Shop LC’s Francesca Kennedy on Authenticity, Equity, and a Mission Beyond Sales

A brand with global reach and local responsibility

Shop LC is part of the Vaibhav Global Limited Group, a publicly listed company in India that broadcasts into more than 100 million homes across the US, UK, and Germany. The business spans a wide spectrum selling jewellery, beauty, and lifestyle items that range from dollar bargains to gemstones worth more than $10,000.

But beneath the variety of its product catalogue, Kennedy stressed that the company’s most important differentiator is Your Purchase Feeds - a corporate social responsibility programme that donates a meal for every product sold.

The results are not minor add-ons to the business; they are headline numbers. In just six years, Shop LC has provided 55 million meals to children in need. The company has set a long-term goal of reaching one million meals a day by 2040, a target Kennedy described as the brand’s “North Star.”

Partners include Akshaya Patra in India, which runs one of the largest midday meal programmes in the world; No Kid Hungry in the United States, which fights childhood hunger through school and community partnerships; and Backpack Friends in Texas, which supplies weekend meals to children who rely on school lunches during the week.

Kennedy framed this work as more than charity. It is the foundation of Shop LC’s identity, a unifying mission that connects employees, shareholders, and customers.

From slogans to evidence

Kennedy is clear-eyed about the modern communications landscape. In her view, customers are drowning in noise, and generic slogans about values no longer move the needle.

Her mantra is “show me, don’t tell me.”

When she traveled to India to visit Akshaya Patra’s kitchens, she witnessed the difference the programme makes: children in school, not scavenging for food. Those are the stories she brings back - not abstract claims, but direct observations that connect consumer purchases to tangible impact.

For Kennedy, the most credible advocates are not executives but nonprofit partners themselves, who can vouch for the consistency and significance of the donations. “They’re the authenticators of our mission,” she explained. “We just write the checks and support them in the best way we can.”

This approach shifts PR from managing impressions to curating testimony. Trust comes not from how well a message is crafted, but from whose voice carries it.

Community engagement through Gem Fest

While Shop LC’s sales channels are primarily digital, Kennedy emphasised the importance of in-person community building. The company hosts Gem Fest, a monthly event at its Austin headquarters where customers can attend workshops, browse discounted sales, and engage with the brand beyond the screen.

These events include candle-making classes, gemstone education sessions, and opportunities for jewellery cleaning and appraisals. The effect is twofold: customers deepen their understanding of products, and the brand strengthens its credibility as a knowledgeable, trustworthy partner rather than a transactional broadcaster.

In Kennedy’s view, these touchpoints help Shop LC “walk the talk,” reinforcing that it is a company willing to open its doors and share expertise, not just push promotions.

Investor conversations reframed

Shop LC is unusual among its peers because of its listing on the Indian stock exchange. As a result, Kennedy’s team engages regularly with shareholders as well as customers.

What stands out is how the company frames these conversations. Instead of chasing headlines around billion-dollar valuations or the pursuit of ARR milestones, Shop LC positions impact as its primary growth story.

“Our North Star is one million meals a day,” Kennedy said. In practice, that means sales figures are always linked back to what they enable: more meals donated, more children reached, more communities supported.

This reframing shifts the conversation from purely financial equity to social equity. Investors are encouraged to view the company not only in terms of quarterly results, but also in terms of long-term contribution to global wellbeing.

Competing with credibility in a noisy market

Shop LC operates in a competitive space that includes QVC, HSN, and a growing number of livestream commerce platforms. Many of these rivals differentiate through format innovation - faster streams, more channels, sharper graphics.

Kennedy’s perspective is different. Competing on flash, she argued, is a race to the bottom. The differentiator that endures is credibility.

That credibility is not abstract. It is earned through the consistency of the “Your Purchase Feeds” programme, through partnerships with respected NGOs, and through experiences like Gem Fest where customers can verify the brand’s authenticity for themselves.

This emphasis on impact allows Shop LC to stand apart in a crowded field. Instead of fighting for incremental viewership, the company can deepen loyalty among existing customers by connecting every purchase to a purpose.

PR in the age of AI content

A subtext of Kennedy’s remarks was the challenge of PR in an era of AI-generated content. With so much communication being produced at speed, the risk is homogenisation - messages that blur into one another, indistinguishable in tone or intent.

For Kennedy, the counterweight is authenticity through proof. AI may be able to generate copy, but it cannot replicate a partner organisation’s endorsement or the story of a child who receives a meal.

In this context, Shop LC’s model is instructive: it avoids competing on volume of content and instead invests in evidence of impact. For PR leaders, the implication is clear. The age of impression management is ending; the age of demonstrable action has begun.

The next horizon

Looking ahead, Kennedy sees both challenges and opportunities. Scaling from 55 million meals to one million a day will require not just operational efficiency but continued alignment across markets. Shop LC’s presence in the US, UK, and Germany gives it reach, but also the responsibility to show that its mission is consistent across cultures.

At the same time, Kennedy emphasised the role of equity in its broadest sense: not only shareholder equity, but equity for employees, partners, and the communities it serves. This philosophy, she suggested, is what will enable Shop LC to remain resilient even as the retail landscape shifts.

The takeaway

Francesca Kennedy’s ShopTalk conversation was not about product assortment or channel strategy. It was about the deeper question of how brands earn trust in 2025.

Her answer is both simple and challenging: trust is not what you say about yourself, but what others can verify about you.

For Shop LC, that means:

• Impact as identity: tying every purchase to a meal.

• Partners as proof: letting nonprofits validate the mission.

• Community as credibility: using Gem Fest to open doors.

• Equity as North Star: framing growth in social as well as financial terms.

The company’s goal, one million meals a day by 2040, is ambitious. But in Kennedy’s framing, it is not a marketing slogan. It is a measurement that customers, partners, and shareholders alike can hold the brand accountable to.

Independently Created. Not affiliated with Shoptalk.

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