An online grocery platform is launching next week selling kits of ingredients so consumers can recreate the recipes of their favourite TikTok influencers.
Smunch is “on a mission to make social media recipes shoppable”, initially offering consumers packages of premeasured ingredients based on social media stars’ recipes.
“We’ve worked tirelessly to give food lovers what they truly want,” said Smunch Recipes founder Ebun Azeez. “They want a taste of what they see online without having to write out the list of ingredients and walk to the grocery store.”
The platform will enable content creators to earn a commission on kits sold in connection to their recipes through “virtual storefronts and unique links” the company explained.
The company plans to later integrate with major grocers and courier platforms to make it easier for customers to add required ingredients to their online baskets. Discussions with retailers are ongoing, Azeez said, but are “going very well”.
“Ultimately, what we want is for customers to choose if they want the option of recipe kits or buying full items,” Azeez added.
Azeez explained the model has already seen success in fashion and homewares. LTK, previously known as LikeToKnow.It, is an app for consumers to discover products styled by their favourite influencers. Influencers have storefronts on the app, so what they were wearing in a post can be quickly found and purchased by followers, for which they earn a commission.
“For fashion influencers this is already a concept and model they’re very familiar with. But for food content creators it’s not a possibility at all, certainly not in the UK,” Azeez said.
Late last year, US grocery shopping platform Jupiter launched a similar model.
“Today, 85% of consumers use social media as part of the shopping process, but the creators behind those recipes you’re shopping from are not compensated directly,” said Chad Munroe, co-founder and CEO of Jupiter. “Jupiter is the place where creators host individual curated storefronts their followers can shop from, as well as a place where brands can reach consumers in turn, earning the creators the money they deserve for their hard work,” he added.
Smunch said anyone will be able to upload recipes “regardless of the size of their social media following”.
Azeez said Uber Eats’ partnership last month with the BBC Good Food app, where a user’s missing ingredients can be quickly bought and delivered via the courier platform, showed that “the industry is thinking along the same lines as we are”.
“We have made it easier than ever before to recreate the meals we see on social media. We are taking it a step beyond a heart emoji,” Azeez said. “We want to make it smoother and less fragmented for consumers to see it, like it, and eat it.”
Among the influencers offering recipes on Smunch’s launch is 22-year-old student Javen Chong, known as @JavenBakes on TikTok, where he has a nearly 5,000-strong following.
“It’s such a novel idea that it’ll be silly of anyone to not join,” he said.
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