HSN’s Mobile Maneuver
Home Shopping Network is best known for its cable presence and for selling online through HSN.com, which accounts for 30% of its revenue. But in August the direct retailer opened a third-screen sales front, with a free app for the iPhone that lets shoppers watch, browse and buy from its 35,000-item inventory over their Apple smartphones.
And since video programming is such an integral part of HSN’s sales tactic, both on TV and on the Web site, the HSN Shop app also includes streaming video.
“We know our best customer loves to interact with the HSN brand,” says Brian Bradley, executive vice president and general manager of HSN.com and advanced services. “The easier and more frequent we can make that interaction, the better our relationship with her.“
HSN.com has not optimized its main Web site for access via mobile phone, so why go straight for the iPhone? “It felt like a natural starting point for us,” says Bradley — a combination of specific requests from consumers and a high regard for the ability of Apple’s iTunes App Store to promote and market such software.
The other reason for taking aim at iPhone first was the desire to offer live streaming video from the start. Deploying Inlet’s Spinnaker encoding on the Apple platform lets HSN.com stream with a minimum of buffering. The resulting viewing experience is remarkably TV-like.
HSN’s competitors have also reached out to mobile users. QVC offers an iPhone app, but it’s not free ($2.99) and features only items shown on the retailer’s UK channel. ShopNBC.com also offers a .mobi Web site with transactional ability. But Bradley says HSN’s app was developed not so much in reaction to those rivals but with an eye toward what customers would find useful and sticky.
For example, users can play with a “Shake2Shop” game that lets them jiggle the phone and generate random product recommendations, along with coupons and special offers — like the popular UrbanSpoon restaurant picker, but for dresses and jewelry.
“We’ve had multichannel games on our Web site and our TV channel for years now, and they’ve been extremely popular,” Bradley says. “People have been on the message boards all the time talking about how they enjoy the chance to win coupons. So we wanted a way to re-create that fun within the iPhone.”
Eventually, though, it comes down to serious shopping. The HSN Shop app lets users sort through items by designer, clearance promotions, most popular products, and those offering free shipping. And the company made sure to carry over some of its most popular TV and Web features by highlighting Today’s Special and letting viewers go back to find a clickable list of last items aired.
Users can buy either by going directly through the phone’s Web browser or by calling and speaking to a company operator. But shoppers who might have reservations about offering credit card information over mobile — still a new experience for most — can save items they’re interested in to a wish list, then go to the HSN.com Web site and pull up that list for purchase.
“Giving the customer options is important,” Bradley says. “Mobile commerce is so new that it’s best to offer whatever makes it easiest for them.”
— BRIAN QUINTON
