QVC turned in a decent e-commerce performance overall in 2012, and got a significant boost in the fourth quarter from a more than 60% increase in sales from shoppers using mobile devices.
For the year ended Dec. 31, Liberty Interactive Corp., the parent company of QVC and No. 7 in the 2012 Internet Retailer Top 500 reported:
- Revenue for Liberty Interactive increased 4.2% to $10.01 billion from $9.61 billion in 2011.
- U.S. web sales for QVC increased year over year by about 10.9% to $2.23 billion from about $2.01 billion. The company does not break out international web sales.
- Total sales for QVC increased 2.9% to $8.51 billion from $8.27 billion in 2011.
- U.S sales for QVC increased 3.1% to $5.58 billion from $5.41 billion.
- International sales for QVC increased 2.4% to $2.93 billion from $2.86 million.
- The web accounted for 40% of QVC U.S. sales compared with 37.1% in 2011.
- Total sales for Liberty Interactive’s remaining e-commerce business, which includes Provide Commerce Inc., Backcountry.com Inc., Bodybuilding.com LLC, Celebrate Interactive Holdings Inc. and other subsidiaries, grew year over year about 11.1% to $1.50 billion from $1.35 billion.
- Operating income declined 0.9% to $1.12 billion from $1.13 billion
“We see 2012 as a year highlighted by global expansion and mobile leadership for QVC,” says CEO Mike George. “We expanded globally by launching a joint venture in China and ended the year reaching 48 million homes in China, up from 32 million at the start of the year.”
In March 2012, TV and web retailer QVC signed an agreement with Beijing-based China National Radio, China’s government-owned radio division. QVC, which is owned by Liberty Interactive Corp., and China National Radio (CNR) will jointly operate a multimedia retailing business in China through the latter’s Mall TV shopping channels and its e-commerce site CNRMall.com. The joint venture, CNR Home Shopping Co., Ltd., will be headquartered in Beijing. QVC will own a 49% stake in CNRS.
For the fourth quarter Liberty Interactive reported:
- Revenue for Liberty Interactive increased 1.9% to $3.14 billion from $3.08 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011.
- U.S. web sales for QVC increased 9.4% year over year to $777.1 million from about $710.6 million. The company does not break out international web sales.
- Total sales for QVC increased 1.9% to $2.69 billion from $2.64 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011.
- U.S sales for QVC increased 1.7% to $1.82 billion from $1.79 billion.
- International sales for QVC increased 0.8% to $864 million from $857 million.
- The web accounted for 42.7% of QVC U.S. sales compared with 39.7% in the fourth quarter of 2011.
- Mobile commerce sales grew year over year 109.3% to $175.6 million from $83.9 million and accounted for 22.6% and 11.8%, respectively, of total Q4 U.S. e-commerce sales.
- Total sales for Liberty Interactive’s remaining e-commerce business grew year over year about 4.9% to $451 million from $430 million.
- Operating income declined 6.6% to $382 million from $409 million.