Q Talk

[imani]

i'm noticing for several months that the amount of advance sales to be shipped in Dec is increasing????? WHY????? In Sept i ordered charm bracelets, x-ring, dec delivery. Then Shawn's silver bracelet, dec. Yesterday i ordered the LMO boots and they didn't say advanced sale in my order but when i saw email this morning it says advanced sale. Are they trying to get their DEC $$$$$ up, only thing i can think of. Making me angry i don't want to be wrapping everything 2 weeks before christmas, why shop early!!!!!!!!!! uggh just finding it annoying

[stevieb]

Advanced sales, so they don't have to stock items in inventory. They base their order on what customers have requested, which would seem to also potentially help their cash flow. December, I'm guessing, because they timed it that way. There's probably an assumption in there somewhere that there will be fewer returns if shipping items potentially being bought as Christmas gifts goes down to the wire, since customers won't have time, energy, motivation or funds to go out and look for something else.

[depglass]

I just wish they would put "advanced sale" on the screen. Sometimes I don't mind waiting, but when I do, I don't want to be surprised after I've gotten up and gone to the effort of turning on my computer.

[Tantallum]

I have noticed that esp for the bigger ticket items and TSVs they seem to sell out of the immediate ship quantity rather early and then go to 'advance orders', probably for the reasons Stevie mentioned.

[icezeus]

I think QVC is much better than HSN, when displaying Advanced item sales. The hosts will mention it from time to time during the presentation, and more importantly I always notice it on the screen.

Although I am a fan of HSN on several occasions, I have placed an order, received a confirmation e-mail and then several hours later find out that it's on extended delivery. I find that extremely annoying.

[Tinkrbl44]

It's a plus for those that have to carefully budget .... order the item for a Christmas gift, but not have to pay for it immediately.

[Remee]

It's the same thing as custom ordering. They know how many exactly to order and won't have a large overstock supply to handle if they don't sell, and they only have to pay for the amount they order, not for excess quantity sitting in warehouses not being sold. This is most cost effective and many retailer's do this.

Also, sometimes these items are hand-made or made by smaller companies and they require a set shipment and have to promise a later day to ship, because they are made by hand and require time to be completed.

It's good for the vendor and QVC, and it helps us not to have to pay hidden costs for these ancillary expenses. So it helps keep the cost down on other products for us as well. Everybody is a winner. Just plan to have everything else done and wrapped so you can do just this closer to Christmas.

[Spurt]

On 11/2/2014 Remee said:

It's the same thing as custom ordering. They know how many exactly to order and won't have a large overstock supply to handle if they don't sell, and they only have to pay for the amount they order, not for excess quantity sitting in warehouses not being sold. This is most cost effective and many retailer's do this.

Also, sometimes these items are hand-made or made by smaller companies and they require a set shipment and have to promise a later day to ship, because they are made by hand and require time to be completed.

It's good for the vendor and QVC, and it helps us not to have to pay hidden costs for these ancillary expenses. So it helps keep the cost down on other products for us as well. Everybody is a winner. Just plan to have everything else done and wrapped so you can do just this closer to Christmas.

Excellent assessment Remee---and may I add, make sure you don't count on "guaranteed" deliveries remember the fiasco last year, not so much with QVC, but with UPS and USPS who were overwhelmed with orders and could not get a lot of stuff delivered on time.....That is another bad aspect of all this, although you shop early, it may not even get there on time....YIKES!!!