Archive for General

Accend Web Solutions Website Design

February 14, 2011 · Filed under General · Tagged , , , ,

Lee from Accend Web Solutions

Lee from Accend Web Solutions

Hello everyone,

This is a big thank you post to Lee who developed, maintains and supports our website.

Lee is a web developer with over 15 years experience of web design, as he has worked in a variety of environments from higher education, to design houses in covent garden.

Accend Web Solutions started over 6 years ago, and he has built up an impressive list of clients, and we wont to give something back for all his efforts, in letting everybody know that he is a fantastic developer, who can create the perfect website for your needs, and is always looking for new clients to support his family.

If anybody wants a new website, wants an old one re-designed or if you have an expensive maintenace contract with somebody else, then look no further than Lee.

His website is www.accend4web.co.uk ; his email is info@accend4web.co.uk and his mobile number is 07951178120.

Cheers for reading.

Amanda

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Nearly done for online shopping.

December 15, 2010 · Filed under General

Hell everyone,

Happy Christmas From Little Acorns

Happy Christmas From Little Acorns

For most ecommerce owners, the next two days is pretty much all the business they will get this Christmas, as our’s peaked around the end of the first week of December and its been slowing down to an almost trickle now. Obviosuly most of that is due to dwindling stock, but the main reason is the big part Royal Mail play in all of this, as we rely on them to deliver the toys we sell.

The weather has caused loads of delays, and in honesty you can’t trust that the item will arrive in time, so most people dont take the risk after the second week really, especially abroad, which showed as our last order overseas was the first day of December.

We have been online for nearly 5 years, and its great that we can plan the amount of stock we need, and also plan when to expect the sales to drop, so we can then build for the next peak.

The only thing is now, I’ve got to start my shopping, and I expect there is hardly anything left, but thats just me being paranoid, and will be hitting the shops this weekend, to finish it all off.

I wanted to say thank you to all our shoppers and visitors in 2010, and good luck to you all in 2011, as it seems things arent going to improve much with the economy, wo we hope next year we can bring in some more lines, and try and keep our prices either level, or just below the main stores.

Thank you again, you have all been stars, and its great to also see people make use of the blog to post messages about our stock, hope some of you got some replies.

Lots of love

Amanda

xxx

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Touchy feely – Customers like to see it in their hands.

July 27, 2010 · Filed under General, Waybuloo Toys, What do you think? · Tagged , , , , , , ,

Good afternoon all,

First of all I would like to apologise for the huge gap in our blog posts, we have been quite busy, and in honesty I think I suffered a bit of writers block. I try to make every post interesting, and just rambling on about nothing to do with Little Acorns is pointless.

But I wanted to share with you what we recently experienced, and is a key factor between big toy companies and little ones.

We had a little stall at our children’s school to raise funds for school projects, which went very well, and we sold quite a few toys, but more importantly we had some great feedback and made some new friends.

Anyway get to the point Amanda, we sold more toys that struggle online, and this took us back a bit.

The toys that have done well for us online went well, but the toys that we have struggled to sell went like crazy.

The toys I’m talking about, are the Waybuloo Picture Magnetic Board:

Waybuloo Magnetic Picture Build

Waybuloo Magnetic Picture Build

and,

Peppa Pig Camping Theme Make and Play Card Playset:

Peppa Pig Camping Theme Make and Play Card Playset

Peppa Pig Camping Theme Make and Play Card Playset

The boxes these toys come in are very attractive, they are a perfect size for birthday presents, and they are reasonably priced. We in fact havent sold many of these at all online, and on that day we sold every one of them, and some mothers asked when we getting more in, so all in all it went well.

It’s a shame that we can’t demonstrate the toys better online, so that customers can see how nice they are,  and that is the advantage that shoppers have when they go to the high street.

Just thought I’d get that off my chest, and hopefully I will get back to posting more often.

Come on sun, where are you! Typical, as soon as summer holiday start, the weather turns for the worst.

Amanda

xx

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A dissapointing month of May for Little Acorns Gifts!

May 25, 2010 · Filed under General

Frustrated month of May

Frustrated month of May

Hello everybody and I hope we didn’t disappoint anybody in May with our website not showing at first, and then our website not allowing payments to be processed.

The story begins at the beginning of May, where we upgraded our servers and then it happened!

Our website wasn’t showing…

The upgrade didn’t agree with our website for some reason, and so we had 3 weeks of frustration waiting for it to be sorted out.

Then it appeared last week, but one kind customer let us know that he couldn’t pay for his item. So that’s when we had a week and a half of the site showing, and no orders could be processed.

Anyway, we are now fully operational, and hopefully we can resume normal service and sell our wonderful stock all around the world.

Thanks again for reading this, and we hope to see you soon.

Kind Regards

Amanda Elliott

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Shaun The Sheep Is Top Spot For March!

March 24, 2010 · Filed under Elmer The Elephant Toys, General, Mister Maker Craft Sets, Shaun The Sheep Toys, Wallace & Gromit Toys, Waybuloo Toys, Whats in, Whats out!, Whats Popular · Tagged , , , , , , ,

Little Acorns Top 5 Best Sellers

Little Acorns Top 5 Best Sellers

Hello all,

As I’m writing this I’m looking out and its pouring down with rain, and I have just heard on the news that this summer is going to be the best on record – Funny thing is they said the same last year, and I can remember we had one good week!

Anyway, I thought you might be interested in our “Top Five” for March, and the top five being the top five best sellers for us this month.

1. Shaun The Sheep
2. Elmer The Elephant
3. Wallace & Gromit
4. Mr Maker Making Kits
5. Waybuloo

The number one seller Shaun The Sheep, is no shock to us in honesty, as it fills that position nearly every month. We have a good customer base in the UK, and a very good customer base in Europe & America.

Elmer coming in second is due to our European customers, whilst Wallace & Gromit does well in the UK and America. Mr Maker seems to be a UK market toy for us, I actually don’t remember one Mr Maker toy being sent overseas, but as it’s a CBBC show, that would make sense really.

And last but not least is our brand new Waybuloo toys, as we have sold quite a few of the very nice wooden toys to customers in the UK and America.

I hope you found that a little interesting, as it was a quick blog entry really.

Thanks again for reading, and I hope we can all enjoy a nice summer this year with the children.

http://www.littleacornsgifts.co.uk

Cheers

Amanda

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World Book Day – Tick Tock Crocodile from Peter Pan & The Very Hungry Caterpillar

March 9, 2010 · Filed under General, World Book Day · Tagged , , , , , , ,

World Book Day 2010

World Book Day 2010

WorldBookDay.com  

World Book Day is for many parents one of the best days in the school calendar. It’s a chance to dress the children up as characters from their favourite books, or in this years case as characters from classic or fairy tale books.  

Our children are lucky enough to be in a fantastic primary school in Monmouthshire and every year I have dressed them up in handmade costumes ready for World Book Day, and this year has been no exception.  

Let me introduce The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Tick Tock Crocodile from Peter Pan. (Tada!)  

World Book Day 2010 - The Very Hungry Caterpillar

World Book Day 2010 - The Very Hungry Caterpillar

World Book Day 2010 - Tick Tock Crocodile from Peter Pan

World Book Day 2010 - Tick Tock Crocodile from Peter Pan

Our daughter went as the Crocodile and our son went as The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and I was so proud to see them up on the stage.   

Would be lovely to see any comments from other moms and what you did, and how much they enjoyed the day too.  

Have a lovely day  

Amanda (Proud Mum)

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Miffy Toys – Classic Range For All Ages

February 24, 2010 · Filed under General, Miffy Classic Toys, Whats in, Whats out! · Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Miffy Classic Toys

Miffy Classic Toys

Our Miffy Classic Toys range contains 3 different high quality toys, perfect for young children and the millions of Miffy fans all around the world. 

Miffy started out as a very cute rabbit drawing in books written by Dick Bruna. His unique drawings where soon transferred too soft toys, a cartoon and thousands of different keep sakes all over the world. 

The smallest Miffy toy we have is the ‘Miffy In A Bag’. 

Miffy In A Bag Toy

Miffy In A Bag Toy

Miffy In A Bag stands at 15cm and comes in three different colours and is a classic Miffy Bean Toy in a cotton dress which comes in a Miffy gift bag. 

The Standing Plush Miffy Toy  hasn’t arrived yet, but is due in anytime soon. Again the standing Miffy is a very high quality toy, stands at 30cm, and again comes in three colours, Yellow, Orange & Blue. 

Standing Plush Miffy Toy

Standing Plush Miffy Toy

 Come May 2010 we will have the best Miffy item we have ever had in our opinion. We think its going to be so popular, as a similar item has done very well for us in the past. 

It’s the Miffy Head Cushion: 

Miffy Head Cushion

Miffy Head Cushion

We can’t wait for these to arrive, as then we will have our full Miffy Toy collection. The Miffy Head Shaped Cushion is 42cm tall and the shape of Miffy’s head with Miffy prints on the reverse. 

The Miffy range is a very nice range of toys, and these three are only a small portion of the total Miffy range available world-wide. Thanks again for visiting our Blog, and if you would like to be kept up to date on any new toys etc you can subscribe to this Blog using your email in the right panel. 

Thanks again, and have a nice day. 

Amanda

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Little Acorns Gifts Customer Feedback…

February 16, 2010 · Filed under General · Tagged , , ,

http://www.littleacornsgifts.co.uk/scripts/openExtra.asp?extra=12

Good evening all, as an online business we have been operating for just over 5 years, and every customer we have served over those years, we have asked for a little bit of feedback.

At first I felt I was asking too much, keeping on to our customers and I even felt that in some ways it would be negative to the business in asking.

But the feedback trickled in and everyone is posted on the website for everyone to see.

It was the feedback that we had from those customers that made it all the easier to keep on asking, not in some perverse way, but it was so nice to see that we had cheered, surprised and even helped a few of our customers, and how grateful they all where.

We have had feedback from countries all over the world, and I hope if your reading this and thinking of purchasing some of our stock, that if we ask you for feedback, you don’t mind spending 2-3 minutes posting some. 

The feedback is important not only to us, but it also shows that we are working very hard to make an impact on the web in a very competitive market, and any potential customer can see this, and have every confidence in us.

So thank you to those who have posted feedback, and I hope to see you visit our store again in the future.

Lots of love

Amanda

xx

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Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl

February 10, 2010 · Filed under General, Roald Dahl's Enormous Crocodile Toys, Whats in, Whats out! · Tagged , , , ,

Roald Dahl is one of the best memories I have of school, and to this day somebody has only got to mention Roald Dahl and I try and name every book he has written for children. I remember reading Danny the Champion of the World, The Twits, Matilda, George’s Marvellous Medicine, Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, Charlie & The Great Glass Elevator and the list goes on. Oh and Fantastic Mr Fox!

Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl

Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl

The Enormous Crocodile was one of the younger books we listened too, and again the story is fantastic and the drawings by Quentin Blake are what makes the books so special to anybody who has been brought up on them.

We have 2 lovely versions of the Enormous Crocodile and they are both very high quality, and perfect to read the story with, and in honesty once you have a Roald Dahl toy character, you will instantly remember him when you read any Roald Dahl book.

Small Enormous Crocodile

Small Enormous Crocodile

The Large Enormous Crocodile is 50cm and has a mouth that opens up, for when he is eating the small children obviously. Then the small version is 31cm and is easier to hold for small hands.

We are now hoping that more and more Roald Dahl characters become available, as its such a nice toy for anyone who read his books when they where young, or just starting out reading them now.

Have a nice day

Amanda

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New Wallace & Gromit Toys

February 8, 2010 · Filed under General, Wallace & Gromit Toys, Whats in, Whats out!, Whats Popular · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

Good morning everyone, todays post is about our new Wallace & Gromit toys.

I will be honest and say that these soft toys are so well made, and they are so nice to look at too, they have plenty of personality and they are perfect for Wallace & Gromit fans.

I will first show you the Beanie toys, they are usually the most popular item and the Wallace & Gromit Beanies are no exception. The beanies are Gromit & Fluffles and brand new out this year.

Wallace & Fluffles beanie Toys

Wallace & Fluffles beanie Toys

To compliment the beanies, we have plush Gromit & Fluffles in a box, and these are so lovely they would look perfect even as toy furniture in a bedroom or tv room.

Wallace & Gromit - Plush Gromit In A Platform Box

Wallace & Gromit - Plush Gromit In A Platform Box

 

Wallace & Gromit -Plush Fluffles In A Platform Box

Wallace & Gromit -Plush Fluffles In A Platform Box

Well thats about it I suppose, I would get into who Wallace & Gromit are, but they have been around a long time now, and I’m sure the majority of us know about them so the pics above will be better than words me thinks.

Have a good day, lots of love Amanda

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