FAQs

Ques­tions about the competition

Appli­ca­tions will be accept­ed from star­tups that meet the fol­low­ing criteria:

  • Sus­tain­abil­i­ty: The busi­ness has a clear sus­tain­abil­i­ty strat­e­gy that ensures high social and eco­log­i­cal stan­dards in its pro­duc­tion and sup­ply chains.
  • Mar­ketabil­i­ty: The prod­uct is ready to mar­ket, but it does­n’t have to be on sale yet.
  • Seg­ment: The prod­uct can be assigned to one of the three com­pe­ti­tion cat­e­gories fash­ion, food and beauty.
  • Mar­ket: The start­up was found­ed in Ger­many and there is one of its most impor­tant markets.
  • Foun­da­tion: The busi­ness was found­ed less than five years ago.

NEXT>IN SUSTAINABILITY address­es star­tups with a prod­uct in the seg­ment of fash­ion, food or beau­ty that are com­mit­ted to mak­ing people’s lives more sustainable.

No. But it should be ready to mar­ket either now or in the next twelve months.

No. Appli­ca­tion is free of charge.

The infor­ma­tion and mate­ri­als that you sub­mit will be treat­ed as con­fi­den­tial. They will not be pub­lished or uti­lized by QVC Han­del S.à r.l. & Co. KG or the Min­istry for Eco­nom­ic Coop­er­a­tion and Devel­op­ment. The sub­mit­ted infor­ma­tion and mate­ri­als will be used exclu­sive­ly by an expert com­mit­tee (com­pris­ing the jury and the QVC NEXT»IN SUSTAINABILITY project team) for the pur­pose of judg­ing the ideas.

Ques­tions about the prize

The win­ners can look for­ward to an exten­sive prize pack­age with sev­er­al com­po­nents tai­lored to the spe­cif­ic needs of their busi­ness. It includes:

  • Inclu­sion in the QVC Ger­many prod­uct port­fo­lio: The win­ning prod­ucts will achieve Ger­many-wide vis­i­bil­i­ty through being mar­ket­ed via QVC Germany’s high-reach chan­nels (TV net­work, web shop, shop­ping apps, social media). It is even pos­si­ble that the coop­er­a­tion will be extend­ed to QVC’s inter­na­tion­al markets.
  • Coach­ing on prod­uct posi­tion­ing: The win­ners will receive coach­ing and advice on the posi­tion­ing and pre­sen­ta­tion of their prod­uct from QVC’s mar­ket­ing and sales experts.
  • Com­mu­ni­ca­tion train­ing:The founders will get com­pre­hen­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion train­ing from expe­ri­enced QVC hosts and learn how to opti­mize the pre­sen­ta­tion of their prod­uct, includ­ing ges­tures, facial expres­sions, stance and language.
  • Men­tor­ing pro­gram: In the QVC Men­tor­ing Pro­gram the star­tups are invit­ed to meet oth­er founders and QVC experts in each prod­uct seg­ment to exchange valu­able experiences.

Three. One in each com­pe­ti­tion cat­e­go­ry (fash­ion, food and beauty).

That depends on how mar­ket ready your prod­uct is. It can go on sale imme­di­ate­ly after the com­pe­ti­tion, or at any time in the fol­low­ing year.

Ques­tions on applications

Between Decem­ber 3, 2020 and Feb­ru­ary 3, 2021.

You can sub­mit your appli­ca­tion using the appli­ca­tion form on this web­site. All the nec­es­sary infor­ma­tion can be entered direct­ly online with­out the need to cre­ate a sep­a­rate doc­u­ment. How­ev­er, if you do wish to share addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion with us you can use the upload func­tion at the end of the appli­ca­tion form.

Ger­man or English.

Yes. You can apply with more than one product.

No. Your appli­ca­tion and the prod­uct sam­ple should speak for themselves.

The jury will be judg­ing the prod­ucts accord­ing to the fol­low­ing cri­te­ria: sus­tain­abil­i­ty con­cept, busi­ness mod­el, val­ue propo­si­tion, growth out­look and team.

Ques­tions about the procedure

Decem­ber 3, 2020: start of the appli­ca­tion phase

Feb­ru­ary 3, 2021: end of the appli­ca­tion phase

Mid-Feb­ru­ary 2021: announce­ment of the short­list­ed applications

End of March 2021: dig­i­tal award ceremony

Mid-April 2021: fol­low-up event with the win­ners at QVC

You’ll be sent a per­son­al noti­fi­ca­tion from QVC if your prod­uct is short­list­ed. The win­ners will be announced at the dig­i­tal award ceremony.

The prizes will be pre­sent­ed at a dig­i­tal event at the end of March 2021.

Oth­er questions

Please email your ques­tion to next@qvc.com.