The Talented Lady Behind Down That Little Lane

Down That Little Lane (DTLL) is an online powerhouse, a forced to be reckoned with in the giftware, decor and fashion realm, not to mention a community bustling with divine creative types who’re making amazing products for sale. If you haven’t met its creator Tessa White before, this is your chance. I caught five with this lovely lady to find out more about DTLL, its journey and what’s coming up next for the team.

DTLL is, without a doubt, massive. I know you dreamt of what it could be for quite a while but did you expect it would be this big?

“If I am honest, yes I did, or at least I hoped it would. The investment that went into DTLL meant a long term goal of decent growth on very little budget as all our resources were needed for keeping the technology side up to date, so I had visions and dreams it would be as big as it is but clearly not egotistical enough to think it would necessarily come”.

You mention that the stores you showcase must make your heart beat a little faster. Is that hard criteria to meet?

“It is a pretty hard criteria to meet as I am all over the internet and see some amazing things. I am not easy to impress and make that heart thump. It is not just about the price point but the design, the designer and even the type of person they are; how I can see they deal with the public etc, as we only want people that we feel will love and respect the community we have created on DTLL.”

Do friends still come to you for gift ideas and are there some makers that you can’t help but recommend?

“I can’t say my close friends do as they just potter off to DTLL but I get a huge amount of requests for recommendations from friends in offices for group gifts, special gifts for bosses and the good old Kris Kringle. I also get lots of parents messaging for help on choosing some key pieces for their kids room re designs”.

The DTLL team is a close-knit one. Can you tell me a bit more about them?

“We are VERY close knit, not many secrets with us. 

My day-to-day contact is with Cherie and Sonia, who I could happily entrust my soul too.

Cherie is Social Media and pretty much manages all of it, as I just do the times outside of normal working hours and weekends then chime in when I am pottering about. 

Sonia is Seller & DTLL Brand Development and Marketing; she and I deal with new developments on the site, how to get the brands noticed and really nut out the analytics and dream up new and fresh marketing avenues.

I have known my web boys for over 10 years, but working with them on DTLL since back in 2011 when  we decided to start building it, we meet at least once a fortnight to nut out new ideas and talk about any fine-tuning we fancy to do.

Last on the work team, we have two in-house graphic designers, one for web and one for print and they are my little visionaries, I brief my ideas and they make them look better than my brain!”.

Related Read: My interview with Life, Love and Hiccups blogger Sonia Stackhouse.

You also have a DTLL family. Who makes up the family and what are their roles in the DTLL community?

“Our Blogger Family, chosen for just being people we adore and want to support, the type of people we know will be well loved by our customers across social media and in our newsletters.

They have the incredibly hard task of curating some of our newsletters (we adore seeing the different style of products that appeal to them) and to collaborate with us on our homepage give-aways if the product suits their style of audience.

They include: Bron of Maxabella Loves, Simone of Style Life Home, Stacey of Veggie Mama, Bianca of A Little Delightful, Sonia of Sonia Styling, Simone of Honey & Fizz, Babs of Patchwork Cactus, Beth of Baby Mac, Fleur of Thermomama and of course… yourself!”.

What makes DTLL special? There is a definite charm to the site and it feels a bit warm and fuzzy!

“Let’s just say it is personal. I have been behind the scenes since day one and I know every seller on the site, a large portion of them I have actually met and/or know their family background etc.

Sonia and Cherie know them all too. Cherie interacts with them all daily across our social media and Sonia talks to so many of them on a daily basis. I would be surprised if they don’t have her on speed dial.

We have never heavily advertised, so all our growth has been organic and genuine which makes for a really friendly community and we take extra care to ensure that it stays that way by being super quick on customer service and always being there for our stores when they need advice”.  

Is there anything exciting coming up for DTLL that you can tell readers about?

“2015 has a few exciting things. I can’t really give things away but after our first online pop up store being a roaring success that will happen again, we may think about a little makeover. For those that need help with super quick purchases we have a very cool answer to that and lets just say you will see us popping up on a couple more networks we don’t currently along with our family”.