How beauty brand The Quick Flick is using TikTok to win over retailers and drive sales

An upcoming product launch, still under wraps, has seen Perth startup and $15 million beauty empire The Quick Flick harness the power of social media by using its viral TikTok content to help influence retailers and retail sales.

Within the first week of The Quick Flick’s pre-launch strategy, the business amassed more than 500,000 views for the videos, which founder Iris Smit says “is wild considering the products weren’t even out yet!”.

The content strategy started off with The Quick Flick engaging with customers and brand fans via TikTok, asking them if the business should create travel minis, which then turned into customers asking for a travel pack and a lip balm.

Yesterday, The Quick Flick revealed to customers that they had taken their manifestation to a whole new level, with the launch of Quick Screen Lip Balm SPF 50+ and confirmation that production was underway. The products will soon be available in Coles supermarkets Australia-wide.

The Quick Flick has over 34,000 TikTok followers and received over 1.2 million video likes, whereas Smit’s personal account – which she uses as an account to share business advice and updates – has close to 100,000 followers and has received almost 2 million video likes.

Smit, who founded the brand in 2017, says The Quick Flick uses the video hosting platform to test the market for its future releases. 

“As a product-based business, we use TikTok to prove a customer desire for our product and a want for it to be stocked in retail for accessibility/convenience to the mass market,” she tells SmartCompany. 

“We know that the priority of retail buyers is to range products that customers will purchase, so we find having the opportunity to prove customer desire helps build buyer confidence,” she added.

“The casual, video-based content that is popular on TikTok gives us the opportunity to share the R&D process with followers and allow customers to feel involved in the product journey, have their feedback heard and considered and adopted in the final product. For example, which flavour and finish of our new lip balm and the preferred travel bag colour design were recent examples we called out to the TikTok community for feedback on.”

It also helps build brand and product awareness before the new item is even available on supermarket shelves, says Smit. 

“We also have found that customers are more likely to purchase when they know the story behind a product, how it came to fruition, and more importantly if they feel like they played a part in that process, such as the TikTok community involvement behind The Quick Flick being ranged in Coles stores.”

TikTok a “powerful machine” for brand building

Last year, Smit pitched and closed a deal with supermarket giant Coles, which saw her collection of Quick Screen SPF 50+ “skinscreen” products stocked in 820 supermarkets across Australia.

Smit says TikTok is no longer a kids’ app with dancing videos like it was once known for. 

“TikTok should be recognised as a powerful machine for building brands, community, customer trust and loyalty, storytelling and also an opportunity to present a portfolio of works to a retailer,” she says. 

“A strong community on TikTok is very favourable to retailers for building hype, virality and strong sales in stores. Seeing brands on TikTok and witnessing the virality of the content also helps bring shoppers in-store and creates awareness within the category. 

TikTok played an integral role in the initial launch of Quick Screen in 2022, says Smit, as it drove sales in Coles stores. Videos created by the brand that promoted the products being available in Coles reached more than 1 million views, she says. 

“’TikTok Made Me Buy It’ has over 60 billion hashtags on TikTok — that alone speaks volumes about the power the platform has to influence customer behaviour and drive product sales.”

Smit believes brands need to think outside the box when it comes to marketing and how they can influence consumers’ buying decisions.

“It is extremely important and valuable for brands to document to their customers what is happening behind the scenes. With so much branded content available and fed to us online every day, consumers are overwhelmed and exhausted from being ‘sold’ to, from brands and influencers alike,” she said.

“At The Quick Flick we’ve found storytelling-style marketing to be our strongest form of marketing, which is why we decided to start telling our product stories from the beginning during the R&D process, in real-time, rather than after the fact like many brands do,” says Smit. 

“It is also important for customers to know who is behind the brand and who their purchases are supporting — which is why I am so passionate about showing up as the founder and telling pre-product launch stories from my point of view as well as from the brand’s point of view. 

“People want to buy from people, so having a familiar face that people can connect to is what helps brands stand out from their competitors. Our customers feel good about supporting a female-founded, homegrown Aussie brand. 

For Smit, it also means being willing to embrace sharing the “real, raw side of business”, including the mistakes, and the highs and lows. 

“If brands want to survive, they need to adapt and switch up their marketing as what worked a few years ago, falls flat in 2023,” she says. 

“Brand founders constantly need to ask themselves: how are you keeping your customers engaged and invested in your brand?”