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Today’s special: QVC may go mobile

That quick admission came from Bob Myers, senior vice president of QVC.com and direct response marketing and keynote speaker at the Shop.org Innovation and Strategies Conference at the Royal Pacific Resort in Universal Studios, Orlando, FL.

“We may go mobile through live broadcasting onto phones,” Mr. Myers said yesterday.

Mr. Myers also mentioned live product demonstrations via handset.

“User-generated content and video engages and entertains shoppers, while at the same time enriching the shopping experience,” he told the audience of e-commerce and online marketing executives.

The company will soon be launching the QVC Interactive Player, a live-broadcast stream that lets consumers watch what’s on the QVC TV channel right from a PC.

QVC used to be just a television channel. Then the company realized that it needed a way to reach consumers on-demand. So it built a Web site.

The site was recently revamped, making it a more social-shopping experience.

“We put more energy behind our innovation and it helped us grow our business,” Mr. Myers said. “We don’t do much advertising at all.”

QVC needed a way to differentiate itself from the competition online. So the site at http://www.qvc.com includes live streaming broadcast of items that are on the air. In addition, shoppers can visit the site and look for any products broadcast in the past week.

“Our [online] audience is predominantly women who don’t necessarily have time to watch the show but still love to shop,” Mr. Myers said. “By allowing them to view product demonstrations online, the experience is on their terms.”

The QVC site also allows shoppers to ask each other and celebrities who are involved questions.

For example, QVC has a TV slot called “Heartfelt Home with Valerie.” Shoppers can ask Valerie for decorating advice and she answers via her blog.

“There’s also an interactive poll imbedded into the site and we allow our shoppers to talk to the brand,” Mr. Myers said.