Welcome to enterprise on line. Thank you for reading and rating my reviews, constructive criticism w...
Welcome to enterprise on line. Thank you for reading and rating my reviews, constructive criticism welcome. I'm back good to see you all.
Member since:29.05.2004
Reviews:193
Members who trust:11
THE FACTS
Further to my exploration of my digital freeview box another shopping channel, QVC. Below some details more of the same can be found on the Wikipedia website. QVC is a United States based Multinational Corporation, specialising in televised shopping channels. Founded in 1986 by Joseph Segel, QVC broadcasts in four major countries to 141 million consumers. The name is an initialisation standing for "Quality, Value, Convenience". The first broadcast took place in that year.
AVAILABILITY
The channel is broadcast in Japan, UK, USA, Germany via Cable, Satellite, Digital and terrestrial. This review is concerned with QVC UK; it was the first shopping channel to broadcast in the UK via a deal with British Sky Broadcasting. The show (UK) is broadcast from 8 am to 1 am everyday; the programmes
are broken into 1-hour slots. QVC runs a 24-hour a day network, live programmes vary.
QVC UK
The UK arm of the company operates from two venues in the UK " Corporate headquarters and broadcasting facilities are located at Marco Polo House, in London, while call centre and distribution facilities are situated in Merseyside. QVC UK runs two small outlet stores, one in Warrington, the other in Shrewsbury. QVC-The Shopping Channel broadcasts live 17 hours a day (although the channel runs 24 hours a day), 364 days a year, to 15.4 million viewers of Cable, Terrestrial and Terrestrial. With the continued growth and popularity of home-shopping television, more and more companies are emerging to challenge QVC's position. In the UK QVC competes with several other channels, such as bid TV (and its sister channel Price drop, Ideal_World (already reviewed), Screenshop, and others.
THE WEBSITE
The website is functional and rather like most retail outlets sites. You can find it at www.qvcuk.com; it made the TOP10 websites in the hitwise league. At the top is a tool bar clicking facilities to take you too the product range choices include Beauty, Jewellery, For the Home. To the left more buttons denoting, 24 hour product review, Today special value, Current on air items (linked to presentations on TV), Watch QVC live (quality dependant on download rate), QVCTV guide - hour showing (listings). The main area is filled with featured items text and picture. Along the bottom facilities for your account, customer service facilities (shopping facilities) and a number for online shopping 0800 50 40 30. There is also a live chat feature and an online magazine available. The website is interactive and easy to use and makes shopping a more relaxed and fun activity. I can see this style of shopping taking off in a big way with organisations like Argos using a similar style. The live broadcast lacks quality at a 56Kbs rate. I've yet to try it with broadband.
THE TV SHOW
As with many TV shopping channels the TV picture shows presenters discussing or demonstrating the product. On the left hand side of the picture a box containing information about the product along with details of its price and a reference number. There is a white bar at the bottom with QVC website details www.qvcuk.com, contact details, product details and the QVC website. A scroll bar at the bottom with further details of the purchase is also showing.
So far I have seen sales of Jewellery: Gems of the Sea, a male/female couple sit behind a desk and discuss the product, it is not necessarily hard sell. They show close ups of the product, in this case sometimes worn by a model. Creation card making with 2 females standing whilst making the presentation.
MY OPINION
My freeview box still has novelty value so tuning so I find tuning to watch these types of shows for 10 or 20 minutes helps to pass the time. From a quality point of view I think QVC is better in presentation and product range than Ideal World. I've yet to check out other competitors mentioned above. Updates to follow. As I have mentioned with the development of digital TV and broadband this type of shopping should really take off; coordinating the website and TV for product research should become easier. I've yet to buy a product this way so yet to really check out the experience with respect to postage cost, quality, delivery times, return of faulty (unsuitable goods). Has anybody else tried, let me know? Updates to follow.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: Shop from home, return no questions asked, Huge amount of products Disadvantages: Same as catalogues; can't smell perfume, try clothes etc. Sometimes sell out of products
Guccilady 02.09.2001 (02.09.2001)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of QVC - QVC
Advantages: No queues or crowds, products demonstrated,entertaining to watch, prompt delivery Disadvantages: high p&p charges, some shows long winded and boring
scribbelle 31.08.2002 (01.09.2002)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of QVC - QVC
Advantages: Shop from home. Large choice of products. special offers. Disadvantages: Postage costs for every item, even when ordering several products.
Lethal-Injection 08.03.2004 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of QVC
Jul 17th, 2006
very helpful by (47%):
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