Oura to sell on QVC in the brand’s first live shopping experiment
Oura, a popular fitness and health-tracking wearable, is making its QVC debut today in an experiment with live shopping.
Doug Sweeny, CMO at Oura, told Modern Retail that the company has been talking to QVC for about two years since a meeting at CES. But starting now made sense as the brand looks to gain awareness in middle America and with female shoppers.
“As Oura has matured and grown as a brand and we’ve expanded our retail presence, we felt like now was the right time to do this,” he said. “This is sort of a first experience for us where we’re getting outside of traditional shopping, like a Target or a Best Buy or Amazon, and going into a full storytelling and educational experience.”
As live shopping gains momentum in virtual spaces thanks to the likes of TikTok and Whatnot, It’s yet to command sales the same way it has with shoppers in China. The channel is expected to compose about 5% of e-commerce by 2026, per Coresight Research. But QVC, which sells online as well as on its own television channel and on TikTok, is in the midst of a three-year turnaround plan that it started last fall. Parent company QVC Group showed at its latest earnings report that 2024 annual revenue was down 5% year-over-year and operated at a $809 million loss. It counted about 7.6 million customers, as of December 2024.
Sweeny said that while the brand has a healthy TikTok presence and invested in paid advertising there, QVC’s mostly female audience is a target market for Oura. While it often gets associated with tracking for sleep or fitness purposes, Oura can also be used to track menstrual cycles and measure stress levels.
“The QVC format naturally works well with Oura and where we are today in presenting a more holistic health solution, versus thinking about the TikTok format, which is shorter snips and clips,” Sweeny said. “It’s not as deep and robust as we can do on QVC.”
Andrew Thompson, vp at tech platform Agora, said the medium is becoming more popular with older demographics; it’s worth noting that Agora offers interactive live streaming capabilities, among its other products. And QVC, he said, still has strong engagement. “A live shopping spot with QVC is a big opportunity. It’s not only about moving units; it’s about connecting with a massive audience in real-time,” he told Modern Retail.
But being successful in the live format requires hosts who get the product, and know how to connect its value to viewers while being interactive and engaging, Thompson said. “Think: Q&As, limited-time offers, even bringing audience members ‘onstage,'” he said, regarding the ways hosts engage.
Sweeny from Oura said part of locking in the QVC deal came down to securing the host, Sarah Cotellesse, who has been an organic Oura user for the past two years and on-air talent at QVC for more than 20.
The partnership also required coming up with the right deal and delivery strategy for QVC shoppers. The ring, which starts at $349, will come with an extra charger, and a sizing kit will be sent to the buyer before their order is shipped. The segment airs every half hour on April 3 and will include all of the ring finishes in sizes four through 15. As the “Today’s Special Value,” it will also be available online.
Oura has told more than 2.5 million rings since launching in 2013 in Finland, and it has doubled the number of members in its paid app network in the past year. The company told Bloomberg toward the end of last year that it was projecting to do roughly $500 million in sales in 2024.
In recent years, it has expanded into retail partnerships with Best Buy, Amazon and Target in the U.S. The company most recently raised a $200 million Series D in December.
But Sweeny said the company still has relatively low awareness in the United States. It sees a moment to grow its user base within the overall consumer focus on health and wellness and to expand its abilities in response.
“We’re very much aligned for where consumers are going today, which is: being the quarterback of your own health and owning those things. An Oura allows you to do that,” he said.
Sweeny said the QVC segments so far are only officially scheduled for April 3, but that Oura would potentially do more based on sales and engagement.
“We’re dipping our foot into a new pool here and trying a different format and seeing how it works,” he said. “Generally, they do offer something different than the other retailers do, in terms of their format, their demographics and who they’re selling to.”