HSN Rolls Out Digital-Design Overhaul, Including Revamped Website

HSN has relaunched its website and digital channels, which the network said is part of is part of a comprehensive, multi-platform digital redesign that has been in development for more than a year.

“It enhances the customer experience, not just on the Top 10-most trafficked e-commerce site HSN.com, but across all mobile devices, including tablets, Android and Windows 8, the home shopping network said Tuesday.

“Through our redesign, HSN will further integrate content, community and commerce to create a unique shopping experience that you won’t find anywhere else,” Jill Braff, HSN’s executive vice president of digital commerce, said in a canned statement. “HSN now has the framework necessary to continuously deepen and extend its unique storytelling capabilities.”

The redesign aims to integrate HSN’s social communities prominently through all of its platforms via the social media curator Mass Relevance. This dynamic new social element allows customers to share their product finds, thoughts and reviews with their friends and influence shopping in real time.

For example, “The 20” is a feature enabled by integrating social media tools into the new HSN.com. The feature lists 20 curated products on the site, from which customers and fans can vote for their favorite item. At midnight, HSN will tally the votes and those who voted for the winning product will be entitled a discount on their purchase of that product.

“HSN has set a new standard for social shopping with its new website,” said Sam Decker, CEO of Mass Relevance. “By using the Mass Relevance platform, HSN.com can power a real-time social integration that includes photo walls, streams, polls, Q&A and more. Now, shoppers can participate with social content at every step of the purchase path, building engagement and driving a deeper connection with the HSN brand.”

HSN’s platforms now have a new look and feel designed to enhance the online experience and deliver greater shopping ease with a simplified user interface and user-friendly ‘shop by category’ options.

Site navigation is supposed to be more intuitive to allow customers to quickly find their favorite brands, personalities and information on exciting events. Favorites can be found across all digital channels from website to tablet to smart phone.

If you understand the next paragraph from HSN, you’re smarter than us.

“HSN’s redesign includes significant technological improvements to the company’s content and software architecture as well. As a result, content will no longer be limited to the structure of the page. Content will actually determine page structure instead. The new HSN.com has incorporated caching and performance optimization into its database, core services, page structures and other components that doubles the speed of the site for visitors and makes it twice as efficient.”

And here’s another puffy quote from Braff.

“Mobile continues to be our fastest growing platform so we know that is where our customers are engaging with us,” she said. “Now even faster and more efficient, we have built the kind of personalized experience our customers crave. Whether it’s a smartphone or a tablet, we are committed to providing the same content rich experience on her terms, whenever and wherever she chooses.”

HSN Launches National Pinterest Contest: Can Someone Explain What Pinterest Is?

HSN is giving do-it-yourself home decorators a place to create, and possibly win, the room of their dreams during the “Pin to Win: Build Your Dream Room” contest on social “pinboard” platform, Pinterest.

Running from May 15 through May 29, via http://www.hsn.com/pinterest, “Pinners” will be asked to submit their dream room pinboard by picking at least 10 items — five items from HSN.com and at least another five from anywhere on the Web — and tag boards with #HSN and #HouseBeautiful.

Dream rooms will be judged by a panel of home designer, including Vern Yip, House Beautiful Editor-in-Chief Newell Turner and HSN host Marlo Smith.

Winning rooms will be selected based on creativity, detail and design continuity. The grand prize winner of the “Pin to Win: Build Your Dream Room” contest will receive a $5,000 HSN Gift Card to get them started on the room of their dreams.

A second place winner will receive a $1,000 HSN Gift card and third place will receive a $500 HSN Gift Card. Additionally, the first 50 contestants to submit their pinboard URL will also receive a one-year subscription to House Beautiful.

“Pinterest has become the largest inspiration board for women in the digital space,” Jill Braff, HSN’s exeecutive vice president of digital commerce. “We know our customers will have fun finding their favorite HSN home items, creating looks they love and sharing them with one another. It’s one of the many compelling experiences our customers appreciate from HSN and we are excited to reward their creativity with such a unique prize.”

As a part of the “Pin to Win: Build Your Dream Room” contest, Pinterest users will be able to search through, organize and share their favorites among the thousands of home furnishing items found on HSN.com’s House Beautiful Marketplace site, as well as other design sites found on the Web.

HSN offers customers a way to shop by design style and browse the House Beautiful Marketplace’s impressive array of furniture, lighting, rugs, wall art and accessories to complete the look of any room.

For more information about the HSN “Pin to Win: Build Your Dream Room” Pinterest contest please visit HSN.com/Pinterest or join the conversation @HSN on Facebook and Twitter.

About H

App This, App That: HSN To Offer Emeril On iPhone, iPod Cooking Dash App

Those social-media junkies at HSN have teamed up with PlayFirst on an update to the Cooking Dash App for iPhone and iPod touch that adds what we are told is “a unique new restaurant venue” called “HSN Cooks with Emeril.”

Say what?

This app will feature Big Easy chef Emeril Lagasse cooking and serving some of his favorite dishes.

The new venue showcases an Emeril avatar and allows players to interact with virtual representations from Emeril’s top-selling Emerilware cookware and kitchen electrics line. Players can also instantly choose to purchase those very same Emerilware products directly from HSN’s e-commerce site, without leaving the app.

“Cooking is so popular today because it’s the perfect mix of food and fun,” Emeril said in a canned statement. “I’m excited to partner with HSN to set up shop on Cooking Dash so viewers can cook along with me in the studio and try their hand at running their own restaurant. If you love cooking then you’ll absolutely love this new feature.”

And from PlayFirst …

“This integration of game play, celebrity and shopping is a great new concept that we are excited to bring to our Cooking Dash users,” PlayFirst president and CEO Mari Baker said. “Players will enjoy interacting with Emeril in the game and joining him chopping, slicing and dicing with the same piece of cookware that they can later buy for themselves.”

When players enter Cooking Dash they immediately see the new “HSN Cooks with Emeril” venue. They can then enter the restaurant and begin to play.

During gameplay, they will have access to a variety of Emeril products including a blender, mixer, deep fryer and chef’s knife. As players progress through the game, traditional Cooking Dash characters such as Flo are joined by virtual Emeril and together they cook and serve various recipes for the restaurant’s diners.

Emeril’s products are then available in the DashMart, PlayFirst’s virtual store, as either virtual items or as an actual online order for delivery directly to your home.

“HSN recognizes that gaming, shopping and sharing are three of the most popular activities across mobile and digital platforms,” HSN executive vice president of digital commerce Jill said. “Mobile continues to be HSN’s fastest growing channel and this partnership with PlayFirst and Emeril helps us bring together content and commerce in a fun and innovative way.”

The Cooking Dash App, with the new “HSN Cooks with Emeril” restaurant venue, is available for $2.99 from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at http://www.itunes.com/AppStore.

HSN’s Innovation Weekend Features First Ever On-Air Retail Quick Response

This weekend HSN introduced a new way for consumers to shop with their television when it debuted Quick Response (QR) codes live on HSN HD during its bi-annual Innovation Weekend.

The New York Times devoted quite a bit of space in its business section on this Saturday.

In its press release Friday, HSN claimed it is the first-ever retailer to use QR codes on-air. These QR codes will be featured on HSN’s HD channel, which reaches about 43 million households.

The event will include hundreds of products, each with its own QR code. When scanned from the television screen, the customer will be able to access the product information page on their mobile device, learn more about the product and purchase with ease.

“Innovation is an integral part of our company, whether it’s the innovative products we present or the groundbreaking ways we use on-air QR codes to engage and interact with our customers,” Jill Braff, HSN executive vice president of digital commerce, said in a prepared statement. “Women turn to HSN’s trusted experts to educate and empower them to make informed purchases. Top electronics brands like Sony, Microsoft and Samsung recognize the power of HSN to introduce new technologies and we look forward to the products they will be debuting during our Innovation Weekend event.”

The four-day event, which ends Monday, features dozens of name brands and several premiers from some of the most trusted names in electronics including the world launch of the Honeywell 24″ 1080p LCD TV with built-in DVD player, the debut of the Samsung Dart Android smartphone and the launch of the 8″ Nextbook with Android 2.3 and Flash 10.

An exclusive Sony Skype TV bundle is also debuting during the event, which includes a Sony Bravia 46″ Ultra-thin 3D Ready LED TV with built-in Wi-Fi and a Sony Skype camera, enabling customers to Skype from their TV to any Skype-enabled device.

Additional brand launches over the Innovation Weekend include exclusive bundles for the Lexmark P715 all-in-one wireless printer and the D-link night vision wireless IP camera that allows you to remotely monitor your home or business.

Ta-Da: HSN Rolls Out HSN Arcade, A Gaming Portal

HSN is playing games with us.

Wednesday it launched what it called a “new platform (that) will allow people to play their favorite games online while simultaneously watching HSN streaming live in HD, viewing the item currently on-air and quickly shopping the last 15 items aired…all on one screen. In addition, HSN Arcade will integrate with Facebook to allow players to easily share their scores and achievements with their Facebook friends.”

Got that?

HSN Arcade is an e-commerce channel that uses “gamification” — a new word on us– by connecting unique products with gameplay, including the Today’s Special.

Players can apparently win prizes, including the Today’s Special product or a gift card, by being the fastest to complete the daily “Today’s Special Jigsaw Puzzle” and receiving the best score. People will also be able to participate in tournaments with HSN’s celebrity guests, hosts and other players for the opportunity to win other prizes, such as gift cards and products. Winners can be revealed in real time on TV, online and mobile.

“The launch of HSN Arcade is a strategic move to further differentiate the HSN shopping experience…by combining what people currently do online more than any other activities: shopping, gaming and sharing,” Jill Braff, HSN’s executive vice president of digital commerce, said in a canned statement. “We are also excited to be using Facebook integration to allow players to post their achievements and their favorite HSN products seamlessly to their Facebook wall. Other sites have game arenas, but only HSN marries content and commerce in such an innovative way.”

The combination of shopping, social and gaming taps into customer behavior, HSN said in a press release Tuesday.

According to a Newzoo (say what?) survey, currently more than 140 million people play casual games online, which represents 66 percent of the U.S. online population.

“The addition of this platform to HSN’s highly trafficked site and loyal customer base will extend HSN.com as an online destination ” — or so the No. 2 home shopping network hopes. .

HSN Arcade will host 25 games, including the Today’s Special Jigsaw Puzzle and Lights! Camera! Subtraction! (featuring HSN’s celebrities), as well as Crossword Puzzles, Word Search, Mahjongg, Sudoku, Treasure Hunt, Blackjack and more. The games are free to play. The experience will be further enhanced with the ability to share games, leaderboard rankings, badges and scores with friends using Facebook integration.

HSN partnered with entertainment agency WME to help frame the gaming opportunity with external vendors and serve in a strategic role in evaluating proposals. Arkadium, a leading provider of game solutions, was selected to develop HSN Arcade. Additional games will be created and launched based on feedback and demand from people.

HSN Names Jill Braff Executive Vice President Of Digital Commerce

HSN Tuesday appointed Jill Braff executive vice president of digital commerce, effective Feb. 7.

Braff will report directly to HSN CEO Mindy Grossman.

In her new position, Braff will oversee HSN’s existing e-commerce, mobile and social media platforms. In addition, she will manage the development and implementation of new multi-platform initiatives. HSN’s e-commerce, digital marketing, merchandising and advanced services teams will report to Braff.

“Jill’s appointment underscores HSN’s commitment to further advancing our e-commerce platform and continuing to elevate the company’s position at the forefront of transactional innovation,” Grossman said in a canned statement. “A results-driven media executive with experience in consumer entertainment and emerging technologies for publicly traded companies, Jill will help expand HSN’s reach to customers both online and on-the-go.”

Prior to joining HSN, Braff was CEO and president of Scrapblog, a photo social-media website with more than 2.5 million registered users. Previously, she spent six years as the senior vice president of global publishing for Glu Mobile (GLUU), a leading mobile game publisher. She has also held positions at Ancestry.com, The Learning Company/Mattel Interactive, Sega of America and Nintendo of America.

Braff has received several awards and accolades throughout her career, including Top 10 Women in Wireless by Fierce Wireless (2009), Top 50 Women in Mobile Content by Mobile Entertainment (2009) and 40 Most Influential People Under 40 in Silicon Valley by Silicon Valley Business Journal (2007).

She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English from Colgate University.