RetailCraft - digital retail, ecommerce and brands - Retail Podcast

About RetailCraft - digital retail, ecommerce and brands - Retail Podcast

Multichannel retail, ecommerce and digital business - interviews, analysis and discussion with Ian Jindal and InternetRetailing

Publisher

Ian Jindal

Category

business · technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

27 Jul 2018

Latest episode

28 Feb 2026

Latest episodes

63 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   28 Feb 2026

   RetailCraft 62: "Full Circle: - in conversation with Lucie McLeod of Hair Syrup

   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 themes Accidental 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 learn Why 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 structure Introduction — Who Lucie is, Hair Syrup's age and origin, and what the brand stands for today The accidental start — A personal hair problem, lockdown, a viral TikTok from a standing start, and the slow realisation that this could be a business Formulation and early product range — Research, chemistry, working with a professional chemist, and extending the range along problem lines Brand positioning — Accessible, inclusive, mid-market, solution-driven, and community-centred Dragon's Den — Six rejections, the edit, what it felt like, the conversation with the team, and the decision to turn it around The TikTok counter-offensive — Trolling the dragons, the sad hamster meme, the BBC's reaction, 24 million views in 48 hours Structure and scale — What Hair Syrup actually looks like behind the TikTok page, and the role of a senior leadership team the audience never sees 2026 and beyond — Boots, NPD, the wash-day range, international ambitions, and staying open to where the brand might go ⠀ About the guest Lucie McLeod is the founder and CEO of Hair Syrup, a UK haircare brand she started at 21 while studying at the University of Warwick, where she graduated with a first. She began by hand-making pre-wash hair oils in her parents' conservatory and built the brand through TikTok before establishing a wider social and retail presence. Hair Syrup now sells through Boots as well as direct-to-consumer, runs an in-house 3PL operation, and has a senior team spanning sales, finance, logistics, and product development. She was named Sunday Times Young Founder of the Year following the brand's Dragon's Den appearance in early 2025, in which she received six rejections and subsequently turned the episode into a widely covered brand marketing moment. Quotes "I was ignoring all of the signs. I had people saying, you could sell me this, and I think if I was an entrepreneur, my business brain would have thought, right, I'll take 20 quid, let's do it." "The moral of the story is make the best of a bad situation. The moral is not: try and do really badly so you can redeem yourself." "Behind the curtain, it's a really serious operation — with a lot of extremely skilled people dealing with distributors, international expansion, NPD, chemists with impressive CVs. And people just have no idea." "I wonder if I didn't have a team, if I was doing this by myself — might I have given up?" "I don't like the idea that brands ever have to be pigeonholed. As long as you're open, honest, transparent and reactive, you can enjoy the ebbs and flows." --  Run time: 44 minutes INFORMATION: [ 🖥️ ] Hair Syrup - https://www.hairsyrup.co.uk/ [ 👨👧 ] Lucie McLeod: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucie-macleod-775a60159/ Ian Jindal: www.linkedin.com/in/ianjindal/ [ 📷 ] (c) Ian Jindal / www.instagram.com/ianjindal

2. 

   31 Jan 2026

   RetailCraft 61: "Open Doors" - in conversation with Shannon Osman of Footasylum

   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 themes Rethinking 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 learn Why 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 structure Introduction — Who Footasylum is, its 20-year history, near-70 store estate, and core Gen Z/Alpha consumer The store in 2025 — Why physical retail still matters, and what it means to have Gen Z staff serving Gen Z customers Rethinking recruitment — The CV-free group interview model and the results it has produced Growth and expansion — New UK stores (including Merthyr Tydfil), and the Middle East franchise deal Retention and culture — Retail Employer of the Year, goal-setting, and the meaning of progression Communication at scale — Zipline, why it works, and how it changes the relationship between head office and the shop floor Locked In and the social engine — The Locked In series, 1.2bn organic views, and the omnichannel flywheel Shannon'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 guest Shannon Osman is Head of Retail at Footasylum, the UK apparel, footwear and accessories retailer with almost 70 stores and a Gen Z–first positioning. She has spent the majority of her career in store-based retail, moving through the operational ranks to a leadership role with P&L responsibility for the entire physical estate. Since joining the role, she has overhauled Footasylum's recruitment model, introduced a scaled communications platform, and helped lead the business to Retail Employer of the Year 2025. She is also part of the team driving Footasylum's first international franchise expansion into the Middle East. Quotes "The staff members on the shop floor are the most vital employees in the business. They are what represents you as a company — that's the face-to-face interaction your customers are having, ultimately." "Our staff retention has gone from 107% down to 75%. We are retaining people now because the people we're employing want to stay with us." "Anybody can open a door for you. It's up to you to walk through it." "Everyone thinks progression is going for the next job title. Progression is reading a book your line manager sent you that you never even knew existed." "Every single mall I entered just felt like Footasylum should be there." — Shannon Osman, on her first visit to Dubai and Abu Dhabi --  Run time: 35 minutes INFORMATION: [ 🖥️ ] Footasylum - https://www.footasylum.com/ [ 👨👧 ] Shannon Osman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-osman-84bbb2260/ Ian Jindal: www.linkedin.com/in/ianjindal/ (http://www.linkedin.com/in/ianjindal/) [ 📷 ] (c) Ian Jindal / www.instagram.com/ianjindal (http://www.instagram.com/ianjindal)

3. 

   2 Nov 2025

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

   Ian Jindal interviews Florian Clemens, Director Strategy, Proposition & Measurement at Tesco Media, about building a win-win-win retail media strategy driven by shopper, advertiser, and retailer value.

Who has been a guest on RetailCraft - digital retail, ecommerce and brands - Retail Podcast

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Florian Clemens
• Shani Higgs
• Timo Boldt
• Oskar Jacobsson
• Philipp Andree

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 52 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

72

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

81

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