Shownotes
In the latest edition of Omni Talk’s Retail Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Avalara, Mirakl, Ownit AI, and Ocampo Capital Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga discuss: Qurate Aiming For $1.5 Billion From Livestreaming And Social Media
For the full episode head here: https://youtu.be/xDKKCu9Alfk
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Transcripts
Curate, the owner of QVC and HSN and a first timer on this headline on this show, I think, and I don't think we've ever done a Curate Retail headline before.
Speaker A:It is rebranding the QVC Group.
Speaker A:Rebranding to QVC Group as It aims for $1.5 billion in revenue from live streaming and social media within three years.
Speaker A:According to Retail Dive.
Speaker A: of: Speaker A:As Anne was just talking about a few seconds ago, it should also be noted that QR Retail Group has struggled with falling sales.
Speaker A:In June, the company said it was facing a delisting from NASDAQ and has until December 9 to regain compliance in its Q3 earnings.
Speaker A:Released earlier this month, the company also reported a 5% dip in revenue.
Speaker A:Year over year and a year ago, the company landed on retail dives bankruptcy watch list.
Speaker A:Anne, do you think Curate Retail's rebrand and more overt goals to drive revenue via live streaming and social media will help to reverse the tide of this once prosperous brand?
Speaker A:I feel like as ominously as possible.
Speaker B:Yeah, I was like this show has turned into a show about retail turnarounds.
Speaker A:But it's kind of the state of the state right now.
Speaker B:Right, right, right.
Speaker B:So to me, this is another no duh thing for Curate Retail.
Speaker B:Like, yes, you need.
Speaker A:Oh really?
Speaker B:Oh yeah.
Speaker B:You need to revamp.
Speaker B:You need to rethink your strategy because Chris, here's the thing.
Speaker B:I think people may associate QVC and the Home Shopping Network with an older demographic, but look, those.
Speaker B:There's still money to be made from that demographic.
Speaker A:It probably should, yes, but.
Speaker B:But there, there is still money to be made there.
Speaker B:Except those people are also on social platforms now.
Speaker B:They're not watching TV as much anymore.
Speaker B:They're scrolling on their phones.
Speaker B:And so I think it makes a ton of sense to take the platform that QVC and the Curate group are very, very well versed in and move it to social, like move it to Facebook.
Speaker B:I still think there's a lot of opportunity there to capture sales and capture an experience that's familiar to that audience.
Speaker B:And then I think you're also bringing in fresh blood.
Speaker B:We interviewed Mara Soral.
Speaker B:She Was formerly of Saks off fifth.
Speaker B:She's in there as a new merchant.
Speaker B:You got the Rue and Guild groups, Rosalia Bucaro, that's also joining there.
Speaker B:So I think you have that, that new insight, especially from a merchandising perspective, that could help bolster and make Curate relevant again to that younger demographic at the same time.
Speaker B:So I think this is something that they absolutely have to do.
Speaker B:And whether or not it's going to be successful is another question.
Speaker B:But live streaming is coming back in popularity.
Speaker B:I think it fell out of favor a little bit for a while.
Speaker B:But again, this is something.
Speaker B:This is a methodology that is when you get people engaging with an individual online, the sales go up, they increase, the baskets get bigger.
Speaker B:So I think this is a very necessary move from Curate.
Speaker B:But what do you think?
Speaker A:Yeah, and it's.
Speaker A:And it's more about.
Speaker A:It's, you know, it's the live stream.
Speaker A:It's more about video commerce.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:When we go into our feeds, we're watching the video feeds now.
Speaker A:We're not watching the static feeds, we're all watching the video feeds.
Speaker A:And a couple of things come to mind for me on this story.
Speaker A:And number one is like, you're just doing this now.
Speaker B:Like, oh, yeah.
Speaker A:I mean, I mean, like, like, seriously, like, that's kind of an indictment.
Speaker A:And so the other point I make is like, I don't think this is going to make a hill of beans bit of difference because as you just described in the.
Speaker A:Yeah, because as you described in the last headline, the world, you're calling time and death.
Speaker A:Yeah, the world just doesn't work this way anymore.
Speaker A:And it just doesn't.
Speaker A:And direct influence, first of all, direct influencer content is cheaper to produce and it's more readily available than ever before.
Speaker A:And so then it's harder to differentiate something as the QVC group.
Speaker A:Like, you know, so, you know, as we learned in our webinar, like you said yesterday with Cody's former chief digital officer, video is going to be the primary medium by which consumers conduct commerce.
Speaker A:I just don't see how QVC continues to thrive in that age.
Speaker A:Because the individual content creators will work.
Speaker A:They're going to work.
Speaker A:There's so many of them now because it's so easy to do.
Speaker A:They're going to work to keep the margins themselves.
Speaker A:They don't need QVC providing the production studios and the distribution and the pretty spokesperson people anymore.
Speaker A:The brands don't need that either.
Speaker A:They can just go directly to the influencers that matter the most.
Speaker A:So, like, yeah, I don't understand what Value Add QVC is playing anymore, because in the old days, yeah, they had this fancy studio.
Speaker A:They had the fancy show person with the nice pearly white teeth and that just.
Speaker A:You don't need that anymore.
Speaker A:It's gone.
Speaker A:So I'm, I'm so negative on this story, man.
Speaker A:Like this.
Speaker A:This is like glass, Chris.
Speaker A:Glass.
Speaker A:Half Empty Day.
Speaker A:I think.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think you're raising some.
Speaker B:You're definitely raising some important.
Speaker A:There's some good points there, right, Ann?
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:For sure.
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:I just.
Speaker B:I'm not ready to call time of death yet on them.
Speaker B:I still think that they have.
Speaker B:They have this.
Speaker B:The knowledge and the know how.
Speaker B:Is this a little late?
Speaker B:Yes, definitely.
Speaker B:But I.
Speaker B:I still think that there's a venue.
Speaker B:Yes, there's.
Speaker B:There's a lot of investment in UGC and there's a lot of investment in individual creators.
Speaker B:But.
Speaker B:But I still think that there's some value that can be driven from, you know, having somebody that can.
Speaker B:That has already has a platform and a dedicated base of consumers who are used to buying from this platform.
Speaker B:They just need to move it to a new.
Speaker B:To a new place, to Facebook, to Instagram or whatever it might be.
Speaker B:But it'll be a fun one to watch.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:That's the interesting thing for me, though, like, even in our business, I think the power is in the individual creator versus conglomerations like this.
Speaker A:And that's where we're going to see more individual creators get more powerful and extend their reach too.
Speaker A:So I don't know.
Speaker A:But unfortunately, Anne, I think we've got a story here at the end that's going to perk me up and get me a little glass house.
Speaker B:Oh, my God.
Speaker A:All right.