Shopping for Kids

Archive for January, 2012

“Many have tried. Many have failed. Do you have what it takes to be a hero?” is the tag-line with which a little free online game presents itself to you.

The name of the game is Shopping Cart Hero. It features a little shopping cart and a funny looking stick figure. The goal of the game is to run downhill with the cart, jump high and propel yourself as far as possible, do funny tricks and land correctly.

At the end of each jump, you earn a number of points based on your performance which you can use to buy in-game upgrades such as improved wheels for your shopping cart as well as more propelling power for your next jump.

Developed in 2009 by the folks at MonkeyWantBanana.com who have a history of creating fun and addicting free online games, Shopping Cart Hero is no exception. The game enjoys great popularity and is being played online hundreds of thousands of times each month!

The game is available in Flash format and is playable in your web browser but it’s also available as an iPhone and iPod Touch application on iTunes. The iPhone / iPod Touch version costs $0.99 to download and play and it’s worth every cent. Imagine guiding the cart with the gyroscopic feature of your iPhone!

If you enjoyed playing the game, you will be happy to know that the developers at MonkeyWantBanana.com have rolled out a sequel which features improved graphics, better game-play, more upgrades, more tricks and more fun!

The game is high score enabled so you can present your score to friends or the entire world in online leader-boards and see how well you’ve done!

In honor of “Cyber Monday,” the newly appointed noteworthy date of the winter holiday season, it seems fitting to take a look at what’s hot in the new and improved bag of online retailer tricks. Lately, the buzz word is interactive! We’ve been seeing a move towards more and more interaction on shopping sites. Based on the belief that more interaction equates to more views, more time on site, and ultimately more sales, even many long established retailers have added interactive applications to their webstores in recent months.

Interacting with customers through social media quickly became a staple in internet retail, but many have now seen fit to go above and beyond engaging their audience through Facebook, twitter, and blogs with games that sort of resemble those you might see in a grammar school lesson. Just a few months ago, a “fill in the blank” application could be seen on one major high end department store’s front page. Shoppers were encouraged to end sentences like “fashion is…” Macy’s has been going interactive by offering periodic challenges to their Facebook fans. Questions like “What would you wear to chaperone your daughter’s homecoming dance?” are presented to fans who can then go to a page attached to Macy’s online store, choose pictures of merchandise, and make their own collage/outfit to answer the challenge question. Other applications “quiz” users to find their style and then suggest pieces that might match it.

With the advent of Polyvore, an application that allows shoppers or internet browsers to clip items from webstores and create their own outfits and collages, even smaller name retailers are now taking advantage of the ease at which they can hold outfit making based contests to engage audiences. With today’s new technologies, it’s certainly easier for young brands, even those without large development budgets, to get in on the interactive shopping game.

Interaction in itself is even becoming the very basis for several internet shopping business models – those who are clearly following the old Burger King adage of “Have it your Way.” In the jewelry industry, Sheyna.com and Gemkitty.com are two examples of sites that allow users to interact to create a custom product, but similar shopping sites have popped up for just about any industry you can think of from chocolates, to t-shirts, to bobble head dolls.

From social media conversation, to simple games, to interactive product creation, it certainly seems like interaction is the new sought after puzzle piece de resistance for internet retailers but is all the interactive shopping hype just much ado about nothing, a result barren quest to keep up with the next big thing?

Psychology and even Elementary Education 101 would tell us that engaging our audience will translate into more desirable results, but when the results we’re looking for or straight up sales, does this basic principle apply? The answer certainly varies depending on who you ask, and with all the different possible interaction, might certainly be hard to generalize. Retailers like Nordstrom that seemed to embrace interaction head on by making it part of their landing page just a few months ago, seemed to have shied away, moving interactive features to positions of much less prominence.

Interaction may arguably backfire, engaging a less targeted and on the fence audience at the expense of distracting already buying focused customers. One frequent online shopper called the new features “annoying and confusing” when talking about the move towards interaction as part of one of her frequented online department store shopping sites, begging the question, how much is “too much?” One other internet shopper mentioned that while an interactive game on a site from which he he planned to purchase anyway “didn’t influence his purchase…but was fun.” When it comes to internet retail, the line in the sand can be hard to draw but the numbers should surely tell in time. For now, complete the following sentence. “Interactive online shopping is ________.”

What you see – Alka’s Kids World (set up in 2000) the ideal place for shopping in Hyderabad for children’s clothes is an authentic representation of a semi-urban local store. Located in a highly upbeat milieu, opposite Badichowdi Police Station, Alka’s Kids World has ample space in front of it for two wheeler parking. Four wheeler owners might face some problem though. The dizzying traffic in front of the shop might bewilder a first-timer as well. The small-sized store, nonetheless, exudes a sense of homeliness.

What you get – Alka’s Kids World has apparels for 1-10 year olds. This store houses garments for kids, both boys and girls, which includes pants, shirts, T-shirts, sherwanis, frocks, skirts etc.

As far as arrangement of wares is concerned, the store does not follow any particular format. In fact, there is a sense of randomness in the display. There were times when we would pick up something just to see it entwined with other pairs.

Garments are available in a wide variety of colors and prices. You can acquire something for as less as Rs. 100 to as high as Rs. 2,000. For instance, pants for three-year-olds can cost you around Rs. 250. Sherwanis for 5-10 year olds cost between Rs. 400 and Rs. 1,000.

The sales staff is very helpful and courteous and as far as brands are concerned, Memento Fashion, Little Girl, Crosser Gold and Dear Doll are some of those available.

Our verdict – We can say with conviction that this store has far better variety than many others in the city. Prices are affordable too. However, the store does need to pay some attention to its size and display. The ambiance seems cluttered leading to less floor circulation space. Parking is a problem for four wheelers which can be compounded by the traffic at Koti.

Dolce & Gabbana is one of the very first big designer houses releasing designer kids clothes, their first collection launched in 2001. The main group Dolce & Gabbana is trying to target is young people or these who still want to be young. Therefore, they realised soon enough that these people also want their youngsters wearing cool children clothes and then they started releasing childrens designer clothes successfully since nearly 10 years. The official name of their kids clothing line is “D&G JUNIOR”.

Their clothes are available in a lot of selected designer kids clothes stores but also in official Dolce & Gabbana stores. Alone in Switzerland, there are over 10 stores selling Dolce & Gabbana kids designer clothes. Dolce & Gabbana is also one of the first designer brands offering a wide selection of childrens clothes through online stores. They also created a very kids-friendly homepage presenting their newest lines and advertising.

As one of the first and only brands, Dolce & Gabbana Junior is putting advertisements of childrens designer clothes in adult fashion magazines and on the internet. They are trying to become one of the leading designer kids clothes brands and therefore they are setting pretty moderate prices. So the parents aren’t shocked when they are looking at their clothes.

For the Fall/Winter collection 2011 Dolce & Gabbana chose a classical alpine look with a lot of typical winter patterns like reindeer or snowflakes. But just as important as the stylish look is that the kids feel comfortable in their clothes. Therefore, they mostly release comfy sweaters and jackets with enough space to play in them. For the kids’ health they also release stylish hats, gloves and glasses. So the kids can look stylish while playing in the cold and the parents don’t have to worry that they will get sick.

Once again, Dolce & Gabbana stars with a collection of cool kids clothes that will not only make children look very stylish in these clothes, the kids are also protected from the snow and the sun. As many may forget, designer kids clothes may not only look stylish, they also have to serve the purpose.

When my son learned how to talk, he wanted to have his own say in the choices that affected him. One of the decisions in which he now enjoys giving his opinion is what kind of bedding goes on his bed. At first, I feared that either I would not find anything he liked or that I would find what he liked out of our price range. However, I found some of the best places to shop for kid’s bedding on the internet. Sites that offers kid’s bedding for infants, pre-school children, elementary kids, and middle school aged children, and they had incredible selections of every kind of bedding to provide your child with products that are not only safe and practical, which parents desire, but also cozy and stylish, which kid’s enjoy.

Kid’s bedding can be difficult to shop for, but these stores are online, which means that you and your child can shop together without leaving the comfort of your home. If shopping becomes taxing, you merely have to turn off the computer instead of getting the kids in the car and making sure the kids don’t spill anything or kill each other in the car all while driving home. Also, if tantrums seem to be a problem, shopping online will eliminate attention-seeking behavior as there will be no customers to observe any disrespect.

In addition to being extremely convenient, the kid’s bedding offered has bedding for any kind of special needs your child may have. If your child has sensitive skin or allergy problems, you can choose to purchase “Microfine” bedding. This bedding is made especially soft for those with tender skin. We found sites that also offer anti-allergy bedding for those who may suffer from allergies to certain kinds of fabric.

If the practical and safety aspects of this company’s products don’t catch your eye, the plethora of styles most certainly will. These specialist sites provided more than forty top characters and designs for your children to choose from, including characters such as Dora the Explorer, James Bond, and Bob the Builder. Kid’s bedding of this quality can be terribly expensive, but online, you will get a fantastic price for not only the goods you receive but also for the peace of mind you’ll have knowing that your child is using the best possible product!