How Wild Is Removing Waste From Bathrooms and Building a Multimillion-Dollar Brand

In this episode of Shopify Masters, we’re in London, UK, chatting with Charlie Bowes-Lyon, Wild co-founder and chief marketing officer. Wild is revolutionizing the bath and body care industry by eliminating plastic and single-use waste packaging.

Wild is revolutionizing how personal care items are made.

Founded in 2019 by childhood friends Charlie Bowes-Lyon and Freddy Ward, Wild wants to eliminate plastic and single-use waste from bathrooms across the world.

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“Everything from shampoo, conditioner, shower gel through to toothpaste and deodorant, people’s bathrooms are absolutely packed full of plastic,” says Charlie. “Not only did we want to reduce that problem, but we felt we could remove plastic and single-use materials completely.”

Wild is on a mission to remove plastic and single-use waste from personal and body care packaging. Wild 

Charlie and Freddy first tackled the problem by completely redesigning the packaging for an all-natural deodorant. “You get the case, which lasts for a lifetime and is made from aluminum, and then your refills,” says Charlie. “The packaging for refills is made out of bamboo pulp and can be composted.”

Wild’s first hero product is a refillable deodorant, with a case that will last a lifetime and compostable refill packages.  Wild 

After a year-long product development process that included over 35 iterations, Charlie and Freddy had a market-ready version of the deodorant. Next up? Creating interest. To do that, the Wild team hit the web running, reaching out to as many people as possible.

“Before we even launched, we created big email lists,” Charlie shares. “We went out and got involved in tons of different groups on Facebook, Mumsnet, Quora, and any forum we could find.”

 By participating in countless forums and manually reaching out to individuals in online groups, Wild was able to build out an extensive email list to market its first product.  Wild 

The manual work of joining and participating in over 500 online groups paid off. Wild had a prelaunch sale that confirmed the product-market fit Charlie and Freddy hoped for.

“We did a £100,000 of sales in our prelaunch, which gave us real confidence that we did have a product that people actually wanted,” says Charlie. “That meant that when it came to launch in April [2020], we were happy to put some significant money behind our Facebook and Google campaigns.”

Now, two years since that initial launch, Wild has crossed the eight-figure mark, and the team is ready to reimagine how more items in the bathroom are made.

The launch process for Wild is just one of the areas Charlie covered during our conversation for the Shopify On Location podcast miniseries. Tune in to the whole interview to hear about the duo’s product development process, their fundraising experience, and their current marketing mix.