Perhaps no other social activities defined the last quarter of the twentieth century more than shopping and watching television. It stood to reason that anything that combined the two had to be successful. And so, TV home shopping, led by QVC (Quality, Value, Convenience) and HSN (Home Shopping Network), not to mention a host of similar networks from across the branding spectrum, became the hottest retail format for that period, generating billions of dollars in sales and endless buzz among shoppers from most economic and social strata.
The More Things Change
The networks were enormously successful…until they weren’t. So, the news that QVC, which eventually came to own HSN, its biggest competitor, filed for bankruptcy after a 40-year run, is a shocking development in the larger context of the retail business. However, based on the explosion of digital commerce, it’s not that surprising.
QVC et al. became irrelevant to most consumers, never really evolving with changing shopping patterns in the marketplace and too slow to catch up with the shopping evolution that moved online and then onto social media. So, is it too late for these video fossils to re-emerge and once again be successful? Is it too late for that giant tote board just off-stage at QVC that measured sales by the minute to avoid becoming a countdown for liquidation?
From an off-camera position, here are the three things QVC and HSN need to do to recover and succeed.
Does QVC deserve to survive? And the answer is: After 40 years as a shopping pioneer, it needs to reinvent itself to stay alive.
- It’s Livestreaming, Stupid
It’s downright laughable—not to mention tragic—that QVC proudly claimed in a court filing that it had “launched a 24/7 livestream programming with TikTok Shop in April 2025.” That’s last year, for god’s sake. Livestreaming has been around in China for more than two decades, achieving enormous success over the past ten years since online seller Taobao began its live postings on social media. In America, livestreaming hit around 2020 when Amazon Live, YouTube and Instagram began selling online, joining startups like Popshop Live. For QVC to tout its efforts on TikTok Shop in 2025 is downright embarrassing.
Let’s face it: Livestreaming is really the same thing as TV home shopping, just on a different platform, typically a cell phone, versus a television. It’s interactive, entertaining and effective with communications and constant updates on what is selling. How it took the TV shopping services so long to go mobile is incomprehensible.
The first fix is to quickly shift focus from cable TV to cell phones. We know QVC has been doing social media selling and livestreaming for years, but it started too late and has been playing catch-up ever since. And I’d be willing to bet that the company culture is still focused on TV, and the online business is secondary. It needs to be flipped: That’s the future for this particular brand of retailing, and it ain’t going back no matter how big those flat-panel TVs are with at-risk cable and broadcast. QVC needs to reposition its entire operation to livestream-first, and that means more sales personalities, better onscreen graphics and a major change in merchandising to apparel and fashion accessories, not to mention gimmicks and gadgets that appeal to next gen customers rather than the seniors who are currently its prime customers. That may mean an initial hit to its $9 billion in total sales, but if it works, it will reflect far better numbers on the bottom line.
- Differentiation
Pop quiz: What’s the difference between QVC and HSN? Anybody know? I sure don’t. Maybe in some corporate white paper, there is a logical answer, but the average shopper doesn’t have a clue. Differentiation needs to be reflected in each operation going forward.
Once out of bankruptcy, with a better balance sheet and maybe some better merchants running the place, the company can reposition its two brands to keep them in their own lanes. Why can’t QVC be upscale, dare we say even luxe, in its merchandise and on-air hosts? That’s a niche that hasn’t been exploited to any degree. And then take HSN and make it truly off-price. Everyone in the trade knows the prices on TV home shopping are nothing special, but the average consumer doesn’t know that. If HSN is truly positioned as off-price, going up against TJX and Ross, it would have a clear lane in the retail world. And it shouldn’t shy away from that off-price label either. HSN could be a beneficiary of this.
- Tell the World
Once the two brands are properly positioned and set, that’s when they need to tell the world. TV may be dying as a platform for shopping, but it remains a great place to put your advertising; so far, no other medium has that reach and that scale. These two brands need to go on television to tell shoppers their stories. How about rebranding QVC as “Q” to freshen it up without losing the connection to its history? Maybe HSN plays the irony card on its own name by saying shopping on it is something you don’t need to be home to do.
Whatever marketing campaigns they come up with, they need to shout it out. Right now, QVC is getting a lot of bad publicity for its bankruptcy filing, and it wouldn’t be surprising if many people think it’s going out of business. The company needs to control its story, especially if it’s a new one. Let’s hope that’s where all that post-bankruptcy money goes, rather than retention bonuses or raises for the executives who have tried very hard to put it out of business.
It’s Not Too Late
QVC says it had 10.3 million unique customers last year, took 70 million customer calls and shipped 182 million units globally, resulting in more than $9 billion in sales for 2025. That’s not too shabby. This is not Sears or Pier 1, where too many customers turned off, and it was too late to resurrect the brands. QVC still has goodwill and is a place shoppers want to tune into or click on. As a point of principle, its iconic brand shouldn’t disappear from the shopping scene. Back when it started, it pioneered new technology to succeed. If it’s smart, it can do it again.
