QVC, at 30, gets social

PHILADELPHIA - The most important stop on a tour of QVC - and a key to its future vitality - is far from the most photogenic.

Favored QVC viewers and shoppers who get a backstage tour of the home-shopping behemoth's sprawling campus outside Philadelphia enjoy an eyeful of razzle-dazzle, akin to what they'd see on a major Hollywood back lot.

The tour includes four huge in-the-round TV studios, occupying 58,000 square feet, with comfy suburban home and funky loft apartment scenes and the occasional celeb (Rachael Ray!) spotting. Multiple control rooms include one where all three QVC U.S. channels and six global offshoots - in the U.K., France, Italy, Germany, Japan and China - are piped in.

But a separate, darkened and 'no-unauthorized-pictures-please” room where about a dozen people were hunkered over computers is part of the increasingly digitized, social-media-minded strategy to push QVC - now a maturing enterprise of 30 years - back to the forefront of the multimedia shopping world after a couple of years of flat or slightly drooping sales.

Workers study the 'transactions and conversations” of the cyber world - both inside and outside the QVC ecosystem - 'including what people are saying on social media like Facebook and Twitter about the things they're seeing on TV and questions/complaints they may have about the products we're selling,” said manager Dana Green.

Is a competitor's infomercial suddenly driving online conversation and product searches? How about a hot deal at another website?

'If there's suddenly a lot of conversation going on about, say, Fitbit, we can send a message to the Perch” - where stage managers track second-by-second sales figures and inventory - who in turn 'relay it to the talent. Seconds later, the spokesperson on air could be slipping activity trackers into the conversation, pointing out that QVC.com has Fitbits available in all colors at competitive prices,” Green noted.

'It's QVC's way of jumping into the larger conversation - staying relevant - and also our way of making sure we get our fair share of the sales,” said Peter Goodnough, vice president of consumer insights and business intelligence.