Founder of P.Louise Cosmetics, Paige Williams, has the number one TikTok shop in the U.K.
Retail is changing fast and the brands leading the way aren’t necessarily the biggest or most tenured. Instead, retailers that prioritize social media such as TikTok Shop and community engagement are setting the pace and raising the bar for everyone else.
Nowhere is this shift more evident than on TikTok, where a new generation of founders is bypassing traditional gatekeepers by building loyal customer bases and scaling their businesses at lightning speed. While major players still dominate the high street, the most exciting growth stories in U.K. retail are happening far from legacy storefronts.
One standout example is U.K. beauty brand P.Louise Cosmetics that launched on social media and has since become TikTok’s number one U.K. shop and are now projecting a £100 million turnover this year. With social and e-commerce now accounting for more than 50% of beauty sales globally, P.Louise has capitalised on a growing trend to buy beauty online.
It’s a sharp indication that the future of retail is no longer tied to real estate but to community, content, and connection.
Radical transparency builds loyalty
At the heart of this shift is a growing demand for realness.
Today’s consumers, especially younger shoppers, crave transparency, authenticity, and purpose. They’re not just buying products; they’re buying into people and values.
As the founder of P.Louise Cosmetics, Paige Williams has built her brand around radical honesty and an unfiltered look behind the scenes. From showcasing product mishaps to sharing vulnerable personal moments, she has cultivated a fanbase that feels more like a family than a group of consumers.
“I’ve stripped bare now on social,” she says, referring to how she shares the good, the bad and the ugly behind the scenes of the business. “I talk about my scars… and I think the fact that I show up so real and raw and don’t pretend I’m more than what I am… builds trust.”
This level of openness has created a two-way relationship between brand and customer. Whether through daily social media content or pop-up events at the brand’s fulfillment center-turned-visitor attraction, every interaction is designed to deepen that connection.
Rather than aiming for perfection, P.Louise puts authenticity first, even when that means owning up to mistakes in real time. Williams encourages her team to share the messy parts of their work days and isn’t afraid to address issues directly on camera.
“If we’ve messed up, I will go on camera within 10 minutes and say, we have a major problem,” she explains. “We own our faults online, publicly.”
That immediate accountability, combined with a relentless focus on customer service, has become a cornerstone of the brand’s success.
Feedback fuels growth
Rather than developing products behind closed doors, social-first brands are putting customers at the center of everything—from product ideation to final packaging.
Each launch offers an opportunity to gather unfiltered feedback, with customers weighing in on the details that matter most, like how the product feels, smells, or looks. That input feeds directly into future development.
“People feel safe to say to me, I don’t like this product… the scent is too strong or they don’t like the texture… and we’re listening,” Williams says.
That feedback loop is baked into the product strategy. Williams and her team treat every comment as insight, using real-time reactions to refine formulas, rethink packaging, or scrap ideas altogether if they don’t resonate. It’s a collaborative process that puts the community in the role of co-creator.
“We always say [if] we can’t improve the price point or performance, we won’t touch it,” she says. “I am an ex makeup artist. I think that makes a really big difference. I know what’s needed.”
This mindset allows the brand to remain nimble, experimenting with smaller batch sizes and only scaling products that resonate. As a result, they report no slow-moving stock which is a rarity in retail.
Disruption without compromise
Social-first brands are disrupting the market, not just through rapid growth, but by rewriting how modern businesses operate. Many, like P.Louise Cosmetics, are entirely self-funded, with no outside investors or boardrooms to appease. That independence gives them the freedom to move fast, speak honestly, and take creative risks that traditional retailers might avoid.
This freedom has led to brand moments that feel more like cultural experiences than commercial campaigns. In late 2024, P.Louise transformed its Manchester headquarters into “Pinkmas,” a winter wonderland complete with a pink ice rink and a life-sized version of its advent calendar. These kinds of activations not only drive foot traffic but also flood social media with user-generated content, expanding reach beyond paid advertising.
“I don’t just want people to come in here just to buy cosmetics. I want them to buy into the dream,” Williams explains. That dream includes everything from giant installations to surprise giveaways, immersive retail events, and even plans for a hot air balloon outside headquarters.
And it’s all part of a broader mission that goes beyond sales. As Williams puts it, “I’m not driven by money. I’m driven by legacy, and I’m driven by the fact that there’s only eighty women in the U.K. that have only ever scaled their business over £50 million, and I’m number 81.”
A new kind of founder—and a new kind of future
Of course, this kind of business model comes with its own pressures. The risks are higher. The feedback is louder. And the pressure to scale while staying grounded in purpose can be immense.
Williams, who remains fully self-funded, doesn’t downplay the weight of that responsibility:
“My risk is bigger because I’m still the only investor. So when I invest into something, sometimes I think, are you delusional in this product?… If I break everything that I’ve built, I don’t have [anyone] but myself to blame, and that’s heavy on anyone’s shoulders.”
It’s a reminder that behind the fast growth and viral moments are real people navigating real risk. And yet, these founders keep showing up with honesty, ambition, and a different kind of playbook.
As the UK retail sector navigates budget pressures, shifting consumer behavior, and a rapidly changing digital landscape, social-first brands are providing a glimpse into what the future could look like: transparent, community-led, purpose-driven, and incredibly resilient.
Their success proves that retail in 2025 isn’t just about what you sell. It’s about how you connect.
