QVC hires Claire Watts as president of U.S. Commerce

QVC Inc. has a new executive in charge of commerce, including the U.S. portion of QVC.com.

The TV and web retailer, No. 14 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, has hired Claire Watts as president of U.S. Commerce. She will start with QVC on Jan. 7 and become president of domestic commerce on May 1.

In her new position, Watts will oversee planning, programming, merchandising, broadcasting, TV sales, and the U.S. portion of QVC.com.

Watts began her career in the May Co.’s executive training program and served in senior merchandising and product roles at Paul Harris, The Limited, and Lands’ End. She spent the past 10 years with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in various executive positions, most recently serving as executive vice president of merchandising. At Wal-Mart she was in charge of merchandising for apparel, jewelry, accessories and home product categories.

Watts joins QVC at a time when the company is revamping and expanding its e-commerce strategy. In October QVC re-launched QVC.com with larger graphics and more features such as ask-the-expert functionality, new brands and merchandise picks by QVC hosts. To promote social networking QVC.com is also adding customer reviews, interactive polls, blogs, live chats with QVC hosts and celebrities and moderated forums.