Right now, 3,000 creators are waiting to promote my guest Luke's product.
This episode is about how you build that kind of demand on TikTok.
Welcome to the Resilient Retail Gameplan.
I'm Catherine Erdly, and this podcast is here to share retail industry
trends, insights, and best practices for you, the retailer who's serious
about building something that lasts.
Luke Arnall-Cameron spent years in retail as a buyer at John Lewis and as
a marketing director before launching Yas Clean, his own cleaning brand.
Now he's using live shopping and TikTok Shop to do something most brands only
dream about, building a loyal customer base from scratch in real time and
not relying entirely on ad spend.
In this episode, Luke breaks down how discovery commerce works, why 45% of
his December customers came back to buy again, and how he thinks about building
a product range, not chasing virality.
Just applying the same logic that every good retailer already knows.
Whether you're evaluating TikTok Shop as a channel, considering how you can use
live shopping, scouting for brands that are genuinely resonating with consumers,
or just trying to understand how building a fast-growth business really happens,
Luke's story is one of the most insightful you'll find, because he really understands
the market and how to master fast growth.
In just its first year of trading, Yas Clean notched up over 650,000
orders, launched across five European countries and the US, and sold cleaning
and laundry products faster than Luke could get them back into stock.
He also won the TikTok Breakout Seller of the Year Award, so who
better to explain how this platform can lead to massive growth?
So we launched November 2024, so just over a year ago.
Uh, we launched in the UK.
Our first live stream, we did £70,000.
So that was the first time we'd launched the brand.
Bearing in mind we sell scent and cleaning products, so a lot of blind faith from a
lot of people to invest in our products considering they'd never existed before.
We sold out of 50% of our stock in our first day.
That had a run rate of three months, so there was lots of mass
ordering after that live stream.
And in our first year, we've done over 650,000 orders.
Wow.
We've launched in five European countries and also launched in the US.
Wow.
I mean, how do you even keep up with that level of demand?
Uh, it's a lot of stress.
A lot of out-of-stocks.
Yeah.
Many products go in and out of stock because we just can't keep stock in.
I'll give you an example.
No.
So we launched a degreaser, and it's incredible, and it's so good that you can
spray your oven and after t- 20 seconds you can wipe it clean with one swipe.
Obviously, that- Mm ... very much leads and lends itself into
TikTok content and video content.
We sold 10,000 bottles in seven days.
And it's actually only coming back into stock next week, and it's
been out of stock for three months.
So- Right ... it's been a challenge, and my whole life is
stock and keeping stuff in stock.
That is my biggest challenge in life, but it's a, it's a
beautiful challenge to have.
It does, and I think there's also, like, multifacets to it.
It's stock, obviously.
Mm. Keeping best-selling products in stock is always a, a challenge, especially for a
small business when you're looking at cash flow, and you're also looking at growth.
Mm-hmm.
And part of what we do is we sell cleaning products, but we're in a market
that's so fast, especially when you look at social selling- Mm ... that people
get bored very quickly, and they get bored of scent, and they get bored of
... They're a- they want the next thing.
So it's a minefield- Mm ... and a constant balance between maintaining
ens- ensuring we have enough stock for regular rate of sale, not
taking into consideration- Mm-hmm
the massive peaks of virality, but then also being able- Mm-hmm ... to have enough
capital to invest in product development and launching new products regularly to
keep- Right ... customers coming back, to keep them interested, to bring new
customers into the business, but also kind of grow- Mm ... and expand the brand.
So that is always a challenge.
That stock pressure is the hidden cost of the kind of
growth most brands dream about.
Luke has an unusual perspective on it.
He started his career as a graduate buyer at John Lewis and worked his
way up to director of marketing for a major commercial retailer.
But before any of that led to YAS CLEAN, his TikTok story began during
lockdown almost entirely by accident.
Prior to doing all of this- ... and TikTok and even being a content creator,
I was director of marketing for a very large commercial retail brand.
Mm. Okay.
So I oversaw all areas of marketing.
So I went from- Right ... the buying side into marketing and PR as a natural
progression of my career because I felt I was more creative and suited to that role.
And yeah, worked very hard at a very young age and, and got up to
director level, and that was amazing.
Then COVID happened and lockdown happened.
And we were exploring lots of new ways to reach our customers, and TikTok, which
was musically, was one of those avenues.
But I wanted to be prudent, and instead of signing the brand up on
TikTok, because it was so new, I decided to create an account for
myself personally to see how it worked.
How do you post?
What's the algorithm like?
How do you do hashtags?
Like, all of those things a marketeer wants to know on a new
platform, which it was at the time.
I had about 40 followers.
It was friends and family.
I was posting silly things just to ... I wasn't do- doing anything to go viral.
I was just trying to see what happened Then I got influenced by a TikTok,
uh, made me buy it, and bought- I've got dog's messes behind me.
Bought a carpet scraper to get dog hair out the carpet, and I was like, "You know
what? I'm just gonna film this. I'm just gonna film it, like see how it is." Filmed
it, and I will always remember this.
9:00 at night, filmed it.
Clumps of hair came out of my carpet, and I Hoover daily, right?
I was mortified, and you could see my genuine reaction on camera.
I posted it.
No link, 'cause TikTok Shop didn't exist then.
No link, nothing.
Just, "Oh my God, look at this carpet scraper. Look at all the dog hair
that came out." No hashtags, nothing.
I posted it about 10:20 at night.
I was tired, 'cause I go to bed early.
Went to bed.
Woke up to 1.8 million views and 10,000 followers overnight.
Wow.
Where- Like, just kept going and going and going, and I freaked.
I was like, "Oh my God." Then I realized the power of that platform.
Mm-hmm.
What happened for me personally was that lots of people
were like, "This is amazing.
You should try this.
Is this real?
Does this work?" So I started just buying stuff on Amazon, 'cause I was bored.
We were locked down at home.
So I started posting more review videos, honest review videos.
I'm not joking, within three or four weeks, brands started emailing me.
"We would love to send you this for free.
We'd love to send you that for free." And I was like, "Oh my God.
Okay, yeah, sure.
I'll... If you wanna send me something for free, of course.
I'll buy it next.
But yeah, send it to me." Then that was going and I got
to about 150,000 followers.
Then TikTok Shop happened.
It launched in the UK.
It was the first country in the West that launched.
So I was headhunted.
I was reached out to.
The number one... There was... They set up an- TikTok set up an agency.
So the agency reached out to me, which I still work with today, and said, "TikTok
Shop is launching. We've identified you as a potential seller. Would you
be interested in doing it?" Mm-hmm.
Now, I actually thought that it was a scam, and I thought it was fake, and
I almost didn't sign the contract.
My sister's best friend is a lawyer, so I got her to read over it.
And I remember sitting there at my dining room table, like I am now, and
the words I said to myself were, "In for a penny, in for a pound. If it goes
wrong, it goes wrong." So I signed it.
Uh.
Went down to TikTok's office.
Did my first live stream.
Uh, I was on camera for four hours live shopping, and I was the person that had
the least amount of followers on that day.
There were people live streaming on TikTok Shop that had 4
million, 5 million followers.
I was the highest seller on the day And I think it shocked all of
us because they were expecting a higher number of follower count to
equate to a higher number of sales.
But I think because I had a dedicated following of people that trusted that
I reviewed products and bought from me because they would use other affiliate
links, I think that was what did it, and they realized they needed people
that were doing this to be successful.
I then became the number one seller in the UK within that year, and
I... TikTok shop was my life.
I left my job.
I did it full-time.
I was making 10 times more than I was in my regular job, then decided I can see how
many more people are joining TikTok shop.
Lots more creators are joining, lots more brands are joining.
So it's gonna become more competitive for me as a creator to cut through
the noise, even with a big following.
So I was like, "I really wanna be a brand owner," because now is the time to do it.
Now I, I've spotted an opportunity that now is the time to become a brand
owner because so many more people are promoting products on TikTok shop.
So actually, we didn't do Yaskleen first.
Uh, we did Not Without Loves.
We started selling gadgets and viral gadgets.
We made a million.
That was my first million I made ever.
Then took that money and that profit and decided the smart thing to do was
to not make products that go viral and a one-time purchase to create a
product range and a brand which is repeat purchase, a consumable product.
Makeup and beauty was saturated, but I spotted that cleaning
wasn't I love cleaning.
So with no knowledge and no experience, I went on a year-long journey prior
to launching YAS CLEAN into reaching out to the right manufacturers to
partner to create cleaning products.
Lots of learns, lots of lessons learned, uh, and a year in development, and we
launched in November 2024, and it was clearly the best decision I ever made.
The rest is history.
A year of development, the right manufacturer, and a
clear gap in the market.
After first testing the model with a viral gadget brand that hit
seven figures, Luke had both the proof of concept and the capital to
build something with staying power.
I asked him how he thought about creating product range in a category
already dominated by household names.
So I think cleaning is cleaning, right?
And I think it- unless you're gonna spend a lot of money on research and development
and- Mm ... patent acquisition, it's very difficult to come up with something new.
Mm-hmm.
I find it really interesting when, especially people in business are
like, "I've got this great new idea."
And actually, there are some times when a brand-new idea, which is fresh
coming to the market, is the, is great.
Mm. But there's also times when actually you can take something
that already exists and just make it better or put your spin on it.
Mm-hmm.
And haven't really done anything innovative.
I haven't got...
I mean, lots of research and development goes into the product,
and actually- Mm, yeah ... there are innovations coming out now.
But when we first launched, we didn't do anything innovative.
I just did something that where I wanted to listen to my customer.
Mm-hmm.
So I was previously promoting cleaning products from other brands, and I think
what I was very conscious of is creating something that aligned with me- Mm-hmm
and aligned with my husband, but also aligned with my
community and was listening to what was going on in the world.
So we created a fun, fabulous, and affordable brand, and that is products
that have great efficacy, that work, products that have strong smell
because lots of people in the United Kingdom love a strong-smelling cleaning
product, and creating moments, so looking at what scents people love
in that moment and then replicating that in cleaning where others weren't.
So creating coconut and sea breeze and cherry blossom, and we're
working on oud at the moment.
So taking those moments, but making the product smell great.
And we are very, very scent-orientated as a brand.
We do have some unscented products, but as you know from our scent boosters, it's
about scent, but it's also about value.
So our scent booster tubs are two and a half liters.
We were the first people to make a two-and-a-half liter tub of scent
boosters, and they are incredibly affordable, but they smell amazing.
And for me, it was about marrying those two together to give great value but
also give great product, and that's kind of how we position ourselves.
We're not the cheapest, but we're not the most expensive, but we
sit in the middle at great value.
Fun, fabulous, affordable, and genuinely scent-led in a category that had never
really treated scent as a brand identity.
That positioning is converting people away from household name
detergents and fabric softeners that they've been loyal to for years.
If you look, there are big brands in the market, right?
And, and they dominate, and you'll get people that will only use one detergent,
only one- use one fabric softener.
And I think a big feat for us is that we've managed to convert
people from those brands to ours, which is incredible, right?
But I think it comes down to those three points and standing up and
saying, "We make great products," and not afraid to shout about that.
If you look at beauty and care, there are so many niche
indie brands, which is amazing.
There isn't the same in our industry and in our sector.
There is room in everyone's cupboard for my multipurpose cleaner and somebody
else's and another small brand's, and I think that's really important.
But I think it's also important that, you know, we stand by what we started and
we just continue to make great products.
And I think that in itself- Let me give you a stat.
Last month in December, obviously, we are not a gifting brand, so
cleaning is not top of everyone's priority to spend money on.
45% of our sales come from repeat customers last month, which is insane.
45% repeat customers in December, the hardest trading
month for a non-gifting brand.
Which leads to the question every TikTok brand eventually has to ask itself:
Is virality a strategy or a trap?
Virality is beautiful, but also an absolute pain because as a retailer,
as a brand, how do you manage your stock, your rate of sale?
Like, you can't.
Like, you can never predict it, and we now live in a world where things can go viral.
And actually- There are times when I have a hunch that I think this potentially
could go viral, but a lot of the time now I'm listening to our customers, listening
to ... We have over 4,000 creators that work with us on a regular basis.
I actually put a message out to all the creators yesterday.
I want you to tell me what products you think we should be making this year.
Tell me what you want.
Because it's not about going viral with, with everything.
It's also about creating a brand and a range of products across
multiple different areas of cleaning.
So that's about building a range.
Not everything's gonna go viral.
You're, you're gonna have dead stock.
You're gonna have slow sellers.
You're gonna have stuff that is just ticking over every day that people
just buy when they stock up, and you're gonna have those viral moments.
It's about all elements.
And traditional retail has that as well, right?
You'll have that hero product.
You'll have that product that doesn't sell that you put into
sale or you send to outlet.
Like, that's just retail, but it's about building a range and a brand arc
and a, and a price arc. And I guess because of my experience, I know that
and understand that, and what we're doing now, we're- we've had a capsule range.
We've worked out what sells, what doesn't sell, what people want,
and we're now building on that.
Building a range, not chasing spikes, and having the retail
literacy to know the difference.
Luke has now been on both sides of TikTok as a creator and as a brand owner.
Here's how he describes the model.
To start off with explaining, so obviously creating a brand on, on the platform are
obviously very different but very joined.
TikTok describe it as what's called discovery commerce.
So instead of the traditional approach to how you would sell a
product or market it, and let's just take e-commerce as an example, a
lot of that is around SEO or SEA.
So you're, you're talking about keywords and getting up rankings on search engines,
or you're paying for advertising, cash for an advert TikTok is very different.
TikTok shop is very different.
Your marketing budget is spent on sending samples to creators.
That's where you spend your money.
So instead of spending, I don't know, 1,000 pounds a day on ads, you would
spend 1,000 pounds a day sending out the equivalent of free samples to creators.
That's how it works.
And then a creator takes the products, they promote it.
So the more products you've got in creators' hands, the more you will
be across the For You page on TikTok, the more customers will see your
product, the more they'll be reinforced video after video to then hopefully
be convinced to buy your product.
Obviously, there's lots of other factors in that, but that's a
very dumbed down, simple version.
Yeah.
So you, as a brand, you set how much commission that creator earns.
Coming from a creator side, I know what it's like to work with good brands.
I know what the average commission value and rate is.
I know what looking after creators look like because I've been
looked after by brands myself.
So when I created the brand, I wanted to be customer-focused and creator-focused.
Yeah.
So when we went into this, we approve more samples than lots of other brands.
We give extra value, whether that be of creators' live stream.
We give them free giveaways.
There's a tool where you can give a free giveaway to a creator.
We give free giveaways to our creators as a thank you for supporting us.
There's lots of tools within TikTok where you can support creators.
We are creator first.
I put creators first.
At any given moment, around 3,000 creators are actively requesting
YAS CLEAN samples, but Luke isn't putting all his eggs into one TikTok basket.
The brand also sells on Amazon, its own website, and both
Tesco and B&Q marketplaces.
He's de-risking his platform strategy and building his range.
But one of the most interesting operational advantages Yaskleen has built
is something that most businesses on any channel simply don't have access to.
Always listening, and I think that's the beauty of live streaming.
So we are live pretty much all day, every day, seven days a week.
So I would say we're live from like 7:00 AM till 10:00 PM.
And whereas that is a sales channel, all of our live streamers, so we have a
team of expert live streamers that we've hand selected, um, that work for us.
They have a 50%/50% job.
50% of their job is to sit on live and sell, but 50% of their job
is customer service and feedback.
So we have a WhatsApp group that is currently around 20 messages deep as
I'm looking because I've asked them a question about asking customers
what they think about new scents, what they think about new products.
Do they like it?
Do they think we should change anything?
What's their feedback?
What do they think we should work on next?
Constant, all day, every day, and that real time element is that a
customer can go on our live stream, "My order hasn't arrived." "No problem.
The team are available now.
If you message here, they'll get back to you in five minutes," or, "No problem.
Give our phone line a call." Lots of shops on TikTok Shop don't have phone lines.
I want, um, I want you to come and know we've still online because if we're
live and someone has a problem with their order or they have an idea or a
suggestion, give us a call right now.
Because if one of the experts on the live can't do that, I've got a team
of people behind the scenes that can.
So for me, every day is feedback in so many forms, but our live is so important
to that because I get feedback all day, every day from it in real time.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
And so did you build out all of this entire infrastructure in the last,
like, 13 months- Yeah ... or did you have some of this before from- No.
No?
Sweet.
Yeah.
Well, we did have some, but yeah, most of it was built in the last-
Yeah ... in the last year, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Been a busy year.
We don't sleep.
Fresh skincare is on things I'll say.
Good skincare.
That's what I'm gonna say.
Good, good skincare.
At any given moment, around 3,000 creators are actively requesting YAS
CLEAN samples, but Luke isn't putting all his eggs into one TikTok basket.
The brand also sells on Amazon, its own website, and both
Tesco and B&Q marketplaces.
He's de-risking his platform strategy and building his range, but one of
the most interesting operational advantages YAS CLEAN has built is
something that most businesses on any channel simply don't have access to:
real-time feedback seven days a week.
That is a level of customer listening most businesses can't get close to.
While not everyone has a business model that works for this type of viral growth
on TikTok, it's certainly food for thought for anyone who wants a clear line
of communication with their customer.
Thanks so much for listening.
Don't forget to go check out YAS CLEAN on their socials or online
and see what an amazing job that they do selling the product.
And of course, if you have a moment to like, follow, or subscribe,
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And why not come along and say hi to me on Instagram, @resilientretailclub,
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