mmicky, which seemed at odds with the renaissance that was happening in terms of all of the beautiful handmade products that were come out of small studios; and artisans and craftsmen starting to make really beautiful things, so the more we looked, the more we realised there wasn’t a space that married those two concepts together,” said Ball. The online store sells gourmet food, fresh flowers, craft beverages, handmade designs, and accessories sourced from around the globe. The site includes a broad range of high quality collections from producers such as Finnish design house, Marimekko; and homegrown homeware and jewellery maker, Dinosaur Designs. The only criteria is that every item must have a story behind it. “We think the things that meet those criteria are the things that people will really connect with. “We’re trying to build a connection with these makers, with these products, with our customers, because once you’ve made a connection with something, you’re going to love it and you’re going to want to give it to someone,” Ball told Inside Retail PREMIUM. “I would say about 30 per cent are local and it is a bit of a mix of lower scale producers to bigger names like Dinosaur and Marimekko.” The website is set up as a gallery with a key focus on providing as much information as possible about each individual item. A blog includes weekly interviews with featured designers to provide background about products and the story of their creation. These ideas follow through into Sorry Thanks I Love You’s pop up stores, where designers are invited to give educational workshops, products can be sampled on special tasting nights, and customers are offered to sample a cup of herbal tea as they browse. “We realised that it really makes sense for us to give people the opportunity to come in, sample, and experience our range first hand. It works in conjunction with the website quite well, they feed into each other in different ways,” she said. Although Ball is keeping mum on what is coming up in the next 12 months, Inside Retail suspects there could be a permanent store, or pop up stores outside of Sydney and Melbourne on the cards. “We’ve got lots of exciting plans for next year that I wish I could tell you more about, but I’m sworn to secrecy. “We’re still trying to finalise our plans a little bit, but we’ve got lots of exciting ideas which should be coming to fruition before the end of the year,” she said.