We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Medea (and Shelly) Duffy (Bellil). We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Medea (and Shelly) below.

Medea (and Shelly), thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Finding those key vendors can often be make or break for a brand. Can you talk to us about how you found your key vendors?

All of our vendors are key to us because of our focus is having a variety of local makers in our shop. We initially found our vendors at the most ground roots level by going to maker markets around town. Going to markets is It’s one of our favorite past times, so we already had a pretty good idea of some of the makers we wanted to have in our shop. That said, finding the vendors was fairly easy. The deal making was the harder part. We quickly learned that each artisan had a different business plan, level of commitment, and inventory level. So there was no one-size-fits-all offer that appealed to everyone. Being creative is one of the things we do best, so that’s exactly what we did regarding our deal making. We came up with a few different offers which we thought would appeal to most of the makers we wanted to highlight in our shop and, voila, we had our inventory! We are lucky that OG makers also had a lot of trust in us, and we thank them for that. Without that trust, there was no deal. It’s been a few years and our vendor agreements have become more streamlined. But I don’t think we would’ve done anything differently in the beginning because the process was necessary. The majority of our start up artisans are still in our shop today which is pretty awesome.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

Friends, James Island neighbors, moms, and small business owners (Shelly had a banner making business and Medea had a flower subscription service); we, Shelly and Medea have a lot in common. We share a desire to support local artisans, a mind for sustainability, and a love of all things vintage. We both enjoy shopping a local artisan markets. But our busy schedules paired with good old mother nature often made it hard for us to get to the markets, and in turn, to support local makers. Opening an indoor shop filled with local products which is open daily seemed like the perfect solution. So Local Love CHS was born. In addition to our all-local every-occasion gift box selection, our shop and website showcase a curated selection of the coolest locally made products including candles, cards, pottery, leather goods, artwork, self care and wellness products, jewelry, home goods, accessories, and apparel. Local Love CHS is the spot to buy a gift or to treat yourself while supporting the local Charleston community…and that’s exactly what we’re proud of. Our shop and inventory is constantly evolving for the better. We recently started hosting local maker pop ups and workshops. Our goal is to make our shop not only a fun place to shop, but also a real community heart ??. We love for friends to grab a cup of coffee and hang out in our lounge space.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

The pandemic prompted a major pivot for us. We were loving our small shop space and were literally about to sign the lease on a much larger brick and mortar space when we heard the whisperings of Covid on the horizon. We had put a lot of work into planning for our new spot, A LOT. Luckily we both agreed that we should at least wait to see if this Covid thing was really going to happen. So we did and it did. Local Love CHS might not be here today if we had not made the decision to pause on the new space and also to pull out of our existing space at the time. Instead of having a physical shop, we put all of our effort into creating an e commerce site. We offered free local delivery and free pick up. We teamed up with other small local businesses to offer and even larger selection of local products for delivery. We rode the pandemic wave and landed safely on shore. It was a close one for sure.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

We were and are nowhere close to experts on social media. Since we didn’t have the money for a marketing budget, social media would be our main form of marketing. So we made a plan and we stuck with it. Our goal was to post three times a day and we slowly and consistently built up to it. We didn’t get caught up in having perfect pictures (We’re definitely not perfect, so why should our photos be perfect?), but we had a plan for content. Little by little, we plugged away at establishing our brand on social media. We changed as social media changed and learned a lot along the way. There’s still a lot more to learn, but we’re sticking with it. So, that’s our advice: stick with it and be consistent.

Contact Info:

• Website: LocalLoveCHS.com
• Instagram: @locallovechs
• Facebook: @locallovechs

Image Credits
Photos taken by Vision Balm