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Over the past two decades, e-commerce has gradually dethroned traditional brick-and-mortar shopping. And with the advent of social media fully flourishing during the online shopping surge, it only makes sense that social platforms and brands would try to capitalize on product-focused social content. When influencers and celebrities began promoting products on their own social channels, influencer-sponsored content began to replace many brands’ traditional marketing strategies. Companies began shifting their ad budgets from investing in traditional ads, online banners, and editorial placements to paying content creators with large social media followings to promote their products.
This marketing model blew up over the last decade but influencer-branded content's sudden success didn’t come without backlash, generating a collective distrust of influencer-promoted reviews and mentions as nothing but disingenuous cash-grabs (Who else remembers the Kardashians’ shameless promotion of laxative-laced “detox” teas?). As a response, social media platforms like Instagram began requiring brands and influencers to include branded content disclosures for feed posts and stories to help users trust the platform and its popular users by increasing transparency.
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Despite these disclaimers, consumers and social media users are still far less trusting of branded content than they were years ago—and rightfully so. Many brands are no longer seeing the same return on investment from influencer-based marketing that they did even just three years ago. In this landscape of cynical consumers, the burgeoning social commerce space is aiming to reimagine the discovery-to-shop experience, and startup app Fl!p is spearheading the movement.
@joinflip Don’t sleep on this app
♬ original sound - Flip | Beauty Shopping
Described as “TikTok meets Sephora,” Fl!p was founded in 2021 by social media entrepreneur and e-commerce veteran Noor Agha in response to the shift in the social shopping landscape and the lack of trust influencer-created shopping content. Fl!p’s platform consists of a video-based user-facing interface that merges social media with patented e-commerce functionality. While TikTok and Instagram have both launched commerce interfaces on their platforms, the customer experience is less-than-seamless, as they still require several steps to complete checkout and making the brands themselves responsible for fulfilling orders made. Fl!p, on the other hand, allows users to discover products through a community of both real shoppers and famous influencers sharing video reviews of products they’ve actually purchased or used. Each short video is instantly shoppable through its premium e-commerce service that lets you add products to your cart and checkout directly without leaving the app.
“Consumers are losing trust in influencers because [they] know that these personalities are being paid to speak highly of the brand or product. The main premise of Flip is to provide honest and authentic reviews by real people,” Fl!p CEO of International and President of Partnerships, Peter Wingsoe tells The Daily Beast exclusively. Still, the social commerce app recently tapped the influencer and celebrity beauty market, onboarding big-name talent that have their own beauty lines onto the platform, including Halsey (about-face beauty), Ariel Tejada (Make-up by Ariel), and most recently Addison Rae (ITEM Beauty) and Sommer Ray (Imaraïs).
Despite this recent addition of paid content creators, Wingsoe says the platform’s commitment to authenticity and transparency remains fully intact. “Celebrities and influencers may be paid by Fl!p to create content and/or share content on Fl!p, but we never instruct influencers on which products to review or [tell them] how to review them, unlike on IG and TikTok where brands pay influencers to post about a specific product and [showcase it] in a scripted manner. In fact, it’s not just influencers and celebrities who can earn money from creating and sharing their content on Fl!p—any shopper who has purchased a product from the app is eligible to become a creator and monetize their content. The Fl!p Platform allows ALL users the ability to earn money from their content via views and sales from their posts,” Wingsoe says.
Fl!p’s social e-commerce model is appealing not only to beauty obsessives looking for fresh content and legit product reviews but also to sellers, offering a slew of resources that aren’t available from major retailers. Model, influencer, and founder of wellness brand IMARAÏS, Sommer Ray, recently partnered with Fl!p. While her brand is sold on her DTC e-commerce site and retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue, she says the platform’s interactive model allows her to interact directly with her customers and fans, getting real-time customer feedback.
“I stumbled upon Fl!p with my team when we were just looking around the current beauty market. I was impressed with how they had combined the beauty space with the current direction of social media, and just knew Imarais would be great on the platform. I also love that I can hear (and see) people’s firsthand reviews and thoughts, that way our team can continue to evolve products to be exactly what our customer wants,” she says. Flip offers Ray unique ways to grow her brand because of all of the features currently only found on Fl!p. “Fl!p is definitely more detail-oriented [compared to other platforms like TikTok and Reels]. You have to consider what [you], as a buyer, would want to know about a product. In a way, it’s almost more personal than other platforms because you can make your recommendations the same way you would to your friends.”
Fl!p is literally a one-stop shop for finding inspiration, new trends, and shoppable product discoveries that you can buy with just a couple of clicks. According to Wingsoe, the top viral trends he’s spotted on the app as of late are color-changing blush and lip oils with dupes for these pricey products, and tips and tricks are always top performers. Check out Fl!p for yourself by downloading the app using this link and check out some of the platform’s best-selling brands below.
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