Giraffe Blog

CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR

Well its just about here. The end of January and with February comes the promise of spring. We have had what the pundits call the most depressing day of the year when the credit card bills come through after Christmas and its dark and cold outside. I am not sure what's worse. The fact that its cold, damp and dark outside or the fact that the many news channels keep telling us so. At Giraffe we find that the months of the year rush by. January is when we take stock of what has sold well last year and February is when we start to compile what we will sell in our new catalogue out later in the year. Any ideas anyone??

CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR

Christmas is here and whether you have had a good year or difficult one its time to reflect as we head towards a new year. The UK has been celebrating this year and we need to embrace the positive effects that 2012 gave us. As we head into 2013 we at Giraffe wish you all the best for the new year, we wish you good times, health and happiness to you all. Thank you for your business in 2012 - its been a fun year and we look forward to you seeing our new stuff in 2013.

CHRISTMAS 2012

With just a month to go before Christmas many people think it is now too late to order personalised gifts. Thankfully our fast despatch promise means that you can order with free delivery right up to 10th December and first class post delivery at just £2 until 17th December. Personalised gifts have never been easier and with the warehouse clearance offers we have on our site you can bag a bargain too. Happy shopping!

SUMMER 2012

Giraffe is proud to be sponsoring Harry Uglow who is rowing the English Channel for Make-a-Wish UK, a charity that grants wishes to children with terminal illnesses or life changing disabilities. Harry is 15 years old and aims to become the youngest person to row the channel. We wish him every success in his venture and are proud to have our website displayed on his boat. You can follow his progress online or donate to his chosen charity by clicking this link: www.harryuglowrowing.co.uk.

EASTER 2012

Now that Easter is here we are just receiving some of our new products in from our suppliers. The first to be listed once they were unpacked are our personalised picnic bags which are an ideal item for school children off on trips this summer and those who take a packed lunch to school. It seems amazing to think that summer is just around the corner but with the recent rush of decent weather and a hosepipe ban in many areas of the UK we can really believe it is nearly here...

FEBRUARY 2012

Even more good news, our website has now also won the Mumpreneur UK Silver website award, we were pleased to receive the following email in our inbox...

"Your website was considered by three professionals within the online industry who marked your site based on the criteria provided to them by Mumpreneur UK. On adding the scores together, we're delighted to inform you that you have won a Silver Website Award! Congratulations!!"

We're all really pleased to get the recognition for the hard work and effort we've put into the website.

JANUARY 2012

Happy New Year to all of our customers. What a great start to the new year for us at Giraffe. Lyndsey Uglow our founder has been named in the MumpreneurUK Top 100 business mums. According to MumpreneurUK there were so many entries for this competition they had to defer the decision. You can see her listing here together with the other 99 mums who make the top 100. www.mumpreneuruk.com/celebrate/mumpreneur100
Many congratulations to Lyndsey who is a proud Mum of Giraffe and puts passion for family and business into www.giraffe-shop.co.uk.

END NOVEMBER 2011

The Autumn weather is playing havoc on the retail market with many shops reporting slow sales of colder weather products. Many larger retailers are having to slash their prices as they try to offload their winter stock. This time last year saw the UK covered in a blanket of snow but at the moment the Autumn weather has hardly begun with temperatures as high as 13 degrees in Southampton today. Thankfully the winds have started to blow and hopefully the true winter will start and we will all begin to feel a bit more inspired towards preparing for Christmas.

NOVEMBER 2011

Inspirational boy Harry Moseley passed away last month and since that time many people have been working hard in his memory to achieve what he wanted to #makeithappen which was one of his catch phrases both on Twitter and in his many lectures. He raised more than £500,000 for Cancer Research through making bracelets and public speaking before his own brain tumour saw his untimely passing.

The Twitter phenomenon meant more than 100,000 people were following Harry in the last days of his illness and many have vowed to support him and a group called Running for Harry has been created to run the Reading Half Marathon and raise even more money for his chosen charity. We are proud to be affiliated to that group of runners and are selling the running kit. In economic times like this it is good to be able to help in whatever way you can.

AUTUMN 2011

Rainy Autumn has arrived at last and its time to start on the Christmas list. In these times of austerity in the UK many people are putting off the inevitable spend until they really have decided what to spend on each person on their Christmas list. Our experience shows that people tend to consider buying less personalised novelty items and more practical items that they may have bought anyway at some point. Of particular note, most kids need a school bag or backpack and when these are given as Christmas gifts it takes one thing of the 'to buy' list later in the year. Another popular present is a personalised hoody which although a gift also represents another garment to wear and isnt just a one off toy purchase for a child.

Summer Holidays! - August 2011

The kids are off school and summer weather has been popping in and out of our lives. Despite the hectic schedule we have been busy preparing our new catalogue which is now available to download from our home page. With fourteen day delivery there is still plenty of time to order your back to school items and get them in time for the new term. Have a great holiday and we look forward to seeing the response to the new items...

April & May 2011

After all the three day weeks of April and early May life has now returned to the high street and five day working for most people is the norm for a couple of weeks. Thankfully the weather continues to surprise us with sunshine we are all looking forward to the summer. The catalogue industry seems to be full to bursting with new catalogues falling through the door regularly and emails giving us details of how we can improve our summer with just one more top or pair of shorts to make us feel good. We are no different except that we aren’t offering a new range of clothing or product that will enhance your wardrobe for summer…just trying to be practical with our range of personalised lunch bags and picnic blankets which are selling well and new stock is due in shortly. Of course the range of gifts for weddings and our usual range of hoodies for individuals and leavers groups remains available both online and in larger volumes by bulk order but sometimes it is good to highlight the other items when the crowded marketplace seems to be driven towards clothing...

Spring 2011

With Spring just around the corner many kids are in the latter part of their final year at school. Some may just want to forget their old schools while others want to move on with memories. Giraffe has many products ideal for leavers of all ages. The most popular by far seems to be the leavers hoody which can be done in so many ways with school logo or without, with a group of names from the whole year or just the individual….whatever the desire the team at Giraffe can usually help with some suggestions for year groups of all sizes. Other items on the 2011 list of enquiries are: USB sticks with the school logo and name, school year group mugs, T shirts, pens etc. The team at Giraffe are here to help with suggestions if you are looking for something…

September 2010

Well the back to school rush is now over and our thoughts are turning to the new items we have for the Autumn/Winter range. The good news is that the stock is starting to arrive now and we already have the bags in from Kooga and our new barrel bags. Christmas is just around the corner and our new catalogue will be through the door very soon. The facebook page is growing and the Giraffe word is spreading to new customers in both our trade and retail businesses. If you run a team, club or business that you think could do with a corporate make over give us a call for a quote.

August 2010

August has started in a whiz with out new back to school range showing all the signs of being a real success. Our newest backpacks made by Regatta are proving really popular for small children – they are ideal for ages 5-10yrs and therefore seem very popular with people starting school this September. The other thing that is literally flying off the shelves are the teddies in their own little gift bags. The teddy range has proved so popular with people for wedding gifts we are literally printing a big batch of them every day for lucky bridesmaids and page boys all over the UK. If you are a lucky recipient of a teddy from Giraffe why not send us a picture and we can feature it on our blog page?

July 2010

The new Giraffe directory is finally out and will be posted out soon so make sure you register for a copy. See the home page for the catalogue request button. The new directory is full of great new products including personalised storage, back to school bags and gifts for all the family. Why not have a look around the site and you will see the stock that has arrived – almost all of it is here now and ready to be personalised for you but hurry some of it is bound to be popular so don’t delay…order today!

June 2010

Here at the Giraffe house we have been beavering away with our new line of engraved gifts. Our personalisation means you can literally have what you want on the new products. Just type in the text you want, indicate the font and click to place the order. Its simple really and they are ideal gifts. Take a look at the new personalised USB memory sticks, photo frames and keyrings. View all our ideal engraved gifts.