QVC is gearing up for year two of its “Age of Possibility” platform, an effort dedicated to celebrating women over age 50, with the unveiling of an expanded partnership with TikTok for an eight-hour livestream shopping event designed to empower the older generation.
Championing the platform is QVC’s Quentissential 50 (Q50), a group of women including public figures like Donna Kelce, mother to Travis and Jason Kelce, author Stacy London and TV personality Kathie Lee Gifford. The livestream, part of TikTok Shop’s Super Brand Days, will be hosted on QVC’s TikTok channel on May 14 and feature a handful of Q50 ambassadors, around 100 creators, exclusive product drops and panel conversations.
The event builds on a partnership between TikTok and QVC announced in April that allows the shopping network to host 24/7 live shopping streams featuring parent QVC Group’s brands, products and talent on the app. For QVC, a nearly 40-year-old brand most widely regarded for its live television broadcasts, a focus on TikTok may seem out of character — especially for reaching the older generation — but the move is anything but, explained Annette Dunleavy, QVC’s vice president of brand marketing.
“Gen X is there. Gen X women are there. I am there,” Dunleavy said. “So for us, it’s a way to get in front of that audience and get in front of more women in a relevant way... and for TikTok it’s a way to grow that Gen X audience that’s coming over and introducing themselves.”
Marketing for Gen X
While TikTok is known for its sway among generations like millennials and Gen Z, it also holds favor among Gen X, with 24% of the cohort using the app daily. Additionally, after viewing a TikTok Shop experience, 87% of Gen X TikTok users agree that the platform is convenient, and nearly half (44%) of weekly Gen X users are interested in shopping on or from TikTok in the next three months, according to TikTok data.
QVC’s event will begin at 1 p.m. ET and be hosted from Santa Monica, California, and will feature eight hours of specialty content, including appearances from Q50 talent and QVC ambassadors including London and actresses Sherri Shepherd and Busy Philipps and more. Q50’s newest members will also be unveiled, including TV personality Hoda Kotb, fashion designer Carla Rockmore and socialite Kathy Hilton.
Categories promoted during the event will span beauty, fashion, home and kitchen, and they will be amplified through exclusive drops and deals. Supplementing the shopping segments will be Q50 keynotes and panels where participants will discuss topics like building community, finding joy after 50 and tips for getting started as a content creator.
The “Age of Possibility” platform was introduced last April alongside Q50, a group inclusive of QVC hosts, celebrities, activists and entrepreneurs (and Dunleavy herself) to highlight life after age 50 as a period full of opportunity. The platform was informed by brand-commissioned research revealing that only 31% of women aged 50-70 feel supported by brands, compared to 58% of women ages 18-29 and 41% of women ages 30-49.
“We found that women over 50 aren’t feeling like they’re seen by brands or in advertising,” Dunleavy said. “We really wanted to recognize them, and we think they deserve to see themselves reflected and celebrated.”
TikToking during a turnaround
The TikTok tie-up arrives amid QVC Group’s push for a turnaround. The company, which also owns shopping brands HSN, Ballard Designs, Frontgate, Garnet Hill and Grandin Road, ended Q4 with a nearly $1.3 billion operating loss. Total revenue for the period fell 6% to $2.9 billion.
The company, formerly called Qurate Retail Group, began a three-part turnaround strategy in November that includes offering live shopping content anytime and anywhere; leveraging technology to grow with emerging platforms and audiences; and, perhaps most importantly as it pertains to QVC’s latest news, creating what the company bills as the “leading live social shopping content engine.”
“We’re not by any means taking our foot off the gas from our original linear channels, but women are spending a lot of time on social and it aligns so well with our core values: community, entertainment, trust and presenting with our hosts, who you could argue were the OG influencers,” Dunleavy said.
The focus on TikTok has already shown signs of paying off: Since initially launching on TikTok Shop in August, over 74,000 TikTok creators have featured QVC items through their shoppable videos and livestreams. TikTok’s future in the U.S. remains uncertain, though President Donald Trump recently indicated he would give the ByteDance-owned app a third extension on its impending ban in hopes that the company will reach a sell-off deal.
QVC Group has taken other efforts to drive its growth, including revamping its leadership team and naming a chief growth officer who will focus on areas including new business development, digital and social streaming.
While social media is a key part of QVC’s strategy, its efforts to reach target audiences like Gen X stretch beyond TikTok to include channels like streaming and linear — the latter of which is still a strong player and at the core of the brand — as the network angles to be the “number one entertaining live-shopping retailer out there,” Dunleavy explained.
“We are everywhere she wants to be,” the exec said. “We are really working to be everywhere we can entertain and engage our audience.”
