What exactly is QVC?

QVC is a well-known network that, when it first debuted in 1986, provided men and women all over the world with a more organic method to buy through television, long before the advent of commerce websites and social media. Sure, there had been infomercials before, but the language was typically corny and overtly sales-driven, obnoxiously interrupting the channel where you had been viewing your favorite show. Yes, thick, printed publications were mailed to your home on a monthly basis to show you the latest and best if you took the time to carefully read through the pages. QVC provided customers with a way to engage in more genuine, conversational engagements with hosts who have charisma and sincerity that could not be recreated effectively through other platforms.

Customers who were interested may call in and ask questions, provide feedback, and interact with hosts and models without needing to leave their homes. It served as a type of entertainment that could simply run concurrently and catch attention, resulting in sales with a quick call to the number displayed on the screen. By promoting discounts that would be withdrawn within the bounds of the show, QVC was able to lend urgency to this purchase decision.

This similar notion is being implemented now, but in a more familiar and scalable manner for younger generations: social commerce and content marketing.

With a press of a button, you can look at anything, try it on, and buy it.

Customers can shop in real time on QVC. This is taken to the extreme with social commerce.

Almost every social media network has increased its focus on developing retail integrations. Covid-19 definitely hastened this, but consumer behavior had been trending in this route well before 2020. These technologies have allowed marketers to do more than just retarget customers who have abandoned shopping carts. Brands are now dynamically showcasing their products on their websites, live streaming latest releases in an event-like setting (which could be regarded as a mobile and modernized version of QVC), and even using augmented reality to allow potential buyers to try on goods without going to a store or waiting for them to arrive. It enables for the same rapid gratification that in-store shopping may deliver from any location. Quick, Visual Content on Social is the new QVC.

Furthermore, the structure of the platforms provides intrinsic social components such as making comments to share views and opinions, sharing preferred goods with family and friends, and just engaging with material with people in your social media network and even beyond. Because it is universally accessible to anybody with a smartphone, just like QVC is to anyone with cable television, social commerce is primed for constant growth that is available across generations.

Influencers: put your trust in them, lust for them, and take out your wallet.

Models are used by QVC to demonstrate the features of their products. Influencers do a similar job for businesses, but also with the additional advantage of their following already having a connection to and confidence in the influencer. As a result, their material has the potential to propel brands over the brand recognition barrier and into the consideration stage. Users are more willing to trust influencers’ advice because many will not work with firms they do not believe in, in both terms of company and product principles.

Some brands go a step further by forming a longer-term engagement and enlisting the help of a brand ambassador who can help them with more than just one or two Instagram posts that will be deleted in a month or two. Instead, they serve as a constant face for the brand, generating full-funnel results. Additionally, material amplification allows the brand’s reach to transcend beyond the influencer’s organic network to a larger target audience throughout social and programmatic networks, resulting in even greater ROI from the partnership.

Unlike QVC, which focuses exclusively on CPG and food and beverage products, influencers may reach a far wider range of businesses because there are so many different content creators with different specialist interests.

What should brands do to capitalize on these trends?

Since QVC’s inception in the mid-1980s, a lot has changed, notably in terms of commerce. An omni-channel commerce approach is nearly always required for brands aiming to boost their sales. Today, it means popping up where your customers spend the significant amounts of time and reducing any friction from the purchasing process. Social commerce and influencer marketing can be important parts of that equation, but they’ll only work if they’re part of a well-thought-out plan that’s tailored to the brand rather than a carbon copy of what other brands are doing.

Though social commerce and influencer marketing are the new solutions, marketers should not overlook the roots laid by programs such as QVC. The effectiveness of these new methods is built on previous business lessons and does not need re-inventing the wheel. Many essential elements stay the same, with the main variation being shifts in where consumers spend their time and how they are met there