To Q or not to Q
I have had a lot of questions lately from people starting up businesses, wondering if they should try to sell their product on QVC.
Living so close to QVC (about 45 minutes away) it was never a question whether I should sell on QVC or on HSN, b/c QVC was so local for me. This definitely is an advantage for those early in the morning spots and not needing to worry about last minute plane/hotel reservations.
I have been on QVC 7 times in the last 2 1/2 years. It has been a great experience, and luckily, always very profitable. But I have been in business 15 yrs, selling baseballs for all of them, so you may be wondering why only the past few years, when I live so close, and everyone and their mother had always said to me 'you should be on QVC with your baseballs', did I finally decide to go.
Until I had a place to sell the baseballs directly myself, my website: www.unforgettaballs.com I did not want to risk going on QVC, and having inventory that would be returned to me when I had no better place to store them then my garage.
You see the key thing to understand about QVC, and I'm sure this goes for HSN as well, is that whatever is not sold on TV within your 6 or so minutes on air, gets returned to you!
So you have to be prepared for it all to come back, and then have an outlet to sell it. Before I sold direct to the consumer on my website, I sold only to another company that acted as a distributor for me, selling to large retail stores, catalogs, etc. But I could not give them the left over inventory, b/c if it was not a baseball design they were carrying, it would not make sense for them to try to sell it. (My distributor sells a few of my designs, not all of them) so to go out on the risk curve and give QVC a new baseball design, I needed to wait to have a place for the excess inventory.
So wouldn't you know, I waited years to go on, (until I had created my own website, and my own warehouse that ships my inventory for the site) to go on to QVC, and now of course when I go on, I never have any left over! But you have to be prepared, b/c as such a small company, you can not take on that kind of risk.
QVC as it happens, is a great avenue for my work. The baseballs sell very well on the shows, and whether it is 4am or 6pm, they always meet the requirements necessary to air again. When you air on QVC, you are expected to sell a certain $ per minute, and that of course is based on your time of day, so the 4am spot is not judged on the same $ per minute as the 6pm spot. But all of the times have their minimum requirements to meet. I had entered the QVC world with a rep who I first introduced my product to, and then the rep brought it and sold the idea to QVC. The rep also negotiates my time spots, and helps to decide what quantity I should except from QVC. (A commission that I pay happily, b/c it is absolutely worth every penny.) Anyway, you have to be cautious, b/c QVC would bring in a large amount, but the larger the amount you bring in, the larger your risk to get it all back, so you want to proceed to grow with them, but also while watching your own risk.
I am off to go paint now, many new designs I am working on (New Yankee Stadium, etc.) so I will blog at another time about my Q experiences once you have been invited on, and are waiting to air- it is quite an incredible experience, no matter how many times I have been there, it is still such a thrill.
Living so close to QVC (about 45 minutes away) it was never a question whether I should sell on QVC or on HSN, b/c QVC was so local for me. This definitely is an advantage for those early in the morning spots and not needing to worry about last minute plane/hotel reservations.
I have been on QVC 7 times in the last 2 1/2 years. It has been a great experience, and luckily, always very profitable. But I have been in business 15 yrs, selling baseballs for all of them, so you may be wondering why only the past few years, when I live so close, and everyone and their mother had always said to me 'you should be on QVC with your baseballs', did I finally decide to go.
Until I had a place to sell the baseballs directly myself, my website: www.unforgettaballs.com I did not want to risk going on QVC, and having inventory that would be returned to me when I had no better place to store them then my garage.
You see the key thing to understand about QVC, and I'm sure this goes for HSN as well, is that whatever is not sold on TV within your 6 or so minutes on air, gets returned to you!
So you have to be prepared for it all to come back, and then have an outlet to sell it. Before I sold direct to the consumer on my website, I sold only to another company that acted as a distributor for me, selling to large retail stores, catalogs, etc. But I could not give them the left over inventory, b/c if it was not a baseball design they were carrying, it would not make sense for them to try to sell it. (My distributor sells a few of my designs, not all of them) so to go out on the risk curve and give QVC a new baseball design, I needed to wait to have a place for the excess inventory.
So wouldn't you know, I waited years to go on, (until I had created my own website, and my own warehouse that ships my inventory for the site) to go on to QVC, and now of course when I go on, I never have any left over! But you have to be prepared, b/c as such a small company, you can not take on that kind of risk.
QVC as it happens, is a great avenue for my work. The baseballs sell very well on the shows, and whether it is 4am or 6pm, they always meet the requirements necessary to air again. When you air on QVC, you are expected to sell a certain $ per minute, and that of course is based on your time of day, so the 4am spot is not judged on the same $ per minute as the 6pm spot. But all of the times have their minimum requirements to meet. I had entered the QVC world with a rep who I first introduced my product to, and then the rep brought it and sold the idea to QVC. The rep also negotiates my time spots, and helps to decide what quantity I should except from QVC. (A commission that I pay happily, b/c it is absolutely worth every penny.) Anyway, you have to be cautious, b/c QVC would bring in a large amount, but the larger the amount you bring in, the larger your risk to get it all back, so you want to proceed to grow with them, but also while watching your own risk.
I am off to go paint now, many new designs I am working on (New Yankee Stadium, etc.) so I will blog at another time about my Q experiences once you have been invited on, and are waiting to air- it is quite an incredible experience, no matter how many times I have been there, it is still such a thrill.
posted by Unforgettablogger at
1:17 PM
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