The Television Network That Conquered A Whole New Screen 🛍️ (HBBIP #152)

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While it’s still technically summer—check your farmer’s almanac if you don’t believe me!—it’s also probably time for me to find a new opening gimmick, rather than the ‘end of summer’ conceit I’ve been using for the past few editions of the newsletter.

So how about this? Today, I’m going to give you some insights into the original influencers. Long before we had supercomputers in our pockets, or even decent computers on top of our desks, this brand was responsible for product reviews, user testimonials, and giving customers items that they definitely, for sure, 100% needed.

The Top Brand of All Time (of the Week): QVC

Don’t act like you’re not above a little home shopping, my friends. I’ve written before about HomeGoods’ social media popularity, but let’s give all due respect to the OG—who, as it turns out, can still learn a few new tricks.

Founded in 1986 and still going strong 40 years later, the world’s foremost home shopping channel currently broadcasts to more than 350 million grateful households across seven countries, all of which adds up to more than $10 billion in annual revenue. That’s why I’m asking QVC to please send me a blender: don’t tell me anyone will notice if it falls off the back of the truck.

When they’re not being pleaded with by newsletter writers, QVC continues to conduct a robust commercial trade on the medium screen. But we’re in a small-screen world now, and creators are the new hosts. All of which begs the question:

How Is QVC Performing on Social Media?

QVC Creator Count, 2020 - 2025

QVC grew from 4.1k creators in 2020 to 7.9k creators in 2025, good for a 1.9x increase over six years. So, so close to doubling! You’ll get em next year, champ.

In what will soon become a running theme for QVC, the brand actually experienced a whole lot more declining than the typical HBBIP spotlightee. From 2020 to 2022, QVC’s community contracted each year, and barely rebounded in 2023. However, after a healthy growth in 2024 and a dramatic surge in 2025, QVC is fully back on track.

QVC Post Count, 2020 - 2025

Now this is something you don’t see every Monday in your inbox—in fact, it might just be unprecedented: four consecutive years of declines. While QVC’s post count overall spiked from 52.5k posts in 2020 to 106.4k posts in 2025, achieving the doubling-up that creator count just missed, it was an unconventional path to get there. That dramatic expansion in 2025, which saw post count more than double in a single year, suggests a brand that’s found its groove.

QVC EMV, 2020 - 2025

When it came to Earned Media Value (EMV), a metric that gauges the virality and impact of individual content in social media conversations, QVC saw its haul increase from $61.4M in 2020 to $190.6M in 2025, a 3.1x growth. As with other metrics, EMV fluctuated within a relatively narrow band from 2020 to 2024 before spiking significantly in 2025.

                                                                                                   QVC Impressions, 2020 - 2025

Impressions saw a similarly topsy-turvy path, but ultimately expanded from 358M in 2020 to 1.4B in 2025, a 3.9x increase. Unlike the previous metrics, impressions began to recover as quickly as 2022, though it too jumped up a notch in 2025, reaching another level.

QVC Engagements, 2020 - 2025

But here, with engagements, we see yet another something that we don’t see every day. Not only are we looking at a fairly narrow set of fluctuations, we’re also looking at a decline from 2020 to 2025. Alas, it’s true: engagements dropped from 20.1M in 2020 to 18.7M in 2025, a total that proved approximately 0.93x of its 2020 level.

We’re used to seeing discrepancies between impressions and engagements, but nothing like this. Let’s search for an explanation.

What's QVC's Channel Breakdown?

QVC's Share of Impressions by Platform, August 2025 - July 2026

Instagram is Expedia's largest source of audience reach, generating roughly half of the brand’s impressions from August 2025 to July 2026. TikTok contributed approximately one-third of total visibility, while YouTube provided some additional scale. Notably, Expedia is growing across all these channels YoY, demonstrating that a channel mix is an effective strategy for the brand.

QVC's Share of Engagements by Platform, August 2025 - July 2026

It’s a much closer call when it comes to engagements. While TikTok remains the leading platform, Instagram contributes 40% of the total. That said, Instagram engagements declined YoY, while TikTok engagements increased, underscoring that TikTok has been the primary platform behind QVC’s recent momentum.

Who Are QVC's Creators?

1. TikTok Shop Is the Name of the Game

As you might have been able to guess from the platform-level data, QVC's signature creator strategy over the past few years, and the brand’s signature source of growth, has been an aggressive expansion into TikTok Shop. This initiative has effectively created a new, fast-growing earned media channel alongside the legacy television network. Among QVC’s top 1k posts by EMV from August 2025 to July 2026, 84% of total EMV comes from TikTok, equating to 821 of those top posts.

The TikTok Shop launch itself was a distinct activation moment, reflected by a wave of creators explicitly announcing QVC's arrival on the platform. For example, @hannnnahadams drove the No. 4 post on the leaderboard ($199k EMV) with the caption "QVC has officially entered my TikTok and I'm not mad about it! @QVC, Inc #ad #QVConTikTokShop." This sentiment was echoed by creators like Selah Victor ($189k EMV) and Ivana Cook ($176k EMV), who authored posts that functioned as a coordinated launch announcement playfully acknowledging the cultural distance between QVC's legacy TV audience and a new TikTok-centric generation.

Beyond the launch moment, QVC has seeded TikTok Shop with an active cohort of mid-tier creators who post at high frequency with plenty of product-tagging. The platform's Black Friday/Cyber Monday push generated a concentrated burst of content with hashtags like #QVCSuperBrandDay, #tiktokshopblackfriday, and #tiktokshopcybermonday across dozens of creators simultaneously.

2. "Everyday Value" Creators Are the New Celebrities

In assessing social media content about QVC, an interesting dichotomy emerges between the brand’s traditional hosts and its new cohort of digital-first creators. Compared to official QVC partners, those creators are growing faster and posting more frequently, and producing many signature moments.

One of QVC’s biggest fans was jordenrenee08 ($4.3M EMV), whose product review content ran from leather loafers to hot dog toasters. Scoff all you want, but that hot dog toaster content was something of a viral moment for QVC, with the novelty kitchen appliance becoming a staple of white elephant gift exchanges among the brand’s fans. Posts from creators like be.lush ($2.5M EMV) and i_am_sarahtonin ($2.4M EMV) followed similar formats, with similar signifiers: seasonal home décor, Peanuts/Snoopy blankets, holiday bags, Shark vacuums.

In addition to favorite brands, this value-focused product review content tended to share similar themes: a personal testimonial framing, a specific product name and price callout, a TikTok Shop tag, and a lifestyle hook that makes the product feel essential, rather than frivolous. Skechers, Le Creuset, Clarks, Berkshire wearable throws, Lock n Lock, Kringle Express holiday bags, and Bose speakers recurred as anchor products across this creator class, suggesting that QVC's curation team successfully identified a core catalog of items that perform strongly on TikTok.

3. Shawn Killinger Remains QVC's Community Glue

QVC host Shawn Killinger ($1.1M EMV) claimed the brand’s No. 1 post by EMV across its entire leaderboard ($361k EMV on Facebook), featuring an emotional, relationship-first moment that just so happened to carry QVC's brand. Throughout her social content, it quickly became clear that Killinger's community role is a bit different from other QVC hosts: she serves as the brand's emotional center, a host whose off-air persona is as reliable as any on-air product presentation. Fellow host Mally Roncal ($1.5M EMV) reinforces this dynamic, describing her show with Killinger as "Mally Fashion Hour with my bestie @shawnkillingerqvc," underscoring the central role that QVC personalities play in promoting the channel on a new platform.

Oh, and just to throw one last curveball at you: Coldplay! That’s right—your aunt’s favorite band collaborated with your aunt’s favorite TV channel, driving $836k EMV across three posts related to a merchandise/branded product drop. So it’s not all just TikTok Shop and existing QVC hosts: sometimes a few surprising faces like to get in on the fun too.

*All data, unless otherwise specified, stems from CreatorIQ's public-facing brand leaderboards. We will never share performance metrics from a customer's CreatorIQ profile, or any brand's private information.

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