Qurate Retail Group Launches Sune, a Video App Aimed at Young Customers
Sune, an experiential shopping platform backed by Qurate Retail Group, has launched a beta mobile app aimed at younger consumers.
Designed to integrate video entertainment with traditional online and in-app shopping, Sune looks to offer consumers an engaging and productive way to browse and shop. Consumers can purchase products directly within their feed and tune into their favorite influencers and content creators to explore everything from cult favorites to exclusive limited-edition items.
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Brian Beitler, founder of Sune and and general manager of Live Shop Venture LLC, said 70 brands are already on the platform, 160 brands are signed up to launch and they are in conversations with 600 brands. “The interest has been remarkable,” he said.
The current storefronts that are offered within the app include Multitasky, Little Words Project, Doviana, HiBar, Shapes Studio, Bundle x Joy, m2U and Eleventh Hour.
Sune will offer a rotating calendar of live product drops, relatable personalities and undiscovered brands. The app looks to reach younger consumers between 18 and 29 years old, who are digitally native consumers, and their primary mode of discovery is social media. The launch is aimed at women, but the company sees the opportunity for everyone over time, Beitler said.
“We recognize the power of video and video-driven commerce,” Beitler said in a telephone interview. “We have a very strong and loyal customer base in the [older than] 50 segment who loves our linear programming. We’re expanding what we do with QVC and HSN into the streaming channel, onto apps. Where else can Qurate take its expertise into the marketplace given the momentum around live and live streaming?” he said.
The strategy is to take Qurate’s expertise and understanding about how to take great stories about founders and brands and tell them to a different audience in different formats. “Imagine a new way to shop in the video commerce space,” he said.
Beitler said there’s so much happening internationally, especially in China, where livestreaming has become a huge part of the ecosystem, and start-ups have been aiming to be the next QVC. “While we’re excited for a lot of people to play in the space, we have a unique understanding that if we can figure out how to deploy that here, we can do something pretty special in the space,” Beitler said.
Sune is signing up brands that are young and undiscovered across such categories as apparel, accessories, shoes, jewelry, pets, home and novelty. The brands can be women-led or minority-led or focused on sustainability.
He said that for the young audience, their primary mode of discovery is social media content and YouTube and TikTok. “How do we take video discovery of product to the next level?” he said.
“Why isn’t there a place where shopping is the core of the entertainment? People love to pass time by shopping. How do we build for young people that destination?” He said 20 years ago that place was the mall, and Sune’s strategy is to give young people the window shopping experience in a short form. If people are standing in line at Starbucks or sitting on their couch, they can open the app to go shopping. “Maybe they buy something, or maybe they don’t, but you can discover new products, you can meet inspiring new brands, and inspiring new founders,” he said.
“We know that e-commerce has made buying incredibly convenient, but they’ve lost the joy of shopping and serendipitous discovery of something new,” he said. “Let’s give the consumer that in the way they love to discover. Let’s do it with brands that are worth discovering.”
He said most of the brands — which are small, under-discovered makers — are new to the QRG family. He said he plans to reach this younger audience by advertising on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, which he said “are relevant to them.”
Users can scroll through the app and click on the brand to enter a mini-store. Then, shoppers can see the rest of the offering the brand put on the platform. Some brands may only have a couple of items, and some have 20 to 30 items on the Sune platform. “They’ll continue to grow over time as more brands come on board and we develop more content for each of the brands. Our goal is to give a video story behind every [stock keeping unit],” he said.
The Sune team, which is based in New York, creates the content today, featuring their creator talent, which they call “Sunesetters.” As the business continues to grow and scale, brands will be able to create and publish their own content for the platform using a proprietary suite of Sune tools on their seller platform.
As a Sune seller, brands can manage their assortment, inventory, pricing and shipping costs and maintain full control over their storefronts. Sellers handle their own fulfillment through e-commerce platforms Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento or Square Space. “We’re seamlessly transacting through their platforms,” Beitler said. The merchandise will come in the brand’s packaging. “We want to be the place for them to come to meet these brands, but we also want the brands that we’re supporting to be able to make strong connections as well,” he said.
Retail prices range from $20 to $100. “It’s affordable, but full price. We’re not trying to chase the luxury brands. We’re trying to give the consumers core and unique and quality, but affordable,” Beitler said.
The app launched in beta a few weeks ago. “The feedback and response through all the test has been very favorable,” he said. The app is available for iPhone users and can be downloaded via the Apple Store for free.
There’s a quiz to help the user get started. “Over time, we’ll adjust your feed and your personalization based on your behavior. The best way for us to learn is to see what you’re engaging with from viewership or buying to tailor the experience,” Beitler said.
It is a revenue sharing business model, and Beitler declined to divulge the percentage that Sune receives.
“Our intent is to build the personalization algorithm, which tells us what you like to see. On occasion we may put something in front of you serendipitously that you might not have thought you were interested in, but when you see it you say, ‘This is really compelling,'” he said. “Our goal is to build an algorithm that caters to your taste and inspires you,” he said.
He said the business fosters relationships with the brands before it brings them onboard to make sure they can meet the delivery promises as a brand. Part of the promise “is to bring amazing video content to the brands, and introduce new brands each day,” he said.
Every brand will have some livestream and post-live video. “If you click, you’ll see an upcoming live schedule. They can come on live, and they create short-form video content to be lowered into the platform each day,” he said.
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