QVC’s Quiet Digital Transformation

When most people hear “QVC,” their instinctive thought is television shopping, with perky sales people cheerfully boosting a range of products — some useful, some not and some things that are just genuinely bizarre.

What most people probably do not think is mobile or digital sales, but most people would be thinking wrong as it turns out since increasingly digital channel are how QVC shoppers are closing the deal.

QVS reported eCommerce sales of $727 million during the last quarter – a big pick-up from the $655 million it reported the quarter before. That places eCommerce as nearly exactly half of QVC’s over all U.S. sales during the quarter (50.9 percent to be exact), up from 49.6 percent in Q1. This is not the first time that more than half of QVC’s sales have come via digital channels – that milestone was actually crossed during Q4 2015 – but sales dipped back below 50 percent during Q1.

Zulily.com reported revenue of $366 million in the quarter, with the 23 percent growth driven by a strong increase in number of orders, plus a slight jump in average order value. Zulily was purchased by QVC’s parent company Liberty Interactive Corp last October – the firm also brought some bad news with it during the quarter, posing a $43 million loss in operating income.

During the quarterly call with investors, CEO Mike George played up the newly launched product detail pages now available on its German, British and American pages and their mobile-first design and increased video interactive elements.