Quality, value and convenience represent a retail formula that many businesses strive to deliver in today’s market. But for one business in particular, these traits go right to its foundation, underpinning its philosophy – and indeed inspiring its very brand name.
QVC, the television shopping channel, was founded in the US by Joseph Segel in 1986 and was created to provide a different type of shopping experience for the consumer, one that allowed them to shop from the comfort of their sofa at home and make informed decisions about the products they were buying, without the pressure of a hard sales pitch. After just one year, QVC US began retailing beauty products on air and from this point onwards beauty has played an important part in the channel’s strategy.
Today, QVC operates in five countries including the US, UK, Germany, Japan and Italy. In the last three months it has also made a move into China as part of a joint venture and aims to launch there fully in 2013. In all countries, beauty accounts for an important share of the business, however in the UK beauty makes up the biggest mix of business against any other QVC globally. Steve Bridgeman, chief merchandising officer at QVC UK, confirms: “Beauty is our strongest division in the UK. It is really the most significant part of our business.
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