Couverture de RetailCraft - digital retail, ecommerce and brands - Retail Podcast

RetailCraft - digital retail, ecommerce and brands - Retail Podcast

RetailCraft - digital retail, ecommerce and brands - Retail Podcast

De : Ian Jindal
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 Multichannel retail, ecommerce and digital business - interviews, analysis and discussion with Ian Jindal and InternetRetailingCopyright 2018-26 All rights reserved. Economie Management Management et direction
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  • RetailCraft 62: "Full Circle: - in conversation with Lucie McLeod of Hair Syrup

    RetailCraft 62: "Full Circle: - in conversation with Lucie McLeod of Hair Syrup
    Feb 28 2026
    This episode is for founders, brand builders, and retail leaders interested in how a genuinely accidental business becomes a credible, structured consumer brand. Lucie McLeod started Hair Syrup in her parents' conservatory while at university, posted one TikTok video that hit 600,000 views, and built from there — without a business plan, without investment, and without a roadmap. However this is no tale of luck, or a hapless fortune. To listen to Lucie it's clear that the brain, drive and character were ready for the tasks, the test and the chance to build her business. Cometh the hour, cometh the leader.Ian Jindal chats with Lucie about what it actually takes to grow a DTC brand through social, how to respond to a very public rejection on Dragon's Den and turn it into a marketing moment, and where Hair Syrup is heading as it moves from a single hero product into a full wash-day brand with retail distribution through Boots.Key themesAccidental origin, deliberate growth: Hair Syrup started as a personal solution to Lucie's own scalp problems, formulated using academic research and natural ingredients she sourced from health food shops. The first TikTok video was not a launch strategy. It was a genuine personal post that went viral from a standing start. The business followed the demand, not the other way around.Problem-led product development: Every product in the range maps to a specific, common hair or scalp problem — length, grease, breakage, dandruff. This was not a range strategy imposed from above; it was Lucie solving her own problems and extending outward. When she eventually worked with a chemist, he told her the formulas she had developed independently were already production-ready.Community over clinical claims: Hair Syrup has clinical efficacy data and dermatologist testing, but its primary marketing tool is customer before-and-after photos. Lucie is explicit that she dislikes prescriptive beauty content and avoids invalidating individual experiences. The community is built on openness and expectation management, not on performance guarantees.Dragon's Den as a marketing asset: Hair Syrup appeared on Dragon's Den in summer 2024, received six rejections, and then turned the episode's broadcast in January 2025 into one of the most-discussed brand moments of the year. The team trolled the dragons back on TikTok with memes — the sad hamster among them — generating 24 million profile views in under 48 hours and 100,000 new followers. The Sunday Times named Lucie Young Founder of the Year shortly after. The lesson she draws is blunt: you cannot engineer this. It worked because it was authentic.The hidden operation: The public face of Hair Syrup is Lucie on TikTok — informal, funny, behind-the-scenes. The private face is an SLT with experienced heads of sales, finance, and logistics, an in-house 3PL, and chemists with serious CVs. Most of their audience has no idea the latter exists. Lucie considers this balance a strength.Brand building beyond the hero product: Hair Syrup launched in Boots in late 2024. The NPD pipeline is structured around extending the brand's core peppermint oil product into a full wash-day system — shampoo, conditioner, scalp serum — all sharing the same scent, colour scheme, and purpose. Leave-in oils have not landed as hoped and are being rethought. The direction is deliberate specialisation rather than category sprawl.⠀What you'll learnWhy solving a genuine personal problem is still one of the most defensible starting points for a consumer brand.How to build a community that stays loyal even when the product does not work for everyone.What a rejection on Dragon's Den can teach you about the gap between conventional investment logic and TikTok-native brand value.How to structure a post-crisis response for a team that is depending on you, when you are not sure yourself what comes next.How to maintain creative authenticity and brand character while building a grown-up operational structure behind the scenes.Why gut instinct and structured decision-making are not opposites — and how to use both at the same time.⠀Chapter structureIntroduction — Who Lucie is, Hair Syrup's age and origin, and what the brand stands for todayThe accidental start — A personal hair problem, lockdown, a viral TikTok from a standing start, and the slow realisation that this could be a businessFormulation and early product range — Research, chemistry, working with a professional chemist, and extending the range along problem linesBrand positioning — Accessible, inclusive, mid-market, solution-driven, and community-centredDragon's Den — Six rejections, the edit, what it felt like, the conversation with the team, and the decision to turn it aroundThe TikTok counter-offensive — Trolling the dragons, the sad hamster meme, the BBC's reaction, 24 million views in 48 hoursStructure and scale — What Hair Syrup actually looks like behind the TikTok page, and the role of a senior ...
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    45 min
  • RetailCraft 61: "Open Doors" - in conversation with Shannon Osman of Footasylum

    RetailCraft 61: "Open Doors" - in conversation with Shannon Osman of Footasylum
    Jan 31 2026
    This episode is for retail operators who believe that the store estate is an asset, and that the people running it are the brand. Ian Jindal chat with Shannon Osman, Head of Retail at Footasylum, who has built her career from shop floor to leadership and brings a practitioner's clarity to questions that often get buried in strategy decks: how do you actually recruit, retain and develop a predominantly Gen Z workforce at scale? The conversation covers Footasylum's distinctive hiring model, its social-first content machine, the Locked In franchise, and a franchise expansion into the Middle East — all through the lens of a retailer that has won Retail Employer of the Year while opening stores, not closing them.Key themesRethinking recruitment from first principles: Footasylum scrapped the CV-led process and replaced it with group in-store interviews. No CV submission, just availability, knockout questions, and a live group exercise. The best candidate on the day gets the job, eliminating unconscious bias and filtering for exactly the communication skills the role demands.Retention as proof of concept: Staff turnover dropped from 107% to 75% after the new recruitment model was introduced. Seasonal hires - historically the hardest to retain - are now routinely offered permanent roles at the end of peak. The data follows the culture, not the other way around.Progression without a title change: Shannon is direct that promotion is not the only form of progression. Recommending a book, setting personal goals alongside professional ones, giving people a voice in operational decisions - these are the mechanisms Footasylum uses to keep people invested. The goal-setting process (two work goals, one personal) runs from February, reviewed quarterly, owned by the individual.Communication at scale: With almost 70 stores and around 1,300 staff, Footasylum adopted Zipline as its internal communications platform - chosen because it looks and behaves like social media. Execution and readership rates are tracked, but the rationale was engagement, not surveillance. The platform was used to run a company-wide vote for Store Manager of the Year, generating 1,300 responses.Social as a commercial engine: 1.2 billion organic views across social media last year, up 35% year-on-year. Footasylum sits in the top 5% of TikTok users globally, alongside the BBC and Sky Sports. Its Locked In series - influencers and content creators in a house format, competing and generating content — drives 200,000 additional app downloads per run and feeds directly into in-store footfall and on-site conversion.Middle East expansion via franchise: Footasylum has signed a franchise agreement to enter the Gulf region. Shannon visited the Mall of Emirates, Mall of Dubai and Dubai Hills ahead of the announcement. The market's appetite for elevated retail experience - and the presence of a significant UK expat base - makes it a credible fit for the brand's positioning, which sits above the mass market without claiming luxury.⠀What you'll learnWhy removing CVs from the hiring process can improve both the quality of hire and long-term retention and how to structure a group interview that actually tests for the right things.How to build a communication infrastructure that reaches every layer of a large store estate, not just the management tier.What "progression" looks like when you can't always offer a title or a salary uplift and why that matters for a Gen Z workforce.How a content-first social strategy translates directly into measurable commercial outcomes: app downloads, footfall, and omnichannel conversion.How to approach franchise expansion into a culturally distinct market while preserving brand DNA and why the right partner matters more than the right playbook.Why listening to store managers is not just good culture but good operations: some of Footasylum's most efficient decisions in the last 18 months have come from the shop floor up.⠀Chapter structureIntroduction — Who Footasylum is, its 20-year history, near-70 store estate, and core Gen Z/Alpha consumerThe store in 2025 — Why physical retail still matters, and what it means to have Gen Z staff serving Gen Z customersRethinking recruitment — The CV-free group interview model and the results it has producedGrowth and expansion — New UK stores (including Merthyr Tydfil), and the Middle East franchise dealRetention and culture — Retail Employer of the Year, goal-setting, and the meaning of progressionCommunication at scale — Zipline, why it works, and how it changes the relationship between head office and the shop floorLocked In and the social engine — The Locked In series, 1.2bn organic views, and the omnichannel flywheelShannon's own journey — From football coaching in the US to Head of Retail; the constants that haven't changed; what's on the learning list for 2026⠀About the guestShannon Osman is Head of Retail at Footasylum, the UK apparel, footwear and accessories ...
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    34 min
  • RetailCraft 60: "Win, Win, Win" - in conversation with Florian Clemens of Tesco Media

    RetailCraft 60: "Win, Win, Win" - in conversation with Florian Clemens of Tesco Media
    Nov 2 2025

    Tesco Media's Director Strategy, Proposition & Measurement, Florian Clemens, explains how a focus on win-win-win outcomes (value for shopper, advertiser, and retailer) guides the strategy for Tesco's retail media business. The discussion centres on measurement, omnichannel innovation, the legacy of Clubcard data, and Tesco's position as a market maker in UK retail. Practical examples highlight transparent loyalty incentives, creative brand partnerships, and the challenge of delivering differentiation on a large scale. The conversation closes with what's next for Tesco: building truly omnichannel, science-driven media and exploring the real-world impact of AI on habits and shopping behaviour.

    Points of Note on Tesco Media
    •Tesco holds 28% of UK supermarket sales, reaches nearly every UK household, and operates at a scale matched by few retailers.
    •Clubcard's integration with Dunnhumby's data science powers Clubcard Challenges; over 80% of in-store revenue is attributed to identified shoppers.
    •Tesco Media runs as an internal joint team: Tesco, Dunnhumby, and external talent.
    •More than 25 ad products: coupons, search, store screens, Clubcard Challenges - designed for relevance, transparency, and incremental value.

    Key Quotes
    "This win-win-win needs to be right for the shopper, right for the advertiser, and right for the retailer. That just takes longer to figure out, but it's what we're building"

    “Clubcard changed the face of British retail… suddenly it was about data-driven engagement.”

    “It’s only a real win if it’s truly better for people. I don’t think we’ve seen that at scale - yet.” “If I started making a list of all our sources of inventory, turning delivery vans into ad products would have been number 35… but being a UK-focused decision maker lets us try it if it feels right.” “With Clubcard Challenges, customers choose which brands to engage more deeply with, and advertisers only pay if people convert - a transparent, zero-risk proposition.” “Tier-one platforms can build direct relationships. Further down the list, you have to aggregate for economic reasons - otherwise agencies simply don’t have the bandwidth.”

    Episode Running Order • 00:00 — Introductions, context, Tesco’s leading market position • 01:00 — Tesco Media’s joint strategy, scale, and data science • 04:00 — Clubcard’s legacy and retail media’s evolution • 07:00 — Team structure: Tesco, Dunnhumby, and new hires • 09:00 — The win-win-win foundation; Clubcard Challenges as example • 12:00 — Differentiating Tesco Media from a decade of programmatic and performance marketing • 17:00 — Brand partnerships: creative campaigns (Christmas grottos, branded vans) • 20:00 — Complexity in omnichannel: 25+ ad products, need for self-optimisation • 23:00 — Future vision: scientific omnichannel planning and implementing AI in commerce • 29:00 — Price sensitivity, habit, and the real test for AI and automation • 34:00 — Closing thoughts, next steps, and invitation for a return discussion on AI

    -- Run time: 38 minutes

    INFORMATION:

    [ 🖥️ ]

    Tesco Media - https://www.dunnhumby.com/tesco-media-insight-platform/

    [ 👨‍👧 ]

    Florian Clemens: https://www.linkedin.com/in/florianclemens/

    Ian Jindal: www.linkedin.com/in/ianjindal/

    [ 📷 ] (c) Ian Jindal / www.instagram.com/ianjindal
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    38 min
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