QVC’s signature personal connection with customers is helping the West Chester-based shopping network remain competitive in a crowded online field, writes Ellie Silverman for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The company has been challenged lately by the shifting television and shopping habits of its customers. Meanwhile, an army of e-commerce retailers, streaming services, Instagram influencers, and YouTube stars also emerged as challengers.

To keep up, QVC’s parent company, Qurate Retail Group, made several acquisitions in recent years to expand the company’s reach. Among them was QVC’s main rival, Home Shopping Network, and online retailer Zulily to attract millennial moms.

The company also expanded on Facebook and YouTube, while maintaining its proven-to-be-successful, set-based broadcast.

QVC’s goal is to reach women between the ages of 35 and 64, its core customer base, wherever they are tuning in.

“We just need to figure out how to bring the great stuff that we do at the core of our business to those platforms,” said Alex Miller, Qurate’s senior vice president of digital commerce and marketing. “And in some areas, it means we need to potentially reinvent the way we bring some of the core kind of special sauce of our brand to those platforms.”

Read more about QVC in the Philadelphia Inquirer here.

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