From Cable to Creator: QVC Slides into TikTok’s DMs

QVC, the OG of televised home shopping, is diving headfirst into Gen Z territory with a bold new bet on TikTok. Launching the first-ever 24/7 live shopping stream on the app, QVC is leaning hard into the TikTok Shop to breathe new life into its struggling business. The move brings its familiar hosts together with TikTok creators in a continuous, shoppable livestream—essentially turning QVC into an always-on, algorithm-friendly retail channel. With 74,000 creators already featuring QVC items on the platform, the company sees this as a real shot at finally making social commerce take off in the U.S.—something that’s thrived in China but has sputtered stateside.

This TikTok gamble is part of QVC’s broader pivot from broadcast to social under CEO David Rawlinson II. After a pandemic-era boom, the company hit a wall: viewership dropped, cord-cutting accelerated, and a catastrophic warehouse fire in 2021 burned through $500 million in inventory. Rawlinson, originally hired to transform the company, found himself first having to save it. Following cost cuts and consolidation, QVC now aims to make social and streaming platforms deliver $1.5 billion in annual run-rate revenue within three years. It’s a big swing, but Rawlinson says the math checks out—especially since QVC’s traditional audience (largely women over 50) is increasingly mingling with TikTok’s 170 million U.S. users.

Of course, there’s one big catch: TikTok’s U.S. future is murky. ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, is under pressure to divest or risk a national ban, despite a Trump-signed extension. But QVC isn’t waiting on political clarity. With retail’s tectonic plates shifting, the company sees TikTok’s reach as too massive to ignore—even if it’s playing on borrowed time. As Rawlinson put it, “We didn’t try to guess the future of TikTok.” For QVC, this isn't just a bet on a platform—it’s a bet that the future of shopping is live, social, and happening in vertical video.