The world of close-outs changed as availability diminished. Enter Diller and Held, with a vision to updgrade the HSN standards for goods, improve on-air pitches and become more consumer conscious. The iQVC site gets more than 10 million hits a week, said Leslie Gross, company spokeswoman. In June, HSN opened First Auction, a new Internet venture where the public can bid on merchandise. An auction runs anywhere from an hour to three days.
Bidders see all bids and get a chance to best their own bid.
If there are 10 sets of golf clubs and you are one of the 10 highest bidders when the auction ends, you win. In a cavernous warehouse-style building at HSN headquarters, hundreds of operators handle an average of 158,000 calls a day, filling orders for products shown on HSN or sold by other companies. For example, in the clothing lab, Janet Stults checks fabrics for shrinkage. When a maker recommends dry cleaning an outfit she measures it, sends it to the cleaners and measures it again when it comes back. If a fabric is washable she uses one of the eight washing machines, checking to see if colors bleed and again measuring before and after to ensure the product is all the manufacturer claims.