Dive Brief:
- QVC is elevating long-time shopping network employee Todd Sprinkle to CIO from his current post as vice president of IT planning, strategy and effectiveness. He will a move into a job to be left open at the end of this year when current CIO Linda Dillman retires.
- Sprinkle led the earlier development of QVC's iPad app, and will now focus on further developing the company's multi-platform strategy, which last year grew to encompass online flash sale site Zulily.
- Sprinkle has been with QVC for almost 10 years, but previously worked in retail in IT application development for Macy's. He also worked for 12 years at Turner Broadcasting, where he was vice president of network operations, and served in several other roles.
Dive Insight:
Sprinkle's promotion to CIO comes less than a month after QVC celebrated its 30th anniversary, and as the home shopping network once known as an upstart rival to the original Home Shopping Network has advanced well beyond its TV roots. QVC last year reportedly saw 51% of its revenue from the U.S. market come from e-commerce, and about half of its e-commerce orders were via mobile.
QVC also last month launched Beauty iQ, a multi-platform — as in TV, web, mobile and social media — beauty network. Sprinkle may have helped lend QVC a new dimension in leading development of its iPad app, but Beauty iQ alone presents a multi-layered IT challenge to manage, and if its model represents the future of QVC, Sprinkle and his group are going to be very busy in the years to come.
On top of all this, QVC has been progressively pushing into greater use of analytics since last year. HSN reportedly has been more aggressive using consumer and market data to drive sales growth, and to make analytics effective at QVC, IT will need to work hand-in-hand with the company's analytics group.
New market realities, new ventures and large e-commerce acquisitions like Zulily create a lot to do and manage on the IT front, though it does sound like QVC will have a CIO who not only gets the brand and has broader retail experience, but also understands all that the term "multi-platform" entails.
