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Precocity LLC3400 N. Central Expressway, Suite 100
Richardson, TX 75080
info@precocityllc.com
(972)-378-1030
The Challenge
The month of October prior to Halloween is the peak sales season for Party City, the leading, category-defining party products and Halloween specialty retailer. For Party City’s 830 stores across the U.S. and Canada, “Halloween isn’t just one night; it’s a season-long orange and black spectacle. ” So when the COVID-19 pandemic significantly increased online ordering in 2020, things got a little scary. As demand spiked, Party City discovered that the data delivery to the website lacked the necessary performance and scalability to accommodate the escalating traffic volume.
The Solution
To optimize expanding online ordering opportunities, Party City recognized the need to ramp up online data processing capability immediately — ten times, at a minimum. And Precocity rose to the challenge with the rapid implementation of a robust data pipeline strategy that helped accurately manage inventory when Halloween demand was at its highest to reinforce the customer experience. Key components for the AWS platform design included:
- Staging data in s3
- Transforming logic with Lambda functions
- Implementing DynamoDB storage
- Integrating API gateway for website
In record time, Precocity data architects successfully improved data pipelines to handle the monstrous Halloween sales load Party City was experiencing through all ordering options, including Buy-Online, Pick-Up-In-Store, and Curb-Side-Pick-Up.
Project Voices
Our Halloween Results Were Ahead of Our Expectations
“Our Halloween results were ahead of our expectations, driven by strong results within décor and better than expected sales of costumes, despite the challenges of a pandemic-impacted backdrop..."
Brad Weston, Director and CEO, Party City
The Impact
Integrating these customized AWS platform tools, the innovative Precocity solution provided an effective and agile blend of serverless processing and performant storage to drive future growth. With their strengthened multi-channel reach, Party City was able to meet peak-volume shopping demand seamlessly — while precisely reporting real-time availability of in-store products and kits to online shoppers. As a result, Party City successfully maintained the deep-product offerings and low-cost global sourcing model that continues to drive margin expansion.
Precocity and Party City continue to collaborate and develop tools for exceptional customer experiences. Read about the innovative Virtual Ballon Boquet Configurator here.
