Meet the QVC fans who have kept the shopping network alive

Donna Braun discovered QVC when flipping through TV channels in the early 1990s. Her first purchase, made by phone call, was a throw blanket sold by former host Mary Beth Roe.

Through the years, Braun remained a regular customer of the West Chester-based home shopping network. She bought Bearpaw boots, Diamonique simulated-diamond jewelry, and Telco Motionette animated Christmas figurines, among other finds.

Now a retired school district worker with grown children and disposable income, Braun said she spends more than ever on QVC — about $200 a week.

But she no longer turns on the TV to shop. With a few taps on her iPad, she browses products, watches segments, and buys clothes, shoes, and home goods.

“Their quality is still great,” said Braun, 62, of Warwick Township, Bucks County. “As long as they’re around, I will shop.”

Like other QVC loyalists, Braun said she hopes the network’s recent financial struggles do not mark the beginning of its end.

QVC Group, which owns QVC and HSN, is considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to reorganize billions in debt, Bloomberg reported last month.

For years, the company’s revenue and operating income have been declining and customers have fled, according to recent earnings reports. As of September, about 7 million people had made a purchase on QVC or HSN in the past year, down from 8.1 million in 2023.

The company delayed the release of its latest earnings report, further fueling bankruptcy speculation among analysts.

» READ MORE: QVC may file for bankruptcy, according to a new report. Here’s what to know.

QVC has not commented on the report of a possible bankruptcy, but a spokesperson last week said the company plans to be around “for years to come.”

“We are so thankful to have one of the most loyal customer bases in retail,” spokesperson Matthew Goldstein said in a statement. “We love our QVC and HSN customers and are grateful for the opportunity to bring them new discoveries, inspiration and joy every day.”

But those faithful shoppers are aging: Nearly ¾ of QVC’s customers in 2024 were women over 50, according to an SEC filing.

QVC needs to expand its customer base to become profitable again, said Lawrence Duke, a clinical professor at Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business.

“They have to keep trying out different things to see what’s going to stick with that younger generation,” Duke said.

QVC has leaned more heavily on social-media and livestream shopping in recent years, even striking a deal to sell on TikTok Shop, which is popular with Gen Z and millennial consumers. In the third quarter of 2025, the company added about 255,000 new customers through TikTok Shop, CEO David L. Rawlinson II said in November on a company earnings call.

But QVC’s shop-from-home model, which was novel at its founding 40 years ago, isn’t a unique concept anymore, Duke noted, and it’s tough to compete with the likes of ecommerce giants like Amazon.

In a sign of just how much QVC’s customer base is aging, one refrain has been common in Facebook comments about the company’s struggles: “This is because my mother died.”

The grown children of late QVC fans have bonded over the joy the network brought their parents, usually their mothers — and over all the KitchenAid appliances, Susan Graver clothes, and Philosophy soaps they inherited.

“We were definitely in good company,” said Cindy Keleher, 54, of Warminster. She jokingly wrote on Facebook that QVC’s distress could be linked to the 2020 death of her mother, Charlotte Stillman, whose obituary referenced her love of QVC.

Stillman, a longtime Southampton resident, likely spent tens of thousands of dollars on QVC over her 79 years, her daughters said. When she died, they paid off a $5,000 balance on her QVC credit card; donated tons of unworn clothes, winter coats, and shoes; and sold or gifted bread makers, air fryers, and other kitchen appliances that had been used once at most, they said.

The women laugh often about their mom’s passion for QVC. “It made her happy to buy the stuff, that’s for sure,” Keleher said.

“I feel a little bit like it was such a waste,” said Stillman’s older daughter, Sharon Dugan, 60, of Southampton. But at the same time, “she was just happy to be sitting in her house, sometimes crocheting,” always watching QVC.

Meredith Zamboni, of York County, shared similar memories of her mother, Diane Zamboni, who died in 2019 at the age of 74. When she wasn’t actively watching QVC, it was often still on in the background, offering a kind of companionship.

“She knew everything about those hosts like they were her friends,” said Zamboni, 54, of Dillsburg. “They’d laugh and joke and tell stories. I think it made her feel less alone.”

And her mother bought the jewelry, clothing, and dolls her virtual friends were selling, Zamboni said. She has a tractor-trailer-sized storage unit full of her mother’s QVC purchases she plans to eventually sort out.

Some once-avid QVC customers have cut back on their spending.

Ten or 20 years ago, “I would be watching all darn day,” said Bea Spriddle, a 58-year-old analyst from Glenside. “I made so many purchases I didn’t even remember ordering things.”

As for how much she spent, “I couldn’t even tell you because it was that darn ‘easy pay’ that was killing me,” said Spriddle, referencing QVC’s monthly payment plan.

Now, Spriddle said she occasionally buys jewelry, electronics, and clothing from her favorite QVC brand, Peace Love World. Just the other day, she said, she bought a cell phone for her parents from QVC.

“I use it for certain things because I know they’re a trustworthy company,” Spriddle said. And in her experience, she said, you can actually get through to a human in the customer service department, unlike at some other companies nowadays: “Those chatbots are the pits.”

In Garnet Valley, Cindy Decker Gill said she has tuned into QVC every day for decades, but she only occasionally makes purchases, still by phone. Some of her recent purchases include Skechers sandals and Jimmy the Baker crumb cakes.

“If they go out of business, it will leave a void,” Gill said, noting she’d be especially saddened for the employees who would lose their jobs. The retired Pfizer administrative assistant said she worked at the QVC outlet store near Malvern in the 1990s, and more recently was a model for skincare brands sold on the networks.

If QVC Group files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, it could restructure its debt while continuing operations. Bankruptcy could lead to the company going out of business, said Duke, the Drexel professor, but not necessarily.

“It buys them time,” Duke said, to “adjust that business model, try different methods to be able to get more successful.”

“They have to make sure they use that time pretty wisely.”