What makes a customer choose one brand over another, and then keep coming back? That was the question on the Counter Talks Stage at Autumn Fair 2026, where Fay Tranter, Event Director at Hyve Group, sat down with Laura Rudoe, founder of Evolve Beauty, for the Buy Women Built panel: Building a Business Customers Come Back To. 

Laura launched Evolve in 2009 in Hertfordshire, where her team still makes every product in its own studio. Seventeen years on, the certified organic skincare brand is stocked by John Lewis, Whole Foods and Planet Organic, and was exhibiting at Autumn Fair NEC Birmingham for the first time. 

What does it take to earn customer trust? 

For Laura, trust starts with recognising how hard some purchases are. Shoppers buying organic and natural products are often trying to avoid a particular ingredient, such as parabens, and have to navigate a shelf where every brand claims to be natural. Evolve answers that with a three-part promise: pure, proven and purposeful. 

"We want to be certified by third parties so that we can back up all the different things that we say," she explained. Evolve is certified organic, vegan, cruelty-free and climate positive, and became a B Corp around four years ago. She has also sat on the board of a coalition of around 90 B Corp beauty brands working to raise standards across the industry. 

How do you tell a brand story customers believe? 

Customers increasingly want to know who made a product and where its ingredients came from, and Evolve has no shortage of material.  

Closer to home, the story is about the artisans making products in Hertfordshire, sourcing materials directly and only making what they need. "That story is a great story to tell," Laura said, "and customers resonate with that." If you're working on your own narrative, our piece on getting your brand story right is a useful next read. 

Why does in-store presentation matter for trust? 

Different retail partners want different things from the same brand. Whole Foods in the US wanted high-performance natural products that could hold their own against the big beauty chains nearby. At John Lewis, where Evolve is one of the more natural brands on the shelf, the job is to explain what certified organic actually means and look different while doing it. 

The answer there was birchwood shelf pads in a fixture where almost everything else was plastic, a small detail that does the storytelling before a customer has picked anything up. For more practical display ideas, the Retail Makeover Mission episodes are well worth a watch. 

Should brands be wary of using AI in their marketing? 

One of the more honest moments was about AI. Evolve recently used it to create a background for a gift bag photograph and customers spotted it straight away and pushed back, even though the product itself had been genuinely photographed. 

Laura's team now uses AI mainly for planning and keeps it away from copywriting and imagery that reaches customers, unless it's obviously illustrative. With European distribution, the brand is also keeping an eye on the EU AI Act, whose rules on labelling certain AI-generated content, including deepfakes, began applying in August 2026. 

What advice does Laura have for brands starting out? 

Laura bootstrapped Evolve and still hasn't taken outside investment, which kept her early mistakes small. Learning every part of the business herself, from the website to the newsletter, means she still has a firm handle on it with a team of 35. Her biggest piece of advice was patience, admitting it took around six years to properly nail product-market fit and packaging. 

Community has helped too. Through Buy Women Built, a kitemark and network for female-founded brands, Evolve joined dozens of founders in a window takeover at Whole Foods Market in Kensington that none of them could have afforded alone. The movement also has a permanent aisle at Ocado, where the retailer's own figures showed a 20% sales uplift for featured brands six months in. Membership is open to any business with a female founder. 

Where can retailers find sustainable suppliers in the UK? 

Third-party certifications such as organic, vegan, cruelty-free and B Corp are a good first filter, because someone other than the brand has checked the claims. Communities like Buy Women Built are another route to values-led makers, and our look at eco-friendly gifting covers what shoppers are asking for. 

If you like what you've seen here, why not join us in person for the retail event of the season? Spring Fair runs from 7-10 February 2027 at the NEC, Birmingham. Register for free here, and join our newsletter for the latest updates before the show.