Discover how QVC is revolutionising home shopping by launching continuous livestreams on TikTok, aiming to capture a new generation of shoppers amidst the platform's uncertain future.
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QVC’s bringing its always-on home shopping network to a TikTok livestream near you.
The company announced Wednesday that it would host nonstop shopping livestreams on the app, the first of their kind on TikTok in the U.S. and part of a strategic agreement with the video-sharing platform, which is itself facing a critical moment. Its once-delayed ban is looming. But broadcast TV shopping needs to pivot to survive, and QVC sees TikTok as one of the best avenues to do that.
“QVC and HSN hosts have mastered live shopping moments for decades and we’re thrilled to bring this entertaining shopping experience to TikTok’s community,” TikTok Shop’s head of U.S. operations Nico Le Bourgeois said in a statement.
QVC Group, which runs the home shopping channels QVC and HSN, launched on TikTok Shop in 2024, but 24/7 live social shopping experiences represent a deeper push onto the app just days before it could go offline. TikTok could again be banned in the U.S. on Saturday if it doesn’t find a new American owner.
QVC Group says on television it reaches more than 200 million homes, but with live TV viewing in decline, it’s had to invest in other platforms to reach a new generation of shoppers. The company has its own QVC+ and HSN+ streaming services as well as accounts on social networking sites like TikTok, where it has nearly half a million followers. QVC says more than 74,000 creators on TikTok have featured their items in shoppable videos or livestreams since last August.
In some sense, TikTok and QVC’s UX are completely synergistic. The partnership retrofits the live, long-form linear tv format that made QVC famous in a context that’s familiar with young people today: an endless feed of people hawking goods. (TikTok videos are a less bite-sized as it is: uploaded videos can be up to 60 minutes long.)
The company claims that bringing its approach to sales on social at this scale will revolutionize the space. Citing its expertise putting on “large-scale, high-volume, live social shopping,” QVC Group president and CEO David Rawlinson II said in a statement the company will bring to the endeavor its lineup of celebrities, hosts, brands, and products.
“Our agreement will be a catalyst to transform shopping and discovery, not only for QVC Group and TikTok Shop, but also for social shopping at large,” he said. But first, they have to break-even. QVC Group ended Q4 with an almost $1.3 billion operating loss, and ended its year with an 8% drop in total revenue.
Social media companies have worked to grow their shopping capabilities, but social shopping hasn’t taken hold in the U.S. to the extent that it has in other countries. Social commerce accounted for nearly 30% of all e-commerce in China last year, compared to less than 6% in the U.S., according to data from eMarketer. If QVC can successfully translate its experience selling products on TV to a smaller screen, though, that figure could grow.