Last week we wrote about rDeals from Rogers shutting down. It has since done just that. We since had a little email exchange with Jason Tafler, Rogers Media’s' Chief Digital Officer. During our exchange he wrote about something that he is absolutely right about and I wanted to share it with the industry.
He, of course, mentioned why rDeales was shutting down and why Rogers is STILL in the deals business….and always has been. Jason continued to mention that Rogers will continue to run deals on products for Canadians through………… The Shopping Channel.
The Shopping Channel???!! Yes,The Shopping Channel. It makes complete sense, and he is absolutely right on. Who better to promote deals that the Shopping Channel, a service that has promoted deals before “deals” or Flash sales were even popular.
Now, the media, the deals industry, the hype around the deals industry has not given the Shopping Channel any respect with the growth of the deals industry over past few years. Yes, it is The Shopping Channel that has had what they call “Show Stoppers” and deals of the day for over a decade….. yet the media has hardly given them the time of day in terms of promoting their brand within the industry. Us included. The reason? Perhaps it is because they are not a pure play deals service like Beyond the Rack or Groupon like service. Instead incorporating deals (show stoppers) into their eCommerce mix. Regardless of the reason, it was an oversight to keep TSC off the so called deals promotional tour. The Shopping channel sells more from deals, clearance and show stoppers than most deal and flash sales providers.
Given the fact that most flash sales services like Beyond the Rack, Gilt or other are slowly migrating to a non deals based eCommerce service into an online shopping destination, and that daily deal providers like Groupon, Teambuy, Wagjag and others are also counting product sales as becoming a large part of their revenue mix, well, then the difference between what we know as Flash sales, daily deals and general eCommerce will be very blurry in a couple of years time. Eventually, what will be the difference among these? Overstock.com, Gilt, Beyond the Rack, Product only Daily Deals and The Shopping Channel…. They will ALL be online shopping destination portals for products and great prices. There will not be a distinction of Flash sales, daily deals, etc. They will simply be online portals for great offers. How about Local Offers like Teambuy, Groupon, etc? These services will also become shopping destinations for online products & offers, but will have an edge in providing local offers. The key word in both scenarios is “destination”. Local Offer sites and even Flash sales sites are working hard to mature into a place where consumers go to shop regularly as opposed to where consumers are emailed an offer and convinced to go check out that one specific offer. The Shopping Channel has already achieved that distinction long ago.
If consumers want great deals on products, then head on over to The Shopping Channels Show Stoppers area or their Clearance area and you will find that their products are far better quality than those typically found on your friendly neighborhood deals service.
We have gone ahead and added The Shopping Channel to the very popular Deals Ecosystem Slide.
Here are some fun facts about The Shopping Channel
- Presents more than 800 products each week
- In 2011, shipped 4 million items
- Broadcasts live 18 hours per day, 364 days per year; produces 6,552 hours of live TV per year
- The distribution centre sends an average of 16,000 packages daily
- Receives up to 10,000 emails/phone calls daily from customers
- theShoppingChannel.com launched in 1999
- In 2011, achieved sales of more than $100 million
- Attracts nearly 1 million unique visitors per month
- More than 200,000 videos viewed per month
- Is the only retailer in Canada to live stream two screens – television and online
- Reaches 8.5 million Canadian households
- Is Canada’s only nationally-televised 24-hour shop-at-home service