Transforming B2C Ecommerce with User-Centred Design and Scalable Architecture

Balloon Monkey’s website was rebuilt with conversion-focused design and a scalable architecture, improving speed, user experience, and cutting infrastructure costs significantly.

Project launch: June 2021

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Project Scope

B2C ecommerce development

UX & UI design

Custom balloon designer

Scalable architecture

AI-powered balloon design tools

Technologies

About the Client

Balloon Monkey is a UK-based specialist in personalised helium balloons and gift experiences. Similar to Moonpig but for balloons, they allow customers to create custom designs by adding photos and text. Their wide range includes fully inflated single balloons and elaborate bouquets, delivered nationwide with careful attention to presentation and customer delight.

Facing performance issues and a dated user experience, Balloon Monkey sought a complete ecommerce overhaul that would improve site speed, increase conversions, reduce infrastructure costs, and introduce innovative features like AI-powered balloon designers.

Redesign outdated, slow website
Enhance UX and conversion rates
Reduce infrastructure costs
Build a scalable, efficient platform

The Challenge

Balloon Monkey’s existing website was slow and costly to maintain due to inefficient backend processing and outdated architecture.

Key features like the balloon designer relied heavily on server-side image generation, causing lag and poor user experience. The visual design no longer reflected Balloon Monkey’s leadership in their sector, and the admin system was cumbersome, limiting operational efficiency.

Despite initial thoughts to update the existing codebase, it became clear a full rebuild was necessary to deliver a fast, scalable, and user-friendly platform.

The challenge was to improve performance, enhance UX, reduce infrastructure costs, and introduce innovative customisation tools - all while creating a platform ready to support Balloon Monkey’s future growth and evolving customer needs.

Design that Engages and Converts

Our design strategy centred on creating an engaging, user-friendly experience that would boost conversions while reflecting Balloon Monkey’s fun and whimsical brand personality. We aimed to build trust and reduce friction throughout the site, ensuring customers felt confident and secure throughout the checkout process.

To achieve this, we focused on clean, modern visuals paired with intuitive navigation and clear calls to action.

We also integrated playful elements featuring the brand’s iconic monkey mascot, adding charm without detracting from usability. This balance of professionalism and personality helped position Balloon Monkey as both reliable and fun - a key factor in encouraging repeat visits and word-of-mouth recommendations.

balloonmonkey.co.uk

Reinventing the Balloon Designer

The new balloon designer leverages client-side JavaScript and the HTML5 canvas API to provide a fast, responsive, and smooth user experience. Customers can personalise balloons with real-time previews, easily adjusting images, text, fonts, and borders without any lag.

The interface is fully optimised for desktop and touch-friendly mobile devices, ensuring usability across all screen sizes. This modern approach enhances user engagement and satisfaction, ultimately driving higher conversions and repeat visits.

balloonmonkey.co.uk

Introducing the Balloon Genie

The Balloon Genie is an AI-powered design assistant that creates personalised balloon designs by asking simple questions about the occasion, recipient, and interests. It generates unique, custom balloons tailored to any event or occasion.

Users can provide feedback and refine the design until they’re happy, making the process fun, interactive, and highly personalised. This innovative feature has been well received, helping customers create truly special balloons with ease and creativity.

Under the Hood

The platform is built as a monolithic application using a bespoke PHP 8 backend with a traditional HTML, CSS, and JavaScript frontend. Client-side JavaScript and the HTML5 canvas API power the fast, responsive balloon designer.

We integrate with multiple shipping providers via APIs, selecting the best option based on factors such as delivery date, service type and postcode. For video messages, customer uploads are processed by Bunny Stream upon order confirmation. The resulting videos are compressed and served via Bunny’s player, embedded securely with encoded URLs.

To ensure high performance, Redis caching is employed alongside BunnyCDN for fast delivery of image assets. Streamlined, optimised code and offloading processing to the client side have reduced infrastructure demands, allowing smaller, more cost-effective backend servers.

This redesign has equipped Balloon Monkey with a reliable, efficient platform that improves user experience and operational efficiency. By focusing on performance, scalability, and usability, the solution supports growth while reducing costs and simplifying everyday processes.

Technologies

balloonmonkey.co.uk
Balloon Designer UI
balloonmonkey.co.uk
Order management in the back end
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Picking list automation

The Outcomes

The new platform delivered a 23% increase in conversions within the first three months and boosted average order value by 11%, with infrastructure costs reduced by 90%. Customers enjoy a faster, smoother experience, and the AI-powered design tools make balloon customisation easy and fun.

We continue to work with Balloon Monkey, evolving the website with new features and improvements for their growing business needs.

23%

increase in conversions within the first three month

11%

Order value increase

90%

reduction in Infrastructure costs

Faster & smoother experience

Quick, simple and UX driven

AI-powered tools

Harnessing the latest technologies

Client testimonial

I would highly recommend working with Edge of the web for any website or backend project. They're easy to work with and they really understand our business.