Oct. 1 Marks QVC’s Invasion of Italy, Its Fifth Global Market

Mike George

QVC Italy debuted on Friday, Oct. 1, wishing shopaholics in that boot-shaped nation buon giorno.

QVC’s new network began broadcasting live from its new studios in Milan, Italy, and is in 18 million Italian homes. That launch brings QVC reach to roughly 200 million homes worldwide.

“QVC’s track record of success in the U.S., United Kingdom, Germany and Japan proves that our business model can cross borders, and gives us confidence that Italy is the ideal choice as our next market,” QVC CEO Mike George said in a canned statement. “We’re excited to introduce Italian consumers to a whole new way to shop.”

The domestic QVC network is no stranger to Italy, shooting many of its Italian gold shows on location there, with host Lisa Robertson usually doing the honors.

QVC Italy will feature fashion, beauty, jewelry, electronics and home and home products.

Its beauty brands include Bare Escentuals, Mally Beauty, L’Occitane, Perricone MD, Ojon and Decleor. The jewelry wares include Honora, Veronese, Skagen, Paola Valentini, Unoaerre, Morini, Murano and Falcinelli Italy.

On the fashion and accessory front, there will be Kathy Van Zeeland, Tignanello, Kipling, Nina Leonard, Bric’s, Bills and Sesto Marino.

And the Italian network’s electronics and home products include Dell, Panasonic, Krups, Pioneer, Moulinex, Dyson, KitchenAid, Bialetti, Severin, Jura, Lavazza, Saeco and Moneta.

The first product QVC Italy offered at midnight was the Bare Escentuals Intro to Bare Beauty Six-Piece Makeup Kit as the Today’s Special Value. The kit included the bareMinerals All Over Face Color in Warmth, the bareMinerals Mineral Veil in Original, the bareMinerals Original Foundation in two shades, the Full Flawless Application Face Brush and the Maximum Coverage Concealer Brush.

It was available in four shades: light, medium, tan or dark for the TSV price of 38.00 EUR (about $51).

The new Milan headquarters combines administrative offices, a full HD broadcast studio, and a call center, all under one roof.

Customer orders will be fulfilled out of QVC’s state-of-the-art distribution facility in Huckelhoven, Germany.

At launch QVC Italy reaches more than 18 million Italian households 24 hours a day with 17 hours of live programming. The channel is available on all primary distribution platforms: digital terrestrial television (DTT) and on satellite via Sky Italia SpA and TiVu Sat.

QVC Italy’s management team includes veterans from some of QVC’s other markets along with local talent.

As with QVC’s other international operations, all on-air and customer service operations are conducted in the local language.

“Italian may be a new language for QVC, but shopping is the international language,” CEO George said.

Here we thought amore was the international language.