Party City
Simplifying Balloon Inflation
Overview
Party City is the largest retailer of party goods in the U.S., with 700+ stores across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and an online inventory of over 50,000 products. The highest performing product category is balloons, with 80% of users including at least one balloon in their order.
Learn more about Party City at www.partycity.com.
Problem
The balloon purchasing process was lengthy and convoluted, involving high click-effort and repetitive steps to add helium inflation for each balloon to Cart. Additionally, customers didn’t know how many balloons could fit in a vehicle, how long they could float, or how to keep them from popping. This resulted in long shopping sessions, frustration at point-of-pickup, and customer complaints in our product reviews and across social media channels.
Goal
To educate customers about balloon care at key purchasing touchpoints, decrease the total number of clicks to add a balloon to Cart, and improve product ratings for latex balloons.
Results
My team (1) decreased shopping time by automatically setting helium inflation as the default option and selecting the nearest pickup store using geo-location, (2) added balloon education at each customer decision point, and (3) eliminated redundancy by moving balloon scheduling options to the end of the flow. This resulted in a 78% click reduction and an improved star rating score for latex balloons by 20%.
Research & Synthesis
Who are our users?
Our primary target audience for balloons consists of millenials (ages 17-23) and young mothers (ages 24-38).
Platform
Mobile and desktop site (75% of our users browse our site on a mobile device, and 70% convert on desktop).
Store associate and customer service feedback revealed frustration at point-of-pickup.
To understand where users were getting upset regarding balloons, we first talked to our store associates and customer service teams to hear common customer complaints about balloon ordering/pickup and any recommendations they had.
Product reviews and social media posts identified confusion regarding float times and balloon care.
We also reviewed our site feedback tool, product reviews, and social media channels to see if there were commonalities among customer-reported issues. Most of the negative feedback came from a misunderstanding of how long balloons could float and how to protect them from damage.
The Problem
“Your site is so slow and you make me do the same steps over and over.”
“I had to make two trips to pick up all of my balloons. You should have called me to tell me they were huge.”
“[My balloons] deflated before the party and I couldn’t get a refund. WORST PRODUCT EVER!!”
Issue #1: Long balloon shopping sessions
To add each inflated balloon to Cart, users would have to make a total of 9 clicks in the old flow and wait for 4 separate screens to load. This would have to be repeated for each balloon product added to Cart, resulting in long shopping sessions and redundant tasks (see below).
Issue #2: Incorrect assumptions regarding pickup times, balloon transportation, and general balloon care.
Users simply didn’t know enough about balloons to have a good experience with them.
For example, users would regularly pick up balloons more than a day before their party, which meant that any latex balloons (which only have a 24-hour float time) would slowly deflate over the course of the day and be on the floor by the time their party started (see left). To guarantee the best experience, users should always order them on the same day as their party.
Other common issues we noticed:
Users assumed they could pick up all of their balloons in one trip, but the average sedan could only fit 24 latex balloons (if there are no passengers).
Balloons would frequently pop or shrivel due to improper storage. Hot temperatures (ex: those in a parked car) could cause balloons to burst, while cold temperatures (ex: those on a frigid morning) could cause balloons to shrivel. However, shriveled balloons could be revived if brought back to room temperature (65-70° F).
Customers didn’t know that helium inflation was only offered for In-Store Pickup and Same Day/Scheduled Delivery orders. For Ship to Address orders, balloons shipped flat in a box.
Aligning Business & User Goals
Both the company and our users had an interest in fast balloon checkout, convenience, and for balloons to meet expectations.
After reviewing feedback, we realized that our company and our users had many goals in common—fast checkout, convenient inflation/scheduling options, and fuss-free balloons performing as expected. Our design solutions prioritized these goals.
The Solution
Hypothesis: If we make the balloon flow shorter and educate users about balloons, then they will have a better experience and give higher product ratings.
We wanted to create visual cues that would:
Automatically set balloon inflation as the default
Display the number of balloons that could fit into a vehicle during pickup scheduling.
Show the average float time for balloons based on type (latex, foil, oversized, standing).
Explain how to store balloons.
Explain how a balloon order is affected by different receiving methods.
The Redesign
The new flow featured only two clicks to add to Cart, as opposed to the old flow, which required nine.
On the Add to Cart modal, we added balloon education and automated store selection and inflation.
To prevent users from choosing the wrong receiving method for their needs, we placed purple informational text under each receiving method to explain how the different methods affect balloon orders. We also automatically chose their pickup store using geo-location. Moreover, since data showed that 85% of our users opt for inflation, we added an inflation toggle automatically set to “yes” to eliminate an extra click. For latex balloons, we also added a commonly requested feature—“air inflation”—to make it easier for users to order balloon decorations without having to inflate their own balloons (see below). The price of balloons dynamically updated to reflect the cost of helium based on the inflation toggle’s position so that customers wouldn’t be surprised by the price increase later when they reviewed their items in Cart.
For scheduling balloon pickup, we consolidated all balloon items into one screen after Cart so that users would only have to schedule pickup once for all balloons in their order.
In the old flow, users had to go through 3 screens to schedule a balloon pickup before they could add an item to Cart (see above). To make balloon purchasing more efficient, we condensed all the steps into one screen (see below) and moved this screen after Cart so that pickup scheduling could be done once for all balloons as opposed to each time a user wanted to add a balloon.
This design featured a vehicle capacity message to prime users to pick up their balloon with the right vehicle. It also had a collapsible accordion reflecting the user’s inflation choices so that they could be reviewed and edited on the same page (see above). This design minimized confusion by showing all helium prices and float times granularly, since different balloon styles required varying amounts of helium and had different float times.
Float time diagrams and greyed out date/time slots decreased user errors and prevented long store wait times due to overscheduling.
In some instances, users would arrive at the store and discover that their balloons had not yet been inflated for pickup. This was caused by users overscheduling balloon pickup on certain dates—to the point where store associates could not keep up with all the balloon inflation orders placed online and in-store. To prevent this, we simply greyed out a pickup time slot once it had been chosen to a certain threshold set by the stores. To help users choose the best pickup time for their balloons, we also added float time diagrams to help users anticipate how long their balloon type would float for their party. We also added an Assembly Instructions section so that users could give custom directions on how they wanted their balloons arranged. A Float Time diagram was also included to help customers choose the best pickup time for their party.
Balloon care instructions were also added to order confirmation emails to prepare customers for proper balloon pickup and storage.
Final Thoughts
After launch, we noticed a decrease in negative reviews related to balloon deflation in under 24-hours, with latex balloons also receiving a 20% increase in star ratings. Balloon conversion also improved by 1% over a 1-month observation period. During testing, we noticed that users rarely clicked on the “check float times” link, so future iterations will feature a straightforward message stating that “balloons should be ordered on the same day as the party.” After testing Assembly Instructions, we realized that users would ask for customizations that couldn’t be executed by store associates. Future iterations would feature more guidance through dropdowns with clear options.