Justin Timberlake & Soulja Boy’s Social Commerce Play [Screenshots]

After Jessica and Kate, Justin has joined venture-backed social commerce subscription club platform, BeachMint, for celebrity/designer-curated shopping.

BeachMint is launching HomeMint with Justin Timberlake and his interior designer friend, Estee Stanley. Available exclusively online, HomeMint will offer a curated selection of home goods and accessories, one of a kind finds, and art and photography from both established and up-and-coming artists.

We like this next-generation people-powered social commerce, which is more about celebrity influence than peer influence.  Some with argue it’s is not ‘social’, but that is to reduce social influence to peer influence, when it is so much more.  Any commerce that is powered by social influence – from experts, celebrities or peers – is part of social commerce; and if we had to bet on the power of celebrity vs. peer power, our money is with celebrities every time.

It’ll be interesting to see how HomeMint fits the ‘subscription-light’ *Mint model (you pay monthly, but only for months when you find something you like) that powers JewelMint (Kate Bosworth), BeautyMint (Jessica Simpson), ShoeMint (Rachel Bilson) and StyleMint (Olsen twins).  Interior design typically involves higher ticket price/occasional purchase items – so will the subscription model offering guaranteed access to an exclusive collection of limited collection to celebrity curated goods work?

Off on another social commerce platform; Etsy-style marketplace, Shoply, that invites you to follow vendors, has been adopted by rapper Soulja Boy.  The American musician, actor, record producer and entrepreneur is offering direct-to-fan access to his musical output – $1 a song.  Headed up by Liad Shababo, Shoply is looking to become a direct-to-fan marketplace for creative talent.  Smart.

Whatever you think of these celebrity-powered initiatives, one clear take-out for us is that when we’re thinking about social commerce opportunities think beyond the peer-powered space; the social worlds of celebrity and experts add sizzle and steak to the social commerce value proposition; and scale…