Homeshopping in the US

2021 DEVELOPMENTS

Homeshopping sales growth slows in 2021 but remains strong by historic standards

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused many US consumers to avoid shopping in bricks-and-mortar stores as much as possible to minimise the risk of infecting themselves and others with the coronavirus. This had a tremendous impact on the e-commerce space, with homebound consumers helping to power a meteoric increase in online sales over the course of that year.

Mail-order pharmacies command the lion’s share of US homeshopping sales

In 2021, homeshopping sales in the US were dominated by mail-order pharmacies. This is far from a novel state of affairs; indeed, in every year since at least 2017, the top three homeshopping players in the US have been mail-order pharmacy retailers, with just two retailers – CVS Health Corp (a leading player in the US drugstores channel) and Express Scripts Holding Co (a subsidiary of US health insurance giant CIGNA Corp) – accounting for well over half of total US homeshopping sales between them.

1-800-Flowers is emblematic of the US homeshopping space as a whole

With the exception of Qurate Retail, perhaps no company embodies homeshopping in the US quite like 1-800-Flowers. Founded in 1976, 1-800-Flowers began life as a floral delivery service that customers could contact by dialling the phone number that doubles as the name of the company.

PROSPECTS AND OPPORTUNITIES

Homeshopping sales growth set to decelerate at the US looks to move beyond the pandemic

The recovery in store-based retailing in 2021 shows that the majority of the US populace is looking to move beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. With the widespread availability of mRNA vaccines that are largely effective at preventing severe illness or death from COVID-19, and with the highly transmissible but less lethal Omicron variant of the virus potentially poised to transform COVID-19 from a pandemic to an endemic disease, US residents may finally get their wish.

Social media platforms threaten to take a bite out of Qurate Retail’s business

Despite the phenomenal success of mail-order pharmacies across the country, the retailer that is mostly strongly linked to the homeshopping channel in the US public consciousness is Qurate Retail. Qurate Retail owns both QVC and HSN (previously Home Shopping Network), which are the two homeshopping TV networks in the greatest number of households across the US.

Homeshopping to see little benefit from the incipient print catalogue comeback

As recently as last year, many retailing industry publications – including this one – were quick to point to homewares and home furnishings stores giant IKEA’s decision to discontinue its long-running print catalogue as sounding a death knell, of sorts, for mail-order shopping. Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, an interesting trend has emerged across the US, as print catalogues have made a big comeback.