How ‘QR Queen’ Jill Martin Is Expanding Kingdom With ‘Shop The Scenes’

Jill Martin of Today Show and QVC fame is innovating a new industry with QR codes along with 101 Studios’ CEO and Yellowstone producer David Glasser. “Shop The Scenes”, a joint venture between Martin and 101 Studios, is set to redefine Entertainment Commerce.

The QR Queen’s latest undertaking sports a code during the commercial break of such shows as Yellowstone that will give viewers an opportunity to buy products on the very show they’re watching.

“Shop The Scenes” launched to great success and big numbers two weekends ago, seeing immediate audience engagement and rapid purchases of on-screen items like $20 hats to $3,200 furniture (John Dutton’s office chair), all of which coincided with Dec. 4’s season 5 premiere of Yellowstone. This season’s premiere marked the series’ biggest viewership to date.

Martin has been glued to the site’s data board since it launched. She was witnessing Yellowstone fans’ overwhelming response firsthand and in real time during the premiere.

“You saw the amount of people coming on, and it was just fascinating to watch,” Jill said of “Shop The Scenes” and its Yellowstone products via Zoom last week. “We saw 16,000 sessions within 30 minutes of an ad [running]. It’s immediate. You see it right there.”

The site sold out of 3 reorders of Beth Dutton’s handbag, which retails for over $900.

Other shows with products on “Shop The Scenes” include 1883 (Paramount) and Emily in Paris (Netflix).

“Shop The Scenes”, the first-to-market in large-scale shoppable TV with a highly visible pipeline of major confirmed series over the next few years, worked with Flowcode, the Direct to Consumer Company™, to create a custom clapperboard QR code for viewers to have instant access to shop items directly from the set.

The site is incredibly promising not only because of its launch, but its business model. Rather than bank on some seasons that are more lucrative than others, sales from “Shop The Scenes” are driven by year-round content releases. As many customers will find desired items via QR codes, STS also operates as a free-standing e-commerce site.

Martin was wise to tread lightly with television audiences and not push for code placement on top of content during episodes. It would have taken viewers out of the show and they would have turned a cold shoulder to the site and its products.

“I put myself in the shoes of the viewer and of the consumer,” Jill said. “And if I’m watching my show— and everyone has a second screen now, but I want to watch the show, so I see the engagement in the commercial break, and then I see it dropping off during the show because a showrunner— and we’re working directly with the showrunners, and this is really important… We want to stay authentic to the show, and a showrunner does not want their show disrupted by anybody looking at anything else.

“So the behavior will be— and it’s only been two weeks, but I’m already seeing it… It’s not a hard behavior to teach. The QR code is the biggest celebrity since the pandemic. So [the audience] knows what to do when they see it. And it’s my logo.

“But they will know that if they want something from their favorite show or movie and want it authentic and want it delivered in this beautiful elevated packaging, they will know to go to shopthescenes.com.”

This isn’t the first time the “Jill of All Trades” used QR codes to change an industry. In the fall of 2021, she utilized the technology in a way allowing NBC’s Today Show audience to purchase items from her “Shop TODAY” segments immediately on their phones.

To no surprise, Martin is already onto another business venture; this time involving packaging.

“I’m actually going to announce another partnership where you’re able to really make bespoke packaging actually profitable, and it’s a very interesting partnership that we’re going to announce soon,” Jill said.

“Having beautiful packaging to me is so additive, and it’s almost like running a race and then not going past the finish line. It’s like the packaging is the way that you first see it. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. I mean, cliche as that is— I am very big on packaging, and I have figured out how to make it cost-effective and will eventually be beneficial, profitable.”

Jill married Erik Brooks, Ethos Capital LLC Founder and CEO in September. Erik has been nothing but supportive of Jill’s entrepreneurship with STS and her other businesses, including being a good sport about all the boxes of merchandise all over their home.

Their wedding didn’t slow down Jill or Erik’s hustle, but some down time may be in their future.

“We didn’t take a honeymoon. I worked the next morning,” Martin said. “But I am taking him away in December on a honeymoon. And I have to say, in addition to having a very understanding husband, obviously … and he’s so supportive and excited and jazzed for me to see this come to life, but I do believe in— I believe that your brain needs to reset and that you need to get bored and relax in order to be your most creative.

“I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t need time to just decompress to be able to come back to be more creative. So yes, it will slow down because it should slow down, but we’re announcing more shows, and it’s just about planning. So I’m so jazzed about this. This isn’t work to me.”