QVC Was TikTok Shop Before TikTok Shop

QVC this week announced it is filing for bankruptcy, which makes this a fitting moment to revisit one of the great retail magic tricks of the modern era: selling people things they did not know they wanted, in real time, from the couch, with a host who seemed to know them personally. According to an AP News report, QVC Group plans to seek Chapter 11 protection after years of declining sales, mounting debt and a shift in consumer shopping behavior toward mobile, social and lower-priced digital rivals.

If that sounds like an obituary for televised retail, it’s not. It is more like a corporate reminder that QVC’s core idea did not die. It won. The format escaped cable and took up residence on smartphones, where livestreams, influencers and friction-light checkout now do what QVC figured out decades ago: turn shopping into entertainment, trust into conversion and impulse into infrastructure. Investopedia notes that even as QVC struggled, live shopping itself kept moving toward digital and social platforms.

To understand why QVC mattered, it helps to remember how early it was. According to Britannica, QVC launched in 1986 as an alternative to the Home Shopping Network, founded by Joe Segel with backing that included Comcast’s Ralph Roberts. The first item sold on air was an $11.49 shower radio, which feels almost comically on-brand for a network that made ordinary household goods feel like breaking news. Britannica also notes that QVC differentiated itself with a softer, more product-focused style. Hosts were expected to know what they were selling and explain it like human beings, not carnival barkers.

That was the real innovation. Before one-click checkout, before “shop now” buttons and before social commerce became a buzzword, QVC had already built a friction-light buying machine. Watch, trust, call, buy. The company pushed beyond TV earlier than many people remember. Britannica notes that QVC launched iQVC on MSN in 1995 and later opened a flagship store with a working studio at the Mall of America. In other words, it was trying to be omnichannel before omnichannel became conference-panel vocabulary.

QVC also understood something Silicon Valley later rediscovered and rebranded as creator commerce: people buy from people. Britannica points to celebrity hosts and collaborators such as Joan Rivers and Diane von Furstenberg, and notes that Lori Greiner used QVC success as a springboard to wider fame. Joan Rivers in particular became part of QVC’s identity, not just a guest passing through. QVC’s own tribute after her death said she brought “over 20 years of laughter” to the network. That is not just merchandising. That is audience habit, built over decades.

Products and Beyond

Then there were the products, a reminder that QVC was never just about jewelry and kitchen gadgets. Britannica says the network sold motor oil, caskets, live lobsters and funeral-ready floral displays. There is something almost heroic about that range. It suggests a retailer that looked at the human lifecycle and decided every phase of it could use a host, a camera angle and easy payments.

As for the hits, QVC’s records show that electronics could become blockbuster programming. In a company release about its record 2015 Thanksgiving week, QVC said a Dell Windows 10 laptop was the highest-selling Today’s Special Value item ever on QVC.com. The same Dec. 1, 2015 release said personal electronics, kitchen electrics and apparel and accessories were among the hottest sellers. That helps explain the network’s long-running appeal.

Its beauty business has also been significant. In 2021, QVC’s customer-choice beauty awards namedphilosophy’s Amazing Grace the winner in fragrance yet again, extending a streak that dated back to 2012. That does not prove it was the single biggest item in company history, but it does show how QVC excelled at turning repeatable categories such as beauty, apparel and home into habit-forming retail theater.

The irony in QVC’s bankruptcy is that it was not undone by the failure of live commerce. It was undone by the success of live commerce everywhere else. AP reports that the company was squeezed as consumers drifted toward TikTok Shop, Instagram, YouTube, Shein and Temu, while cord-cutting weakened the old television funnel. QVC did try to adapt, but the center of gravity had already moved. The younger version of the QVC customer now scrolls past a creator demonstrating cookware, shapewear or skin care, taps once and waits for the box to appear.

QVC did not just sell products. It taught modern commerce how to perform. It proved that retail works best when it feels like a relationship, that information can be entertainment and that a little bit of urgency can move a startling amount of merchandise, whether that merchandise is a Dell laptop, a bottle of fragrance or, for reasons that remain gloriously American, a live lobster.