Sold 1.5 tons of pens - close to 1 million in three weeks: "Emptyed the warehouse"

Alexander Hermansson, Cornelis Olsen och Marcus Söderberg under julkampanj på ICA – sålde 1,5 ton Flippy Pennor på tre veckor och tömde lagret.

Challenges children's screen time.

The e-commerce site Flippy , which was launched in November 2024, has achieved huge sales success in a short time.

The company is backed by a team of four. The group includes serial entrepreneur Marcus Söderberg and children's program host Alexander Hermansson, who is also known from the extreme sports team Rackartygarna. The team also includes designer and entrepreneur Otis Ingelstam, with experience in startups and e-commerce, and Cornelis Olsen, an e-commerce entrepreneur specializing in building e-commerce platforms.

The idea for Flippy was born out of a shared concern about the increasing screen time among children.

The idea actually came from seeing how the development of screen addiction and screen time is really devouring children today. Both Marcus and Alex have their own children, and the rest of us have friends with children, nieces and nephews and the like. They become kind of uncontactable, find it harder to focus on one thing and are only fed advertising and hectic programs at a level that we all feel is quite unhealthy, says Cornelis Olsen.

At the same time, we understand that bans sometimes have the opposite effect, so we wanted to create conditions for "healthier screen time" that is a bit more like slow TV and where you are actually activated at the same time. We started by creating a drawing program on YouTube that became very popular.

In the YouTube series, viewers learn to draw together with Alexander Hermansson. But the quartet had another idea. In addition to just getting children to draw, they also wanted to "create more fun opportunities to do joint activities together as parent and child."

Crafting has become incredibly popular on social platforms and many people like to draw and lay out bead tiles. This set the stage for building a digital platform and a brand that will make "screen-free cool again" and where the goal is to grow structured with good products and the right partnerships.

The first product was the "Flippy" colored pencils, which flew off the shelves. In three weeks, they sold 1.5 tons of pencils.

How much is it in money?

Roughly around 900,000 kronor, which emptied our stock. The last few days were in the middle of Christmas shopping and if we had had a larger stock we would have probably sold just as much more, I'm sure. We get questions every day about when the products will be back in stock, which is of course incredibly fun, while we have found a format that seems to work, says Cornelis Olsen.

How have you managed to sell so much?

It's probably a combination of several different parts. We rushed to get the products home after testing, inspections and all that was done in order to make it to the Christmas shopping. And something else that contributed was that we had already spent part of 2024 building the series "Draw with Alex" on Youtube. So there was already a following there, in parallel with the fact that both Marcus and Alex have their own brands in their field.

But Alex's target group of parents and children who like to draw and craft was definitely a crucial success factor. Last but not least, we prioritized good content on all social platforms and reinforced this with paid advertising aimed at parents with children who were looking for Christmas gifts.

When exactly was the site launched?

Me, Alex and Marcus worked hard to launch the evening of November 15th, but we didn't go live until the day of November 16th. Most of the stock ran out around December 10-11th, and then we had to stop sales so as not to disappoint any children before Christmas, says Cornelis Olsen.

Flippy has ambitious plans for the future. In 2025, the team aims to grow its range with new products such as coloring books, other types of pens and craft supplies.

Of course, we have clear goals for sales and profitability, but the primary goal and vision we strive for is to make screen-free play a little "cooler" again. More specifically, we want to have developed and launched a bunch of new products, as well as launched the drawing club into its own platform where you can log in, get inspiration, tips, training and exclusive access to events and happenings with more famous role models in addition to Alex.

They are also working on developing a digital "drawing club" with inspiration, tips and exclusive content for members.

The long-term plan is to continue developing the company in a healthy and strategic way. The goal is of course to increase turnover while maintaining a reasonable level of profitability, concludes Cornelis Olsen.

Written by

Izabella Borowska
izabella@ehandel.se
Link to article on e-handel.se
Från vänster: Marcus Söderberg, Cornelis Olsen, Mikael Gauffin, Alexander Hermansson och Otis Ingelstam – teamet bakom Flippys pysselsuccé i samarbete med Egmont.

The success of the craft took Egmont by storm - now they will get closer to their fans

After selling out 1.5 tons of crayons and raising nearly a million kronor in three weeks, it was only a matter of time before Flippy would take the next step.