First, you have to have all the product QVC could possibly sell. That costs big bucks meaning lots of risk. And getting through the gauntlet of merchandising is a whole other book (literally) unto itself. They have stringent packaging and labeling requirements, specific to QVC. Then there’s fulfillment; your product goes to their warehouse and they fill the order -for which they also charge you- so it’s not as tho you’ll get a lot of customer names to seed other non-QVC promotional sales efforts in the future. And if it doesn’t sell, they ship all unsold product back to you so if you want to resell it via other means, you have to repackage it.

Probably the biggest issue is pricing. Considering all the overhead, your markup will need to be 6X over cost to turn a profit. At least in apparel, the usual mark up (from cost of goods to retail) is only 4X (2X wholesale X2 at retail). You need to know that before pricing to QVC because there’s lots of additional overhead costs assigned to you (packaging, fulfillment etc). If your product isn’t such that you can mark it up so high, QVC may not be for you.

Again, remember you need to have the goods on hand in large quantities meaning a lot of outlay for production and shipping well in advance of orders. QVC can be a bonanza no doubt but the adage “it takes money to make money” was never truer.