E-commerce represented 54% of U.S. sales in the third quarter for TV and web merchant QVC.com.
QVC.com’s total U.S. sales were $1.37 billion for the period ended Sept. 30, which means online sales were $739.8 million, up about 8.3% year over year from $683.4 million in Q3 2016, when e-commerce represented 51% of QVC’s total sales of $1.34 billion, the retailer reported last week.
QVC.com is part of QVC Group, as is Zulily.com, a flash-sale retailer of clothing, toys and home products. QVC Group’s parent company is Liberty Interactive Corp., which acquired Zulily in October 2015. QVC Group is No. 7 in the Internet Retailer 2017 Top 500.
QVC.com’s global e-commerce revenue increase 10.3% to $973 million in Q3 2017 and accounted for 48% of global sales, up from $882 million in Q3 2016, when e-commerce accounted for 45% of global sales, the retailer says.
Website traffic increased 4%, on average, between Zulily.com and QVC.com, QVC president and CEO Michael George told investors, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript. QVC added 417,000 new customers this quarter, which is a 7% year-over-year increase, he says.
“We successfully deployed a heavier level of marketing spend to profitably acquire high-quality new customers on digital platforms,” George said. “We brought in an outstanding new customer class, our second-largest third quarter class in 15 years.”
80% of the new customers made an online purchase, and many of the new customers are “demonstrating some of the best retention rates we’ve ever seen, which we know indicates strong lifetime value,” George said without revealing any more specifics.
In July, Liberty Interactive made waves by acquiring QVC’s main competitor, online and TV web merchant HSN Inc., which includes the Cornerstone brands portfolio of such home furnishings retailers as Garnet Hill, Frontgate, Ballard Designs, Improvements and Grandin Road.
The combined group of QVC and HSN will broadcast 17 networks into more than 360 million homes in nine countries, attract 2 billion annual visits to global websites and ship more than 320 million packages annually, QVC reported.
During the quarter QVC announced its new leadership team for its combined assets, including naming Steve Hoffmann president of QVC U.S. from his current position of QVC International. QVC says it will announce a new QVC International president in the coming months.
QVC also named Mike Fitzharris president of HSN. Fitzharris previously served as chairman of QVC of Japan. At the time of the acquisition, HSN had not replaced then-CEO Mindy Grossman, who resigned in April to become president and CEO at Weight Watchers International Inc.
“Each decision was its own decision based on optimal design, aspirations of the individuals, what we thought were the skills that were needed, and I just feel terrific about where we ended up,” George said.
QVC is expected to close on the HSN acquisition in the fourth quarter, Gregory Maffei, CEO of Liberty Interactive said.
For the three months ended Sept. 30, QVC also reported:
- Consolidated revenue of Liberty Interactive Corp. of $2.38 billion, a 1.2% decrease from $2.41 billion in Q3 2016.
- Total QVC Group revenue, excluding sales from Zulily, of $2.01 billion, up 3.1% from $1.95 billion.
- QVC U.S. sales of $1.37 billion, a 2.2% increase from $1.34 billion.
- Zulily revenue of $367 million, up 2.2% from $359 million.
For the nine months ended Sept. 30:
- Consolidated revenue of Liberty Interactive Corp of $7.06 billion, down 5.7% from $7.49 billion from the year-ago period.
- Total QVC Group revenue, excluding sales from Zulily, of $5.95 billion, down 1.2%from $6.02 billion.
- QVC U.S. sales of $4.11 billion, down 1.4% from $4.17 billion.
- Zulily revenue of $1.09 billion, down 0.9% from $1.08 billion.