How Academic Research Shaped Reflekt Me—and a Human-Centric E-Commerce Model

When Tope Mitchell, PhD, describes her startup, Reflekt Me, she frames it less as a tech platform and more as a solution to a blind spot in e-commerce: representation.

In an interview with UrbanGeekz, Dr. Mitchell explains how her company is helping business owners—such as retailers—replace static product images on e-commerce platforms with real human representation, whilst materially improving overall sales.

Reflekt Me, an Atlanta-based B2B software company, allows brands to embed one or more short-form, TikTok-style videos directly into e-commerce product pages on platforms like Shopify or Etsy. This lets shoppers see products on real people before purchase, driving conversions of up to 75% and tripling customer engagement.

The idea was born out of Mitchell’s frustration with how digital retail can flatten—and even dehumanize—the shopping experience. “Your customers should be seen,” she said. That belief has since evolved into a product used by enterprises and independent brands alike.

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The symbolic annihilation in Digital Commerce 

As an academic, Mitchell’s background gives her unique insight into a widespread problem. Research at the intersection of neuroscience and consumer behavior has revealed something troubling: when women view models who don’t look like them, it can trigger neurological responses. 

Also, the statistics paint a stark picture. Around 67 to 70% of American women wear a size 14–16 or larger, yet the overwhelming majority of product images still feature models closer to a size 4 and around 5’10”. And the representation gap isn’t limited to clothing. It shows up for makeup shoppers searching for their shade, and for consumers looking for hair products that actually match their texture.

Dr. Mitchell calls this “symbolic annihilation”. It is a sociological concept that describes how certain groups are dehumanized by their absence from the media. The consequences reach far beyond hurt feelings.

“We experience not being hired because of our hair texture,” Mitchell notes. “Because no one ever seen it before. We are simple beings. When we do not see something, it’s not real, it’s not human, it’s not good.”

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Reflekt Me as The Solution

Reflekt Me offers retailers and brands a powerful and effective solution. The platform embeds user-generated content directly onto the product pages. Think of it as bringing the engaging, authentic feel of TikTok into e-commerce. With this feature, shoppers no longer need to leave the page to search for additional reviews on social media.

The results have been real. Reflekt Me increases sales conversion by 75%. Additionally, engagement increases by 300%. Customers who previously clicked through static images now spend an average of eight minutes on product pages. There is also an environmental angle here. Online shopping generates massive waste through returns. Customers order multiple sizes. They buy items that don’t fit. Much of it ends up in landfills.

“We buy four, five sizes, and we buy something, and we don’t want to return it,” Mitchell notes. “We throw it in the bin, or we take it somewhere, and then it gets thrown in the bin.”

The platforms’ effectiveness stems from solving a customer-journey problem. Traditionally, shoppers see a product online, visit the brand’s website or an e-commerce platform like Amazon, then leave the site to search YouTube or TikTok for reviews, demonstrations, or just more visuals. During that journey, competitors swoop in with targeted ads, and the initial brand becomes another unopened and forgotten tab.  

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“As soon as your person leaves your site, whatever other company comes in and shoots ads at them,” Mitchell explains. “So keep them here on your site.”

The Reflekt me interface is simple; on a product page, shoppers see a “See It With Preview It” button. When consumers click, the button reveals videos of real people using the product. For clothing, viewers see different body types and sizes. For hair products, they see various textures and styling options. For cosmetics, they see different skin tones with the product on. 

Take Puffcuff, for example: they are a hair accessory company that uses Reflekt Me. The founder used tennis balls and rulers to help customers understand sizing. Now, customers see actual women with different hair textures demonstrating how to use the product. They watch tutorials that show various ways to style hair and gain confidence in their purchase decision. 

Most importantly, all content remains brand-controlled. Unlike user-generated content scattered across social media, Reflekt Me keeps everything centralized. This then gives brands the quality control they need while maintaining authenticity.

The Reflekt Me Founder

Dr. Tope Mitchell’s path to entrepreneurship isn’t very conventional. She is an academic with a PhD in sociology from Indiana University. She built a career in consumer insights and academia. Then, as a professor, she taught entrepreneurship at Fayetteville State University. She is also a mom of two. 

The idea of Reflekt Me consumed her. For three months, she couldn’t sleep. Every spare moment outside of teaching and motherhood went into developing the concept.

“I was really called to do it,” Mitchell says. “It was very important.”

However, the unconventional journey prepared her uniquely for this venture. She’d researched “in-betweeners”,  people whose body shapes don’t fit standard beauty norms. She’d studied how digital spaces create hierarchies of humanity. She understood the psychological mechanisms behind consumer behavior.

But understanding the problem and its depth doesn’t always mean knowing how to build a tech company to solve it. Mitchell embarked on an intensive learning journey. She sought out accelerators and pitch competitions! She focused specifically on retail-focused programs. All this was intentional as she understood how important it is to be in relevant spaces that care about the problems you are trying to solve. 

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“I’m a sociologist,” she reflects. “It’s about groups, in-group, out-group. And our in-group is retail.”

The Journey into Building in Community

Mitchell’s fundraising strategy proved to be effective. Within one year, Reflekt Me raised over half a million dollars. The company won a $ 30,000 pitch competition. In addition, they received $100 000 in AWS credits. Mitchell didn’t build Reflekt Me alone. Her co-founder is her husband, Gerald Mitchell Jr., ED.D.

This journey began at Black Women Talk Tech. Although initially rejected from the main competition because they were too new, Mitchell participated in a founders’ pitch event and won the $ 30,000 prize. More importantly, she met someone who would change everything. Arlan Hamilton, founder of Backstage Capital, attended the same event. Hamilton is a black woman who built her venture firm from scratch—focusing exclusively on underrepresented founders, women, people of color, and LGBTQ entrepreneurs. 

“I go to her book club,” Mitchell recalls. “I don’t even realize she’s there. She asked us all to give our little pitch, our headline. I gave the exact same headline that I used today. She goes, ‘Oh, I felt something.’ Hamilton asked Mitchell to pitch to her team, and long story short, shortly after, Backstage Capital invested in Reflekt Me.

Then, the pattern continued, Mitchell found strength in focusing on communities that understood Reflekt Me’s mission—initially, staying within Black women in tech circles. “We were a baby,” she explains. “I felt like, as a baby, we needed to stay with our aunties and our cousins. Our community built us up and taught us what we needed.”

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This strategic approach paid dividends as FounderGym, run by a black woman, refined Mitchell’s investor outreach. New York Fashion Tech Lab, a women-only program, selected Reflekt Me as one of just five companies from hundreds of applications.

Through Fashion Tech Lab, Reflekt Me partnered with Levi’s. They worked together for a year, implementing the platform across Levi’s digital properties. The relationship opened doors.

The momentum built. Plug and Play Ventures invested. XRC Ventures in New York invested. Techstars accepted them into their 2023 cohort. Each relationship brought credibility, resources, and connections.

The future of Reflekt Me

After securing patents in America and Europe and working with billion-dollar brands like Levi’s, they integrated with legacy systems. Recently, they also expanded to Shopify, thus opening up ReflekMe to thousands of smaller brands. 

Moreover, there are discussions about a partnership with Shopline. The platform operates in the Asia-Pacific region and the United States. This would significantly expand Reflekt Me’s geographic reach.

“I wanted to help make the world a better place,” Mitchell says simply. “You don’t have to Thanos the world to make it a better place. You do something.”

For Dr. Tope Mitchell, that something is ensuring everyone sees themselves in digital spaces. One product page at a time, she’s building a more inclusive internet.

And the data shows it’s working.