love those kinds of calls since I used to sit in on those when I worked for a very large marketing company.

Wow. One of the culprits Mike George pointed to as a reason for the poor sales results is the Easter holiday being so late on the calendar. Granted, Easter fell later on the calendar since the year 2000 (April 23 this year). George says that probably stifled shoppers from thinking early about gardening, gourmet food, fitness, and cookware -- which were all negatively impacted. Uh huh.

There was a decline in TV viewership (I wonder why???), but an upswing in digital customers.

All this, and they still launched 280 new products in Q1 alone.

There was repeated talk about synergies ( i.e., merchandising) between HSN and QVC. George said he would not separate the discussion about how QVC performed versus how HSN performed, since all financials are being reported together now.

He mentioned they will be signing better contracts with brands, and getting rid of brands that just do not sell to expectations. Beauty sales were down in some the most popular brands. He said Beauty iQ just did not have the variety of brands and production that brought in sufficient sales. In fact, he said the new, all recorded Q3 that took the place of the Beauty iQ channel is bringing in more sales than Beauty iQ did.

All in all, you heard the familiar, over-used, corporate language that I'm sure everyone on the call has heard before, but knew that was to be expected. Until next quarter, I guess.