Latest / The Resilient Retail Game Plan - retail insights, retail trends and best practices / How to Build a Retail Community That Actually Buys From You

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How to Build a Retail Community That Actually Buys From You · The Resilient Retail Game Plan - retail insights, retail trends and best practices

• 0:00
  A few years ago I was at the Trade Fair Spring Fair, and I was at the award ceremony for the good retail awards that I was a judge for for many
• 0:10
  years. I was sitting there watching people walk up to the stage to get their prizes, and I remember seeing this woman walking past me in a dark green boiler
• 0:20
  As she walked past me and I could see her back, I realized on the back of the boiler suit there was a huge sequined parrot, and I just
• 0:30
  absolutely loved it. I had to find out where she got this boiler suit from. So after the ceremony, I made a beeline straight over to her and I said, you have to tell me where this
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  Well, it turns out it comes from Love Your Look clothing, and Ronke Fashola, who is the brand's founder, is joining us today on the podcast. Spoiler
• 0:50
  alert, I ended up buying one of those jumpsuits myself in black. And I have to tell you, it's absolutely magnificent.
• 1:22
  Ronke, I've asked her before to be on the podcast many years ago.
• 1:25
  We never got round to it. And then recently we started chatting again on Instagram
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  after I put up a post a few weeks ago talking about Joanie Clothing and my analysis of why they'd gone into administration. And one of the things that we
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  talked about was Joanie becoming a faceless brand and whether or not they had really built a sense of community.
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  But what does it actually mean to build a community around your
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  brand? Not a following, but a real living, breathing community of people who show up for you the same way that you show up for them. And Ronke has spent the last
• 2:00
  couple of years finding out and figuring out how to build that community in the most hands-on way possible, and that's why I wanted to get her on to the podcast
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  Not only is Love Your Look a bold, inclusive, colour-forward fashion brand that is built on the belief that getting dressed should feel joyful, but Ronke is
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  also someone, as you'll hear, who genuinely walks the talk when it comes to knowing her customer.
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  Ronke had spent a lot of 2024 thinking about what community
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  actually means in practice.
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  Not just followers, but real people who share the same spirit as the brand. She knew exactly who her customer was. The question was how to bring them together,
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  and the answer when it came was beautifully simple. What if she just invited them in? Not as customers watching from the outside, but as part of the brand itself, front and
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  centre in front of a camera, feeling incredible.
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  I've always invited a few customers to become part of our model, sort of,
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  collection as such. But I thought, actually, last year, I said to myself, I'm gonna do it on a bigger scale.
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  Why not just open up the invite to as many people as possible?
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  And it's all on me. I'll pay for the hair to be done. I'll pay for their makeup to be done. Let everyone just feel really amazing about
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  themselves. And lo and behold, we got 70 applicants and obviously sent an email out to say, listen guys, this is great, but need
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  Like, I'm not into the, oh, I can, I can't. I can, I can't because yes, life is for everybody, but we need people who are gonna
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  be really serious about wanting to show up. From 70, went down to 40, which was still a phenomenal number.
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  Yeah. Yeah.
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  And then logistically,
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  we had to split that up into two groups, a morning group session and an afternoon group session.
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  And then they all kind of met in the afternoon and we had big
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  group shots. But to say that the day was, I don't even know how to put it into words, but it was one of the most phenomenal
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  days for everybody on an empowerment level. So enriching to be in that space with other people who got you. And the
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  community just kind of started to grow more and more and more.
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  And we met the most amazing people on that day as well. From that, the WhatsApp group started.
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  Because I'd always, in my mind, how do I create a WhatsApp group? I don't want a WhatsApp group where people just come online and be like,
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  Where's my order? Where's my
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  package? I wanted a WhatsApp group that was gonna give people more, and you could share things, the good stuff
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  about what's happening in your week. You know, you can share things about your own business, share things about other brands that you love. You know, things that you bought secondhand and vintage.
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  So it's like a
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  really amazing community. And also allow me to ask them questions about, I'm not sure about, should I be focusing on, what should I be
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  doing next? Where we are at the moment, retailers and brands, I can't be thinking how they were thinking five, six years ago. If you're thinking
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  that, you know, you can't be building collections as a seasonal kind of drop. It doesn't work like that anymore. You need to be thinking on a more strategic level. You need to be
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  thinking about what your customer needs in their life. You know, so that has helped tremendously.
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  So that's kind of
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  how I started a community on a more close-knit level. I think before that it was pop-up shops, my pop-up shops,
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  and people would travel far and wide. And I'm so blessed. I'd have my pop-up shops in St. Albans and people will come
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  from Reading, from Cardiff, from Scotland, all the way to Hertfordshire for Love Your
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  Look. And you know, I'd cry sometimes because
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  I'd be like, what? Like, this is insane. So that would be my normal kind of community once a year thing. But this year
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  we're gonna do three pop-up shops. And we're doing the photo shoot. So I'm really excited.
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  So with the WhatsApp group, then, it started with
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  the 20 people who were at the shoot, which sounds like an amazing way to really meet people in person.
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  WhatsApp groups.
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  WhatsApp groups. Okay.
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  One
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  is for those who take part in the photo shoot, so you'll soon be part of it.
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  Excellent.
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  Those customers, I have to
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  admit, I've brought in a few of those - they're like the people who tend to buy everything I make, and they've got the VIP section.
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  And then I have my gold customers, which is just those who wanna join. They're all the amazing customers who just wanna join part of the conversation.
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  So I have two WhatsApp
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  groups going on, which is nice.
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  Yeah. And as you said, it works as a two-way street then, right? You're able to talk to your super fans effectively and they're able to talk to
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  you, and it builds that feeling of connection and community.
• 7:23
  Absolutely. And those - I love that word, super fan. I love that word.
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  Fashion has been woven into Ronke's life since her first Saturday job, and the decline of the brands she loved hits personally. I brought her back to the specifics of
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  So I wanted to talk a little bit about Joanie, because one of the reasons that all the paths led us down to this podcast - although we have chatted before - was that I'd put up a
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  post about Joanie and kind of what happened and what it meant for small brands, and then you'd shared
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  your thoughts in terms of ways that they could have engaged their
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  community. So I wondered if you'd be open to sharing just a few of your thoughts about Joanie, about maybe what they could have done differently.
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  Yeah. Do you know what, any brand that ends their
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  sort of company is just sad. You know, I think the UK fashion industry in itself is just a really
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  sad story. Like, it actually kept me really emotional because I'm like - I've lived for fashion since the age of 16. My first job
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  was on Regent Street at Oasis, and that's how I got started in fashion. I loved Oasis.
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  Still sad about that.
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  Yeah, and that's how I started in the fashion
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  industry. That's actually how I got my first break in the fashion industry because I met Kate Winslet's stylist
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  in there. So I got my first break in there and did
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  lots of stuff.
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  Like, really, really sad. But I feel like how could they have perhaps engaged more? I feel like, first of all, I
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  honestly think they did some amazing prints and amazing collections, but I honestly think they perhaps doubled down
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  too much on some of the collaborations. What would've been really interesting would've been to have seen collaborations more with their
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  If I had the capital that they had - and I'm a much smaller brand - I would definitely have introduced more
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  inspired collections by my customers. By that I mean let's pull in the people who we know, who follow us, who
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  have got amazing skillsets or talents, and see how we can incorporate that into our range.
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  And
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  present them as artists and give the brand more of a face. I really don't even know who that
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  I don't think by the end it was being run by the people who'd founded it, and that was part of it as well. It looks like in about 2022, 2023, it wasn't exactly
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  a change of ownership, but they took on quite a lot of investment from a company that specialised in turnarounds, and the original founder stepped back.
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  A few people have said
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  that to me, that it was quite faceless. And I do think in recent years there was no real identity. It was very much more like, you know, you think about something like Boden or the White
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  Company. You know, we don't really see who - there's Johnny Boden, but he's kind of not sort of front and centre. And I feel like they almost wanted it to feel quite
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  corporate, and it kind of backfired.
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  Absolutely it did. And funny you mention Boden, because one of my mentors is one of the
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  former high-profile CEOs of Boden.
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  Amazing.
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  And I've seen that transition because I know what the old
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  Boden was like, and I've had that conversation, and I think yeah, it's definitely taken a turn for the better because Johnny
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  actually has become a bit more present.
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  Yeah.
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  You see his daughters in campaigns and see his family in campaigns, which is really beautiful to see.
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  You get that sense of a bit more family orientation, and even some of the people who work at the brand step forward a bit more. What brands are lacking
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  is understanding that we're actually quite keen to see behind it all.
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  You know? And it took me a while to understand that.
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  It took me a long time to understand that because I feel that when I started the brand, there wasn't a lot of social media and I had very
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  much just a face at events. And people were always very surprised to see me as the brand owner, not just
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  as a female, but as a black female.
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  And that's something that I've had to sort of get my head around - actually, it's okay to put your
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  face forward. People really wanna see who you are. And that took me a long time to kind of get to grips with. You know, I was a bit like, are you sure,
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  people? Is it gonna put people off?
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  Because I feel like maybe - and this is just from a consumption perspective - when you look at big
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  brands, you don't necessarily see anybody like myself. But I've really become so much more
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  empowered by my community who are really encouraging and say, we love the fact that you are female.
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  We love the fact that you're here, and we love the fact that you're you.
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  Inclusivity. You know, it's not just - and that's a huge thing for me. Huge, huge, huge, huge thing for me. Not just about colour, but also about size.
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  So important. Like, I just can't understand brands who thought they would survive by stopping at a size 16.
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  Well, it brings me nicely onto my next question though, which was about inclusivity. You've talked about your mission being to make fashion truly inclusive, and I think you've touched on that slightly there. But yeah,
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  just to kind of delve more into - what does inclusivity mean to you?
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  So it's about different, all types of people, all sizes.
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  Everybody, you know? It's about just everyone
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  embracing and just being themselves. I would never turn away anybody who wants to model for me. I've got the most fantastic group of
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  models lined up for the photo shoot in May that I've scouted myself. I've just literally gone up to people and been like, oh my God, you look amazing.
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  Like,
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  yes, yes, Queen. We need you. So I'm very excited about that. Size-wise as well, you know,
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  I am more than happy to go out of my way and figure out how we can make things in a different size that's more comfortable for people. If we don't offer that size, we go up to
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  a size 26, and if that size isn't right, I'll figure it out.
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  You know, I wanna know if something's too small. I'm like, okay, well where? Where is it too small?
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  How can we figure that out? The other day I had a lovely customer and she sent me a message and she said she wanted me to use a different type
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  of fabric, or consider using a different type of fabric for our sweatshirts.
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  So, our first time really going into sweats - they've done amazing for us.
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  And I noticed that there was like a lack of colour. Obviously
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  everyone's got lovely sweatshirts on the market at the moment, but they all seem to go into a different monochromatic
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  Yes.
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  palette. And not so many brights. So we thought, okay, well let's see what people might want.
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  This customer was so amazing. She sent me an email and she said, I really love what you do, I'd buy everything you have, but is there any way you could consider another type of fabric
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  that is slightly more sustainable?
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  And I was sitting there, I think it was a Friday night, and I saw her email and I said, oh, I'm not gonna email her back. I'm not gonna do anything. I just messaged her
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  and said, can I call you? And she said, uh, okay. And I called her
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  up and I said, thank you so much - first of all, what a beautiful message, because it really was so beautiful.
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  And I just had to have a
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  25-minute talk with her about sustainability, about using different fabrics. And she gave me a load of different types of fabrics. And yeah, from that we're gonna really kind of trial
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  some newer fabrics as well. So it's been really - things like that I feel really passionate about. Not just about inclusivity
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  on the visual front, but also
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  inclusivity and ethics and sustainability from behind the scenes, and really kind of considering what
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  customers are all about. You know what that message is.
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  Well, it's interesting actually. I have one of your jumpsuits. After I'd ordered it, I got an
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  email saying, this is the first time you've ordered from us, can I just check your measurements to make sure you've got the right size?
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  And then I sent them my measurements and then they said, actually, I think we'd
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  suggest this size instead, or something like that. And I was so impressed. I feel like I told everyone about it.
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  Oh.
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  Because I don't think that that happens
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  very often. And, you know, is that - well, I guess it helps you with reduced returns, right?
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  But as a customer, that's a great customer experience.
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  We do
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  that often. If it's a new customer, obviously the system flags it and it tells us behind the scenes if it's a new customer. And
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  yeah, we'll definitely email customers. And we do that as well for any international orders.
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  We do it for international orders because most of the time customers will buy about
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  two, three things. For international orders, I would just be heartbroken if it were me
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  and I'd bought something and it wasn't the right size, and you've
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  taken my money. Like, that's theft as far as I'm concerned, like seriously, theft. The measurement check - why wouldn't I? Why wouldn't I just take someone's
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  measurements and be like, okay, I think we could just do with that size or that size. And it might be because, you know, we're
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  all used to buying specific sizes from different brands, aren't we? And that might just be in your head - oh, I buy a size medium or an extra large from that brand.
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  It'll be the same. But it might not be. The cut is slightly different. And it might be because we use cotton most of the time as well, so it might not be
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  stretching.
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  So yeah, we do do that quite often. And also what we've started to do as well - and we do quite a bit of this - we've got a tailor not far
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  So if something needs adjusting or altering, we'll do that for customers.
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  I had a customer who had a pre-order.
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  She ordered it, she gave us her measurements, it all was correct to what she had ordered. Then she tried it on and she was like, you know, I might not have been as generous as
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  I could have been - which we're all guilty of. I've done it before.
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  I've - just gonna maybe not eat so many packets of crisps next week.
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  So anyway, she sent it back and I said, okay, what we're gonna do is we're gonna put in some panels to the side, which is what couture does, you know, on the side.
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  And she was like, really? And I was like, yeah, easy. She was like, oh my God, I can't believe that.
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  That same service
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  runs in both directions. Ronke has taken in garments for customers who've lost weight too, sometimes dozens of pieces at a time, rather than let them part with clothes they love.
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  I think that's how you
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  sustain a great business, you know.
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  Just going that extra mile. And it's almost - this is gonna sound really cheesy, don't laugh - but it's
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  almost how I was brought up, you know, in my Catholic schoolgirl phase of just treat others how you'd like to
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  Yeah. Yeah. No,
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  completely. Yeah, not at all. There's so much truth in what you're saying in terms of - it's easy to overthink some of these things. You know,
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  what you're really talking about is being a decent human and treating people like you'd like to be treated and really caring about your customer.
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  And I think that's
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  what sets an independent brand apart from the big retailers. And I'm not saying big retailers don't care about their customers, because lots of them do. But I think not to this level. I just think
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  that it's not a personal relationship where they know the name of their best customer and they're in a WhatsApp group with them, you know. So it's leveraging that as
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  your superpower.
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  Absolutely. Absolutely.
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  Yeah.
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  And I'm just constantly thinking about, okay, what else can we do to really just
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  blossom the brand and move things forward? There is a Frida Kahlo exhibition that's coming up later on this year, and I
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  put out a shout out to people who would like to just come, because it's normally me on my own anyway, so why not invite people?
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  You know, I'm normally just - it's hard to get people to
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  come to exhibitions these days, so I'm normally just trodding along on my own. So I thought, well, why don't I just ask the customers who wants to? And quite a lot of them were like, oh my
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  God, I'd love to come. So we've got that in the diary, and the photo shoot.
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  So yeah, we're gonna see what else we can do, and
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  anyone else who wants to, come along.
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  And that's the strength of, as you said, attracting like-minded people,
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  right? People that love colour, that love art, that are creative, that want to express themselves through clothes. So it's - what do they call it -
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  attracting your ideal
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  customer. And I'm sure yours are incredible advocates, right?
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  Absolutely. Yeah. Yes,
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  they're amazing. Funny thing is, people will come up to them. If you are wearing a Love Your Look item - and this isn't me
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  tooting my own horn - but if you are wearing a Love Your Look item, you need to be prepared to have someone come up to you. You need to be prepared that
• 21:50
  someone will give you a compliment or a few compliments, or give you the look of, hmm, like that look of
• 21:59
  Yeah.
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  wondering where that's from, but I'm not brave enough to go up and ask. I might take a picture and scan it and Google it.
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  I've definitely been guilty of that.
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  Yes, absolutely. I've got some great, great customers who fly the flag amazingly.
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  Everything Ronke talked about today - the photo shoots, the WhatsApp groups, the Friday night phone calls, the taking in of 18 dresses -
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  none of it is complicated, but all of it takes intention. It takes deciding that your customer is a person worth knowing, not just a transaction worth
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  processing. And I think that's what separates the brands that last from the ones that don't.
• 22:44
  If today's conversation has you thinking about your own business, about community, about how you're showing
• 22:50
  up, about what you could be doing differently, then I'd love to see you at Retail Roar. It's a free two-day online summit I run every year, bringing together some of the most inspiring
• 23:00
  independent retailers and founders in the UK, as well as experts to share what's actually working right now.
• 23:06
  No fluff, no gatekeeping, just real stories from people who are
• 23:10
  in it just like you. This year it's the 26th and 27th of March 2026, and it's completely free to attend. You can grab your spot at the link in the episode description in
• 23:20
  whatever app you're listening to this on right now. For YouTube, it's in the episode description below. I'd absolutely love to see you there.
• 23:29
  Ronke, thank you for your
• 23:30
  time, your openness, for your fabulous sequin garments, and for being such a brilliant example of what it looks like to run a business with genuine heart. Go and find her at
• 23:40
  Love Your Look - the link is in the episode description. And if you do go to one of her pop-ups, you have been warned: you will leave with something fabulous, and you might just fall in love with a sequin jumpsuit
• 23:50
  Thanks for listening. And I'll talk to you in the next episode, number 294, in which I'll be looking into how retail is changing, and fast.