HOW TO ORGANIZE A SUCCESSFUL CHILDREN'S BIRTHDAY PARTY

Majority of mothers become excited when any one of their children's birthday is coming up, specifically those turning 1 year and 7 years old.  In the Philippines, those ages mentioned are the more celebrated birthdays of the family.  Next to that would be 18 years old, for girls, and 21 years old for young men.

I am one of those thrilled mothers who skips a heartbeat when party planning is concerned.  Let me share with you my party organization list which will help you get throug

• Pick a Date and Time -You are lucky if your child's actual birthday falls on a weekend.  If not, pick a date that's closest to your child's birth date.  Weekend is when most of your attendees may be available to attend.  Picking a time depends on what you want to serve your guests.  It could be lunch time or afternoon snack.  The former may be more expensive  than the latter though.

• Set a Budget Discuss financial matters with your husband.  It's important that you set a budget that is comfortable for you and make sure you stick to it.  Remember you can be creative and resourceful in making your child's birthday special without spending too much. 

• Choose a Venue - To save rental fees, you may hold the party at the comfort of your home.  You may also opt to scout for popular fast food chains that offer complete party packages to help you have a worry-free party.  If you are in the Philippines the popular venues are: Jollibee, McDonald's, KFC, Shakey's Pizza, Pizza Hut or Max's Fried Chicken.  If you live in a subdivision with an available function hall/ multi-purpose hall/clubhouse, you may take advantage of that.  They offer discounts or free use of the venue for residents.  

• Select Food - Remember, one of the most important elements in a party is F-O-O-D!  Food choices depend on the time of your party.  Make sure your guests would be satisfied with what you serve.  It would help if you ask yourself if you are to attend your own party, will you be happy with the food served?  Another saving tip, you may separate food menu for kids and adults.

• List down Invitees - If you have a set budget, listing down all your invitees will help you stick to it.  Knowing how many you are expecting helps you count how many plates or meals to serve. Knowing how many kids will be present will help you prepare just enough loot bags or goodies you wish to give-away.  This way, you will not over-spend. 

• Choose a Theme - Who or what  is your child's favorite character? Where is his/her dream vacation? The beach? The fairy land? The jungle?  What is your child's hobby, talent or sport?  It's his/her day, having a theme for a party makes it more exciting.  You may ask your guests to come in costumes too!

• Send out Invitations- It is recommended that you plan ahead of time.  If your invitations are not yet ready a "Save-The-Date" notification through call, text, Facebook or Twitter message or through email will do.  This will help ensure your guests' attendance.  Busy people will appreciate this and will block their calendar just for your child's party.  As soon as the invitations are ready, send it at least 2 weeks or a month in advance.  Don't forget to include a map how to get to the venue and contact number for the R.S.V.P. 

Themed Cake - What is a party without a cake?  Blowing the birthday candle/s while guests are singing the Happy Birthday song is the highlight of the party.  You could buy celebration cakes from 2 giant bakeshops or order online or from friends who bake themed cakes.  You may opt for cupcakes towers too which could double as your souvenir item.Decorations - Some fast food chains offering party packages already include the decors.  If you're doing it at home or in a subdivision's function hall, you might need some help from suppliers with that.  If you are saving, you could do it yourself or ask help from your family and friends.  Here are some decor ideas you may put in your party venue: balloons, birthday banners or backdrops, buntings and cloth drapers are few.  

• Appoint a Photographer/Videographer - If you are on a tight budget, you may ask a family member or photography enthusiast friend to cover your party.  If you have set aside some budget for a photo or video services, you may ask for friends' referral or search on line.

• Write a Party Program - If you want a personalized program, you may write your own, involving your family and friends to maybe say the opening prayer or ask younger kids in the family to render a song or dance number or an adult to help host the party.  If you choose a fast food chain as a venue for your kid's party, they have a ready program you could use and a skilled party host to go with it.  A simple program would go like this: Registration, Opening Remarks/Prayer, Games1, Eating Time, Mascot Appearance (if available) or Song/Dance number, Happy Birthday Song and birthday candle blowing, Loot bags give-away and Thank you Message.

• Prepare Game Prizes and Loot bags - Every kid attendee to your child's party looks forward to game prizes and goodies to bring home.  Some party providers already include those in their packages.  If you have an extra budget, it won't hurt to add game prizes for more winners, kids and adults alike.  It's also a treat for your attendees to take home extra candies and toys from your loot bags as well!

Advantages & Disadvantages of Online Shopping

Online Shopping is becoming popular day by day. Thanks to increasing number of e-commerce websites that we have a good number of choices to choose from. Just a few years ago, Online Shopping was considered as a Taboo and people were actually afraid of online shopping. However, things didn’t remain same and suddenly Online Shopping bloomed and now we are living in the world where Online Shopping is the most popular trend. No doubt, there are many advantages of online shopping but, at the same time there are few downsides too. In this post, we will let you know about few common advantages & disadvantages of Online Shopping.

Advantages of Online Shopping

1. Effortless and time-saving

No one has got the time to visit a store and buy things. In this rat race, we don’t have time to eat our food properly so, you can imagine how much difficult it is to manage time for shopping. In such cases, online shopping comes at our rescue and allows to shop just by clicking a single mouse button. No need to visit the store in scorching heat or chilling cold. The whole process of online shopping not only saves you a lot of time but, also makes shopping completely effortless and hassle free.

2. A great range of choice

A single e-commerce store consists of over 50 thousand products. Now just imagine three four stores of these types. No matter how much you try, you just can’t get such a huge range of products and choice at any offline store. These choices come very handy in cases of clothes and apparel. And it becomes even better when you have Jabong Coupon in your hand.

3. Exclusive Deals and Offers

This one is one of the biggest advantages of online shopping. Thanks to Flipkart Discount Coupons that you can get the same product at an almost half price as compared to offline shop. Free delivery, cashback offers, and excellent packaging attracts users from all corner of the nation and gives them a very big reason to do Online Shopping rather than going to store or shop.

Disadvantages of Online Shopping

1. Waiting for the delivery

No matter how fast the delivery system is but, you will eventually have to wait for your order. Things get worse when it takes as long as a week for delivery of the product. However, websites like Flipkart and Amazon are trying to solve this issue as they have brought the concept of one-day delivery where you ca get the product on the day of ordering.

2. Increasing a number of Frauds and Fake products.

One of the biggest drawbacks of online shopping is that you can’t actually see or touch the product. You can only guess about the originality of the product. The problem becomes worse when you receive a fake product, and you need to return or exchange it. The complete process of returning back products brought via online shopping is still a long process and requires a lot of patience.

3. Risk of identity theft

Most of the e-commerce websites are very well technically sound but, when it comes to the web, nothing is safe. There are chances that you brought a thing using Ask me Bazaar coupons, and when the page redirected to the payment gateway, a hacker copied your data and used it for his own interests. The cases of identity theft in not so common but, still exists.

“With great powers come great responsibilities.” Exactly, what we are trying to say. Online shopping has got its own pros and cons, and it depends on you as which side you look at.

How to Have a Successful Day of Shopping

Shopping is a lot of fun, which is why you probably love spending a day at the shops! Sometimes, though, you just need to get in and out with what's on your list. No matter what your attitude towards shopping may be, streamline your experience so you don't wear yourself down or break your budget. Make a plan before you head out, and then work on finding the perfect items. Also, use sales to your advantage to snag deals.

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   Set a budget so you don't go overboard. Checking out your finances isn't fun, but you have to do it when you're going shopping. Look at your finances and decide how much you have to spend. Make a budget and stick to it. Don't wrack up debt because you want a new purse.^[1]

   • Take the amount you plan on spending in cash with you to the store instead of a credit card. That way, you can only spend what you have on you.
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   Make a list of what you need before you leave the house. If you just have a vague idea of what you want, you're going to waste time figuring it out while you're shopping. Plus, you may not end up with what you need, costing you more time and money to go back to the store. Be specific about your needs by examining what you already have.^[2]

   • If you need more clothes, spend time digging through your closet. You may decide you need more everyday pants, a couple of button-up shirts, and a nice pair of shoes. That gives you a target for when you go shopping.
   • If you're buying for other people, think about what type of gift you'd like to get them, so you can decide where you want to go.
   • Group like items together, as you'll likely be visiting the same stores for those items.^[3]
   • When deciding what to buy, pick the items you need most first, so you're not stuck doing without something you really need because you spent your money on something frivolous.3
     Decide how much time you want to spend shopping. If you only have an hour, you're not going to be able to hit 20 stores. Knowing exactly how much time you can spend will give you a chance to plan your stops.^[4]

     • For instance, maybe you just have your lunch break, or maybe you can spend a couple of hours one afternoon.
     • Make an itinerary for your day. You only have so much time, so pick the most important things you need to shop for today. You can always circle back later if you have more time. However, don't miss the important items because you were busy window shopping for fancy jewelry.^[5]
       • Decide on the stores you want to visit and make a route. Once you have everything grouped, pick the stores you need to visit for each set. For instance, you may have 2-3 stores you want to visit for clothing and a couple of stores you want to visit for gifts.^[6]
       • Plan out a route that's efficient, so you're not doubling back.

Impact of online shopping on retail stores.

Online shopping lets customers review thousands of items in one place and pay for from the comfort of their homes. This has affected offline retail companies to stay in the competition with other retailers and online stores.

Online looking (or e-tail from electronic retail or e-shopping) is a sort of e-commerce that permits customers to directly purchase products and services over the web through a virtual store. A number of the leading online stores presently in Asian nation are Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Homeshop18, Myntra etc.

Whereas, Retail is a method of providing products and services to customers through multiple channels of distribution. Retail stores can be small or massive, however they principally operate within the same line as “purchasing to sale”. Retail type of business is as recent as civilization and is the most elementary sort of business.

With recent e commerce boom, more and more retail stores are moving towards establishing their niche and setting up their online stores. It has become very critical for a small business owner to take their business online.

Types of Offline Retail Stores

Departmental Stores – A departmental store may be a retail outlet that offers a good vary of merchandise to the end-users beneath one roof. In a departmental store, the customers can get the majority of the merchandise they want to buy at one place only.

Discount Stores – Discount stores also provide an enormous range of merchandise to the end-users however at a reduced rate. The discount stores usually provide a limited vary and therefore the quality in certain cases may be a bit inferior as compared to the departmental shops.

Supermarket – A outlet that usually sells food  and home items, properly placed and organized in specific departments is termed a market. A supermarket is an advanced type of the little grocery stores and caters to the menage wants of the consumer.

Mom and Pop Store (also known as Kirana Store in India) – Mom and Pop stores are the little stores go by people within the near neighborhood to cater to daily wants of the customers staying within the locality. they provide elect things and aren’t in the least organized.

Malls – several retail stores operative in one place form a mall. A mall would include many shops each one selling their own merchandise however at a common platform.

Five ways online shopping impacts offline retail corporations.

Lets us see some ways in which online shopping is adversely affecting offline retail store

#1 Decrease in customer Loyalty
When you were growing up, your elders, mostly parents, were content to shop for constant brands from the shop. It had been acquainted and something they could rely on.

Now, customers visit a store trying to find a selected brand of a pre-decided price supported by online reviews.

When online shopping was introduced, consumers could compare thousands of merchandise before going to the shop. There are even specialised sites like a shopping FM that collects the most effective deals with the click of a button.

#2 Online Reviews Impacts Retail corporations

Before online shopping arrived, you regularly asked your friends or family a couple of product you were considering to buy. Now, customers search on company websites, blogs, and social media for product reviews and suggestions.

When customers plan a visit to a store, they already comprehend the merchandise and brand they’re considering shopping for. They required the support of asking a worker in-person before creating their judgment.

#3 Smartphone Impacts Retail stores

Smartphones influence a customer even once they’re doing in-store shopping. Often, customers can walk around within the store with their phones. They’re reviewing and compare merchandise within the store to online options and alternative retailer’s deals.

All of those factors persuade a consumer to make a purchase in-store or online.

#4 Company Websites Impact Retail corporations

Companies are turning to their websites to push individuals to come to their store and buy their products. Generally you’ll notice corporations providing coupons on their websites or email campaigns. The catch is, you’ll be able to solely use the coupon for an in-store purchase.

#5 Online Engagement Impacts Retail corporations

Online engagement goes beyond simply liking or following a company’s Facebook Page or Instagram account. Once brands post avid posts that convey their mission and worth statements, it helps to form a deeper connection with their customers.

Undoubtedly, online shopping has severely influenced retail stores. Apart from snatching away a giant portion of the market from the retailers because of the comfort they provide, they have highly influenced their buyers persona as well. Consumers no longer hold the same mentality as before. Even if online shopping is not adopted by some yet, still online validation is an important aspect.