QVC has been whacked by tariffs on Chinese goods and declining consumer sentiment

Call it a double whammy.

Not only are QVC’s customers feeling glum about the economy — they’re also tuning out the home-shopping network, changing the channel to keep up with President Donald Trump’s chaotic tariff rollout.

Neither of which is good for the West Chester-based network’s parent company. QVC Group Inc. this week reported a 10% decline in revenue over the prior year for the quarter that ended March 31 as it continued to lose traditional TV customers.

Facing challenges on several fronts, QVC said it hoped to significantly reduce its reliance on goods sourced from China, which account for about 50% of the company’s product costs — down from 55% five years ago but still vulnerable to Trump’s current 145% minimum tariffs on that country.

“Given the inherent uncertainty in ongoing trade negotiations, it is difficult for us to quantify the potential impact of tariffs at this time,” president and CEO David Rawlinson said on a call with analysts Wednesday. “This is a challenging and very fluid situation, but we are taking broadscale action to manage the impact.”

Here are three things to know about how QVC is trying to cut costs and get shoppers back — including its new deal with TikTok.

Rawlinson said he’s moving to diversify QVC’s supply chain, and that the company has canceled contracts with vendors in China. “We are targeting our sourcing mix so that no single country is worth more than one-third of our sourced goods by the end of the year,” he said, according to a transcript of the call.

Trump on Friday suggested he might reduce tariffs on Chinese goods to 80%. Imports from other countries face a minimum 10% tax under the so-called Liberation Day policy Trump unveiled last month. The president proposed — and then paused — steeper tariffs on other countries, as his administration seeks to negotiate new trade deals.

The on-again-off-again trade policy and market turmoil have sent consumer confidence plunging in recent months, according to closely watched surveys by the University of Michigan, as Americans anticipate higher inflation. The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady this week, saying sustained tariffs will likely increase inflation and slow economic growth.

QVC’s problems predate the trade war — traditional TV services have been losing customers for years as consumers ditched cable and turned to streaming and social media. In the last couple years the company launched QVC and its smaller HSN channel on streaming platforms such as Roku.

Company executives last year announced a plan to create “the world’s leading live social shopping content engine,” delivering programming on TikTok and other platforms — “wherever she shops.”

On Wednesday, Rawlinson described QVC’s agreement with TikTok as “the first 24-7 live shopping experience in the U.S.” He said combined minutes watched on streaming and social platforms were up 26% over last year. The number of people using streaming to watch QVC each month grew 131%, Rawlinson said.

Yet even the pivot to social media carries risk — a federal law enacted last year ordered TikTok’s Chinese parent company to sell the platform or face a U.S. ban. Trump has granted the company more time to find a buyer.

QVC Group in March said it was closing HSN’s studio in St. Petersburg, Fla., and moving its headquarters to West Chester alongside QVC. The parent company said it was laying off 900 employees as part of the reorganization, or about 5% of its workforce.

The change was “necessary to improve our cost structure,” Rawlinson said Wednesday.