Direct-to-consumer household cleaning company, smol, will share how it is reshaping what a modern, purpose-led brand looks like at this year’s POC Conference, while proving that small changes can indeed make a difference when it comes to sustainability.
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Ahead of smol’s talk at the Products of Change Conference on 5 November later this year, I caught up with Hilary Strong, chief marketing officer at smol, who will be speaking at the Conference, to learn more about the company and how it has created an efficient business model that goes hand-in-hand with sustainability.
Founded in 2018, smol wanted to not only join but challenge the mainstream market of laundry detergent, a category that had not seen real innovation in decades and was rife with plastic packaging and unnecessary chemical additives.
This presented an opportunity for smol, a springboard from which to launch the company into the space: by developing the first every plastic-free packaging for laundry capsules, while meeting all the child safety criteria. And with the mentality of beginning from scratch and challenging all the existing norms of the industry, smol evaluated every component used in laundry capsules by all the big brands, took out what was unnecessary and created a capsule that was smaller, more concentrated, and just as effective.
Since then, smol has continuously expanded its offerings, branching out into dishwasher tablets, household cleaning sprays, washing up liquid and much more, all utilising the direct-to-consumer model via an online website and subscription service, allowing customers to customise just how frequently they require their deliveries for each product, as well as provide continuous and direct feedback.
Throughout, smol’s ethos has stayed the same: small things make a big difference. The company prioritises progress over perfection, purporting that millions of consumers doing sustainably imperfectly is better than thousands doing it perfectly. smol wants to make sustainable changes as easy as possible for the consumer and be accessible to everyone. Hilary explained that smol never wanted to be the niche sustainability brand that cost multiple times the supermarket staples, the plan was always to become mainstream and make the option of more sustainable household purchases as widely available as possible.
Smol is certainly on track to achieve this, if it hasn’t already. Since it began, smol has powered over 520 million washes, eliminated 2,607 tonnes of plastic, 6,118 tonnes of chemicals, 32,773 tonnes of carbon, nearly five million litres of water shipped, and donated over three million washes as part of its fight to tackle hygiene poverty.
Hilary added that smol had the agility to develop its innovative business model as it began this way from scratch, whereas it can be more challenging for a 50-year-old business to change. However, if we have learnt anything from smol, it is that small changes make a difference, and that there is indeed this appetite among consumers to make sustainable switches in their product purchases, especially if the offering is just as convenient and affordable. And – in the case of smol – it is arguably more convenient than its counterparts as consumers can order directly to their door and never have to worry about running out. Hilary said this particularly appeals to busy families, who relish this convenience, with the benefit of it being more sustainable.
Sustainability is a broad and loaded word, but it essentially means doing things in a way that is more efficient and long-lasting, for both people and planet, and can only mean a more resilient business model that can hook consumers and sustain for many more years to come.
We look forward to hearing more from Hilary on smol and the fantastic model it has set-up at the Products of Change Conference on the 5 November 2025. Click here to secure your tickets.
