With four operators airing nine TV shopping channels nationwide, firms are grappling with the intensified competition by finding new ways to drive revenue.
Eastern Home Shopping & Leisure Co (EHS, 東森得易購), Taiwan’s largest TV shopping channel, yesterday said it is aiming for NT$20 billion (US$694 million) in sales this year on new products and services.
The company, which made NT$17 billion last year and NT$26 billion in 2008, is banking on a slew of aggressive promotional campaigns in the second half of the year, EHS assistant channel marketing manager Annis Lee (李文晴) told a media gathering.
A number of plans have been outlined to boost receipts.
These include working with TV shopping channel operators across the Strait to launch travel packages under the new Free Independent Travelers (FIT) scheme, which came into effect on June 28.
EHS plans to team up with its peers in Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen — where residents are permitted to travel to Taiwan as individual travelers — to promote special packages offered by its affiliate Sun Plaza Travel Service Co (東旭旅行社).
“These packages are priced at the mid to higher end and the plan will run as long as at least two guests sign up,” Lee said. “We won’t rush tourists into traveling around Taiwan for only five days or less. Instead, we focus on, say, northern Taiwan for an in-depth visit.”
Those packages will be priced at between 3,000 yuan (US$464) and 4,000 yuan.
Over the past two years, the company has seen a spike in business for travel packages and big-ticket home appliances, including LCD TVs, in addition to the three most popular products: cosmetics, health supplements and jewelry, Lee said.
EHS, which derives 80 percent of its revenue from TV shopping, is also diversifying into other platforms to boost sales.
These include catalogues, Internet portals, smartphones and multimedia-on-demand — an Internet TV service run by Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信).
The nation’s second-largest TV shopping operator, Fubon Multimedia Technology Co (富邦媒體科技), is planning to air its MoMo TV shopping channel in China via a partnership with a Chinese firm.
Richard Tsai (蔡明興), chairman of Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), which owns Fubon Multimedia, last month said its TV shopping business was poised for a commercial launch in Beijing in the third quarter this year.
Over the long run, it hopes to roll out the channel in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Nanjing.
MoMo TV has recently been acquired by Taiwan Mobile for NT$8.35 billion. Taiwan Mobile now has a 51 percent stake in Fubon Multimedia.
Fubon Multimedia made NT$14.8 billion last year, with the bulk, or 53 percent, coming from its TV shopping business.
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