HSN has launched a new format for the holiday season, called “HSN Holiday Helpers,” featuring four celebrities and brand founders providing shoppers with gift ideas and different perspectives on the season.
The helpers are comedian, actress and television host Michelle Buteau; Dr. Paul Nassif, a renowned facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon; legendary model, actress and entrepreneur Christie Brinkley, and Curtis Stone, the celebrity chef and restaurateur. Buteau is new to HSN but the other three all have histories appearing on HSN.
Recruiting helpers is a wise strategy for the multiplatform HSN, which, in particular, needs a lift for holiday in the wake of the massive downsizing and relocation in 2025 from St. Petersburg, Fla., to West Chester, Pa., where HSN’s parent QVC Group is based, and QVC’s emergence from a four-month bankruptcy this year. The group emerged from Chapter 11 with debt reduced from $6.6 billion to $1.3 billion, with access to $600 million in asset-based lending, and is in a period of stabilization.
“By bringing together trusted personalities and experts across food, fashion and beauty, we’re helping customers discover thoughtful gifts, useful advice and new ideas that make celebrating easier and more joyful,” said Rosalia Bucaro Polizzi, chief merchandising officer at QVC Group. “These trusted people can really help add some confidence to our overall story this year. Each holiday helper has a very specific area of expertise, and three of the four have a long-standing history with us,” she said.
Polizzi was referring to Brinkley, who launched a fashion line on HSN two years ago and introduced garden products more recently; Stone, who has been with HSN for over 14 years, and Buteau, a more recent participant on HSN. She starred in TV’s “Survival of the Thickest.”
While celebrities have long been part of the HSN DNA, “The biggest difference this season is that this is a coordinated effort bringing our celebrity partners to talk about a holiday with authority,” Polizzi said. “We have celebrities on all the time from a line perspective. The difference this year is this ‘holiday helpers’ theme, each with an individual area of expertise to talk to customers about what they might need. It’s a more coordinated effort.”
The campaign launched Tuesday and continues through the season with appearances by the helpers via HSN’s website, app, livestreaming, social media and television broadcast. However, holiday shopping on HSN and at many retailers started much sooner. “The customer mindset has shifted into holiday planning and purchasing earlier than ever. We’ve seen her react already in October from a holiday perspective,” Polizzi said. “We started with some previews in August. Holiday gift shops were launched a week earlier” than last year, she added.
Asked for her outlook on the holiday season, Polizzi said, “We’re feeling confident. We know about three in 10 customers have already started holiday shopping. The customer is very deliberate, and definitely value-conscious in her choices. But if you can inspire her, she’s always there for you. We’re always able to bring in that celebrity messaging, and some unexpected moments…Apparel has been a great way of going into holiday from a planning perspective. We’re seeing some great growth out of beauty, food, footwear and wellness.”
HSN offers exclusive products and brands in health and beauty, jewelry, home/lifestyle, fashion and accessories, and electronics, and incorporates entertainment, personalities and industry experts into its shopping experiences. Aside from QVC and HSN, the group operates Ballard Designs, Frontgate, Garnet Hill and Grandin Road.
With bankruptcy behind the parent company, and HSN celebrating its 50th birthday next year, Polizzi was asked if there’s a new strategy for HSN heading into 2027. “We’re really making sure we’re engaging with our customer across all of our platforms. She’s very loyal to us,” she replied.
Some industry experts believe HSN and QVC must be more differentiated, but Polizzi said, “The way we come to life for our customers is very different, from the hosts interacting with consumers to the personalities live on air. The way we bring it forth to customers is very different. But we are sister brands at the end of the day. Overall, we feel we’re working together more than in the past because we are physically in the same place.”
Polizzi said HSN and QVC both focus on female consumers in the 50-and-older age range who “really love storytelling and human connection.” The QVC consumer, she added, “can be a bit more basic in her apparel. Our HSN customer might be a bit more colorful in her apparel. There are some surface-level differences, for sure, from a preferential perspective. But overall they’re over-50 consumers who really love storytelling. She loves demonstration. She hunts for people to tell her what she needs and why. She’s inspired by products and founder stories.”
