Boots Chief Customer Officer: Creators Are the New Beauty Counter | Charlotte Lock

Creators are the new beauty counter. That is how Charlotte Lock, Chief Customer Officer, Boots, describes where customers now discover products and find advice they trust.

Recorded at YouTube Festival London 2026, just after Charlotte came off the main stage, this conversation with Alex Rezvan, Host of The Retail Podcast, asks what that shift means for a retailer founded in 1849. Charlotte says Boots is piloting YouTube's Shopping affiliate programme, so a viewer can buy the Boots products a creator is using without leaving the video for a link in bio.

She also explains how Boots chooses the creators it works with (fit with the brand, not free product), why a brand with a long history has to pick the few things that make it different, and why Boots pairs long-term brand building with being easy to shop, on a phone or in store.

Chapters

Part of our three-part series from YouTube Festival London 2026, with Sophie Neary, Managing Director, Retail & Consumer Goods, Google, and creator Jade Beason.

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