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HSN Announces Patents for its E-Commerce and “Shop by Remote” Platforms

QVC to Roll Out T-Commerce, “Shop-by-Remote” Feature Next Year

QVC is currently working with interactive TV consultancy Ensequence on new functionality that will enable some 12 million Comcast customers to purchase items using their TV remote controls.  The feature will employ emerging Enhanced Binary Interchange Format (EBIF) technology, and require customers to pre-register their credit card information at QVC.com.  HSN unveiled similar functionality in 2008, while number three DRTV network ShopNBC is eschewing shop-by-TV-remote in favor of smart-phone-driven m-commerce applications.  MediaPost Jul. 26, 2010

Lack of SEO-Optimized Video Hampering QVC’s Web Sales

With countless hours of video available on its website, QVC has only seven video segments indexed on search engines Bing, Google and Yahoo.  Overstock.com, by contrast, boasts some 56,000 hours of indexed video on Google alone.  QVC’s enormous cache of video content – unoptimized and untagged — represents a big missed sales opportunity given that the 100 best companies in Internet Retailer’s Top Retailers Guide report an average of 30 percent of their website traffic is search-engine derived.  ReelSEO (The Online Video Marketer’s Guide) Jul. 22, 2010

HSN to Launch New Mobile Shopping Site Featuring WAP Technology on Thursday

HSN’s new site will be available on all internet-enabled mobile devices and is touted as a key element of the retailer’s “comprehensive, multi-channel strategy designed to provide consumers with a compelling shopping experience whenever and wherever they desire.”  The new site is expected to feature much of the functionality currently available on HSN’s applications for the iPhone and Android devices — but without the download — and to narrow the gap between the shopping experiences on mobile devices versus PCs and Macs.  HSN Press Release Jun. 30, 2010

QVC and ShopNBC in Vanguard of Internet Retailers with a Mobile Web Presence

According to digital strategy firm Acquity Group’s second, annual mobile commerce audit, QVC and ShopNBC are on the Top 10 list of retailers in terms of establishing a mobile web presence. Despite all the talk about m-commerce, the audit found that: only 7% of the top 500 internet retailers offered downloadable mobile apps, only 5% had both mobilized site and an app and only 2% had an e-commerce-enabled app.  On the list of 500, purveyors of flowers and gifts seemed to be furthest along in the pursuit of m-commerce.

“Tom Nawara, Acquity’s head of digital strategy and design, said the weakened economy last year had slowed retailers’ expansion into mobile, but that companies were refocusing attention on the emerging sector this year as business conditions have begun to improve. ‘We’re hearing from clients now who are fairly mature in the digital space but haven’t done anything yet in mobile and want to get more involved,’ he said.”  Rounding out Accuity Group’s Top 10 list of companies aggressively pursuing a mobile web presence were: Amazon. com, Best Buy, 1-800-Flowers.com, Barnes and Noble, Indigo Books & Music (Kobo Books), Sears, Overstock.com and Target.  MediaPost News Jun. 24, 2010

Has Google’s Android Gone Mainstream? Well, QVC Pitches It…

Web reporter and reviewer Allen Stern writes that a new lineup of beautiful-looking, sexy devices has pushed Google’s Android mobile device operating system closer to the mainstream than ever before.  And as evidence, he cites QVC’s promotion of it on-air earlier this month.  CenterNetworks Jun. 18, 2010

ShopNBC’s Mobile E-commerce Platform Named “Best-in-Class by Acuity Group

ShopNBC’s “Anywhere Strategy” won an endorsement from Acuity Group, which assists companies with their multi-channel commerce and digital marketing efforts.  The service provider named ShopNBC’s mobile ecommerce platform for overall “Best-in-Class” in its mobile efforts as well as “Best-in-Class” for the mass merchant industry, crediting the platform’s consistency with the retailers web presence, among other factors.  Commenting on the award, Carol Steinberg, Senior Vice President of E-commerce, Marketing and Business Development at ShopNBC, said, “We are appreciative of the recognition from Acquity. We believe it’s important to provide our customers access to our product offerings in ways that are most convenient to them. Because today’s customer is also seeking faster and easier ways to shop, our mobile site provides them with another interactive alternative. To date, our mobile initiatives have resonated strongly with them with strong customer behavior in orders per day, conversion rates, and average order values. Through the addition of mobile, we have been able to expand our ShopNBC Anywhere strategy, which empowers our customers shop and interact through our TV, online, social and mobile platforms.” ShopNBC Press Release Jun. 10, 2010

Get Ready for Google TV

The threat from Google TV may not be imminent, but it will come.  And the big shopping networks of today will be lucky if it manifests itself mostly in a scramble for channel real estate.  At Google’s annual I/O conference in San Francisco today, the company announced that it is preparing to launch a new, internet-based TV service along with Sony and Intel.  As currently conceived, Google TV, will, “combine traditional television programming with Internet video, and … allow people to easily search for programs without scrolling through unwieldy onscreen TV directories.”  The service will use Google’s Android software and run on a range of high-definition TVs and devices that connect to TVs.  The first devices are scheduled to go on sale later this year.  The New York Times May 20, 2010

QVC to Launch New Mobile Shopping Apps for Android and Blackberry

QVC today announced plans to launch mobile shopping applications for Android™ and BlackBerry® smartphones, as well as a new and improved version of its iPhone® application — all within the coming weeks.  The new apps will give users the ability to view customer ratings and reviews, and to filter search results by category.  The Android and iPhone apps will also offer access to a full 16:9 HD feed of QVC’s live broadcast.  QVC, Inc., Press Release May 20, 2010

QVC Picks Quantel’s Enterprise sQ server Italy Network

QVC has chosen Quantel’s Enterprise sQ server system to provide a totally integrated production and playout environment for its new Italian subsidiary in Milan.  Quantel already provides similar systems for the retailer’s operations in Japan and the UK. MediaMughals.com May 12, 2010