StORES Magazine - September 2007 - (Page 34) EXECUTIVE SUITE / COVER STORY MULTI-CHANNEL KICKOFF he National Football League will open its 88th season September 6 when the Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts host the New Orleans Saints. QVC and QVC.com will mark the kickoff of the NFL season with a multichannel sales and marketing blitz consisting of live TV broadcasts and 24/7 access to NFL-themed items on QVC.com. QVC has been designated the NFL’s “official television retailer,” and the playbook calls for QVC to debut its NFL Shop with a one-hour show on opening night. Weekly NFL shows will run throughout the 2007 football season, including the playoffs and the Super Bowl. Leveraging the successful e-commerce partnership it has established with the NFL by operating NFLShop.com is GSI Commerce. The King of Prussia, Pa.based company is the exclusive provider T of NFL-licensed merchandise to QVC, and GSI’s distribution network fulfills orders generated by the on-air broadcasts and QVC.com. “We come to the table as the pre-eminent player in electronic retailing,” says Rich Yoegel, QVC’s director of home merchandising. “It all makes for a pretty powerful partnership. QVC is no stranger to the world of licensed sporting goods. For years, it has interrupted its more traditional programming to sell product from Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, NASCAR and the NFL. Yoegel refers to these as “hot market opportunities.” The deal is also unique in that QVC is able to sell product from multiple suppliers via one point of contact, GSI. Will the NFL Shop lure more male shop- pers to QVC? “It’s not as if we’ve outlined that as an objective,” Yoegel says. “What I can tell you is that there are certain categories – the NFL included – that generate more new customers for QVC than others. Since we’re always looking for ways to garner new customers, we’re certainly hoping to see a lift.” Bob Myers, senior vice president of QVC.com, plans to keep the tailgate party going online through video- and community-driven promotions. “We’ll look to engage NFL fans in the real-time communities we have online, and we can also use the online channel to tease upcoming studio and remote broadcasts and build the audience for a show,” he says. In addition, QVC.com will utilize blogs to get fans involved in the broadcast and will also rely on targeted e-mails to help customers get their favorite team products. Shortly after the new system debuted, conversion rates spiked. Today, the system is provided on some 300 handbags. “The best stores have the best merchants, and we’re no exception,” Myers says. “What makes a good merchant is someone who really listens to the customer. At QVC, technology provides the tools for creating that dialog.” In-store sales spinoff ose insists that the QVC shopper is really not very different from the women who shops by catalog or roams the mall on a Saturday afternoon. “They’re not choosing to shop with QVC instead of shopping elsewhere,” he says. “They’re shopping here because they think shopping is fun. They really enjoy browsing to see what’s new.” Data analysis shows that less than 2 percent of the hourly audience is actively shopping; the rest are browsing. Interestingly, QVC vendors report that shortly after an item is presented on air, they routinely observe an uptick in sales at traditional retail shops that also sell the product. While characterizing the typical shopper can be tricky, determining what types of products are most likely to resonate with them is much less so. Rose looks for offerings that are “confident in their brand equity. My primary job is to approach suppliers and talk with them about why they should think about selling product on QVC. Those who are passionate about their product recognize the value of being R able to present it in front of an audience of 90 million viewers. About one-third of the products sold by QVC are national brands; another third consists of proprietary brands like QVC’s Denim & Co. The remainder is items brought to the company by entrepreneurs or small companies looking to break into the retail business. “We’re all about building organic items into brands, and over the years we’ve been instrumental in doing that for several vendors,” Rose says. The shapewear collection Spanx “is a good example of an item we launched many years back that today has evolved into a full-fledged brand.” So what’s next for the QVC? “I think a lot of shopping sites are starting to look the same and deliver the same functionality,” says Myers, who expects to perform a “major update” of QVC.com this fall, adding web applications that make it more interactive and easier to shop. QVC has had “20 straight years of double-digit growth, so we’re not looking to make radical changes,” Rose says. “The future will be defined by the customer. We’re experimenting with other platforms to serve her electronically, so that’s something to keep an eye on. “No one here is brave enough to predict the future, but we agree that the best way to be prepared for it is to listen carefully to the customer,” Rose says. “When we make her happy, the results follow.” StORES WWW.STORES.ORG 34 STORES / SEPTEMBER 2007 http://QVC.com http://QVC.com http://QVC.com http://QVC.com http://QVC.com http://NFLShop.com http://QVC.com http://WWW.STORES.ORG
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