Random musings and general banter.

ShoppingTelly

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We managed well enough before shopping telly became a thing over here. I get that there's a lot more technology that simply wasn't there back in the day so seeing a demonstration is more necessary, but as Duke said the less savvy oldies/technophobes are dwindling and will eventually erode the need for it. Even now the more savvy "oldie" will use the shopping channels for the demos and ideas then buy elsewhere 'cause it's cheaper! The new generation of shoppers especially when it come to tech would sooner go into a niche shop and get advice from there or go on line. They're not interested in presenter chit chat, waiting to hear what the BA has to say, or even waiting for the show to start. Fashion wise, younger generations want "labels" and that doesn't mean Marla Wynne or Nylon & Co so nothing for them here.
Gaming plays an absolutely massive part in the lives of the younger generations, but has zero presence in the world of selly telly, so in all not a lot to draw them in, let alone keep them there.
They might just manage to hang on in there until the boomers reach their dotage, but on the whole it's not looking good for TV home shopping.
Well I think one point you're making is that IW in particular wasn't very good at selling on shopping tv!

Not very slick. Too much waffle, BS, and fake bonhomie!

Whereas a decent demo, for example the food slicer prep stuff, where he chops, slices onion, cucumber, actually shows how it works, what force is needed.

Or the ceramic heaters shows, where Voldemoort would use the temperature gun. (One of my peeves, when the temp rises a few minutes after power turned off. Ceramic stores the heat, releases a bit later. It's not FREE ENERGY! You still paid for the electricity to go in earlier. At peak rate. It just released it a couple of minutes later. No more efficient, no saving compared to a heater. Still costs the same to heat a room by 1degree,just depends on the efficiency of the heater converting electric to heat output and air interface!!!!)

Less waffle, more demo.
Or vacuums, where you can see the power, size, flexibility, noise, of an item.

More than looking on a website. For instance, Currys site is awful, imho, with poor item descriptions & specs and awful, long-winded, often unhelpful q&a sections.

I like a good infomercial and so I'm saying that shopping tv presentation style should have been more demo and info, than all this smarmy innuendo and fake, family fun it purported to offer!

But then it wouldn't have been the comedy entertainment for consumption that this forum/thread has flourished on! 😄
 
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The thing is, whether selly telly demos are or aren't better in the main when compared to static website info, the one thing they can never accommodate is a genuinely broad choice of products. So if for example you're in the market for a new vacuum cleaner, I reckon consumers are better served by looking at a major retailer website e.g. Currys (that might have a short demo video for some products) coupled with watching YouTube demonstrations if available and make a decision based on that. If it so happens one of the makes/models you're considering is demo'd by a selly telly channel fine, they might even have a better deal in some cases. However they simply don't and can't have the pull of Amazon etc in terms of choice. Remember their attempt at it, Marketplace or whatever it was called. There's simply no point trying to break into that segment given the sheer dominance of others.

I agree with others and have made the same point myself in the past. I very much doubt selly telly, certainly as we know it today, can survive. I'm not convinced younger generations, brought up with the likes of Amazon, will ever morph into the next generation of selly telly customers.
 
Shop extra are just making the same mistake as IW by employing the waffle and bs merchants,all of them are old enough to know better.
Maybe they will change but I doubt it,so it will be interesting to see if IW2 takes off,because that’s what it really is in all but name.
Also I wonder which one if any of them will do the b*** sh** introduction to the new channel buyer’s beware 🤣
 
The thing is, whether selly telly demos are or aren't better in the main when compared to static website info, the one thing they can never accommodate is a genuinely broad choice of products. So if for example you're in the market for a new vacuum cleaner, I reckon consumers are better served by looking at a major retailer website e.g. Currys (that might have a short demo video for some products) coupled with watching YouTube demonstrations if available and make a decision based on that. If it so happens one of the makes/models you're considering is demo'd by a selly telly channel fine, they might even have a better deal in some cases. However they simply don't and can't have the pull of Amazon etc in terms of choice. Remember their attempt at it, Marketplace or whatever it was called. There's simply no point trying to break into that segment given the sheer dominance of others.

I agree with others and have made the same point myself in the past. I very much doubt selly telly, certainly as we know it today, can survive. I'm not convinced younger generations, brought up with the likes of Amazon, will ever morph into the next generation of selly telly customers.
I'm sure you're right that many millennials will/do buy online and won't watch TV shopping slots. Whether it's a declining market long-term, well, people get older and a captive TV audience may always exist to be marketed-to with the right items. Always a gap for an impulse purchase.

The point of shopping TV is it is a niche that has to find the right consumer market and have the right products to appeal to the correct segments of the market. At the right price.

So if you have a good product, at a good price that appeals to enough people, then there should be a sufficient gap in the market.

Easier said than done, especially if you have to cover the additional costs of TV beyond the usual website/business admin costs.

Probably why beauty, craft, style products do better. Impulse fun, beauty pamper lifestyle stuff where you see it and get it, rather than researching 20 types of vacuum cleaners versus the one model they have.

But if it's a decent vacuum cleaner, at a bargain price, and you need one and the demo shows it fulfils all your requirements and they have bought in bulk so can sell at a good price then that might fit the bill for good sales too, if it meets enough viewers' requirements.

It does make me think that if they broadcast interactively on YouTube and enabled the Live Chat feature where viewers could ask questions quickly and get real answers, then interactive live TV shopping could be the future!
 
The thing is, whether selly telly demos are or aren't better in the main when compared to static website info, the one thing they can never accommodate is a genuinely broad choice of products. So if for example you're in the market for a new vacuum cleaner, I reckon consumers are better served by looking at a major retailer website e.g. Currys (that might have a short demo video for some products) coupled with watching YouTube demonstrations if available and make a decision based on that. If it so happens one of the makes/models you're considering is demo'd by a selly telly channel fine, they might even have a better deal in some cases. However they simply don't and can't have the pull of Amazon etc in terms of choice. Remember their attempt at it, Marketplace or whatever it was called. There's simply no point trying to break into that segment given the sheer dominance of others.

I agree with others and have made the same point myself in the past. I very much doubt selly telly, certainly as we know it today, can survive. I'm not convinced younger generations, brought up with the likes of Amazon, will ever morph into the next generation of selly telly customers.
There are YouTube tutorial videos for everything. When I was researching what coffee machine to buy 3 years ago I decided on a Tassimo. A review on Amazon said its great but there's no instructions but look on YouTube. So simple and really easy to follow. I've looked up lots of things like this, they make life a lot easier.
 
What are your theories on why the blue banner "temporarily suspended" is still being broadcast on IW Freeview channel?
 
What are your theories on why the blue banner "temporarily suspended" is still being broadcast on IW Freeview channel?

I'm assuming it still counted as an IW asset and will remain that way till the administrator sorts everything out, probably be sold off eventually to pay creditors due money.
 
Create and Craft website is the same they say 3 to 5 working days, after bank clearance, doesnt that happen straight away

Ideally If you say order before 8pm, you should get next day

I've noticed with some retailers, although they accept your payment on their website (or even at the till in a shop) and say it's cleared etc, they sometimes don't process the money from your bank for a few days, while others the money is off your account almost instantly.
 
There has been little incentive to improve the process of ordering with shopping channels in general. They react to their market. Their market, I imagine, is well over 50, formative years decades before the internet was a commercial entity. Used to catalogue deliveries taking weeks to arrive with no way of checking. Avoids banking apps where possible. More comfortable ordering on the phone. Okay, I’m generalising, but I don’t think I’m far from the truth. An audience ready to be told any old rubbish if you are so inclined to be that way. You saw how Ideal World sold at times to see how attractive and easy it is to provide factless selling techniques to try to get a sale. Watches named after defunct retailers you have fond nostalgic memories of to cheer up a dull modern day….and so on…Child like interface phones to get your hapless old mum to use one and sold in a deeply patronising way to their sixty something daughters..Modern Day Online Order Management? Why introduce such a costly thing with enhanced logistics and updates, plus website delivery control options, when most of your customers ring up to buy and check, are suspicious of technology, happy to wait to get their goods when you want to send them, and think a two hour timeframe is something you put your carriage clock in??
 
There has been little incentive to improve the process of ordering with shopping channels in general. They react to their market. Their market, I imagine, is well over 50, formative years decades before the internet was a commercial entity. Used to catalogue deliveries taking weeks to arrive with no way of checking. Avoids banking apps where possible. More comfortable ordering on the phone. Okay, I’m generalising, but I don’t think I’m far from the truth. An audience ready to be told any old rubbish if you are so inclined to be that way. You saw how Ideal World sold at times to see how attractive and easy it is to provide factless selling techniques to try to get a sale. Watches named after defunct retailers you have fond nostalgic memories of to cheer up a dull modern day….and so on…Child like interface phones to get your hapless old mum to use one and sold in a deeply patronising way to their sixty something daughters..Modern Day Online Order Management? Why introduce such a costly thing with enhanced logistics and updates, plus website delivery control options, when most of your customers ring up to buy and check, are suspicious of technology, happy to wait to get their goods when you want to send them, and think a two hour timeframe is something you put your carriage clock in??
I’m guessing most of us are in that catagory your talking about, being a kid, looking through the Argos Catalogue to find the toy you wanted,
 
I have got an old Argos catalogue from 1980 but I can't find that one at the moment. Here is a toys and games shot from my 1977 Grattan Catalogue. These things are actually one of the finest photographic and written records of British social history over the last 50 or 60 years or so. You learn so much just by browsing through them about how we lived our lives back in the 1970s and 1980s. What was important to us to try to make our lives better. They also aren't cheap to buy now, with this catalogue costing me over £100. It's not on typical now for catalogues from that era to fetch £200 to £300 pounds plus. Makes you wish mum had never thrown them away!
PXL_20230815_091727868.jpg
 
I have got an old Argos catalogue from 1980 but I can't find that one at the moment. Here is a toys and games shot from my 1977 Grattan Catalogue. These things are actually one of the finest photographic and written records of British social history over the last 50 or 60 years or so. You learn so much just by browsing through them about how we lived our lives back in the 1970s and 1980s. What was important to us to try to make our lives better. They also aren't cheap to buy now, with this catalogue costing me over £100. It's not on typical now for catalogues from that era to fetch £200 to £300 pounds plus. Makes you wish mum had never thrown them away!View attachment 26294
When Argos first opened, and were advertising that they were the cheapesr retailer, I bought a cig lighter (even though I didn't smoke) because it was brand-new technology piezo/gas. and not not flint/petrol.

I then found exactly the same model cheaper in another local shop so bought it there instead and returned the Argos one, telling them it was cheaper elsewhere on the "reason for return" form.

That would have been about 1973.
 

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