QVC, the home shopping channel and e-commerce retailer, announced that its parent company, Liberty Interactive Corporation, had reached an agreement to acquire zulily, the flash sales site, for $2.4 billion.
Under the proposed deal, zulily will continue to operate as a standalone company with its management team intact. The retailer, which focuses on products for young moms and their children, generated $1.2 billion in sales last year. The company runs hundreds of limited time sales on a daily basis and 56 percent of its orders are placed by consumers using mobile devices.
Based on an estimate put together by the two companies, only six percent of the flash sales site's customers have shopped on QVC, which skews to an older, female audience. Through zulily, QVC will gain access to additional platforms to market its unique assortment of products and proprietary brands.
To expand its offers, zulily will be able to draw on QVC's expertise in categories including apparel special sizes, beauty and home décor and Apparel Special Sizes. The deal will also open opportunities for the company to gain exposure to new customers through joint on-air promotions and online programming events.
Source: zulily
"There are tremendous opportunities to accelerate the growth of the zulily brand for our customers, our employees, and our vendors with QVC's partnership," said Darrell Cavens, president and CEO, zulily, in a statement. "Together, zulily and QVC have complementary philosophies about our approach to entertaining and engaging our customers and we'll now have the ability to unlock synergies for growth and deliver new ways to innovate on the discovery commerce model and change the way people shop."
The two companies expect to generate roughly $10 billion in sales to 20 million customers in 85 countries this year. The deal is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2015 pending regulatory approvals.