Carnival
E-commerce + 3D tool · 2018–2019
Carnival Cruise Line only sold its merch in the onboard shops. It wanted to reach customers before and after the cruise, and to take on the custom apparel that was crushing it on Etsy. We designed a mobile Shopify store hooked up to a 3D lab where every customer makes their own T-shirt.
- Client
- Carnival Cruise Line
- Year
- 2018–2019
- Our role
- UX/UI and product leadership
- Platform
- Shopify + custom 3D tool
- Status
- Launched in May 2019
- $250K
- in the first quarter
- $5.5M
- in projected annual revenue
- 68%
- of purchases made on mobile
Context
01
Beyond the ship’s gift shop.
Carnival’s retail department—onboard shops and merch—wanted to make the jump to digital and grow its customer base beyond the passengers already on the ship.
As part of that strategy, they wanted to tap into Etsy’s cruise apparel market: a 100% digital experience where every customer could design their own vacation clothes with Carnival’s touch of “FUN.”
The challenge
02
A $50M opportunity, stuck on board.
Merch sales depended entirely on what people bought on board. And there was a catch: 70% of carnival.com traffic comes from mobile, so a 3D tool that didn’t work on a phone wasn’t going to reach anyone.
- 01Launch an MVP for $500K and validate the product in six months.
- 02Aim for $5.5M a year from the customization tool alone.
- 03Grow the customer base beyond passengers with a 100% digital path to purchase.
- 04Take on Etsy with fully customizable products that look and feel like Carnival.
How we worked
03
The process, step by step
- 01
Discovery
Stakeholder interviews, audience research, competitive analysis, a review of materials and third-party studies, a tech assessment, and a component prioritization workshop.
- 02
Personas
Persona profiles built from the carnival.com audience and onboard customers: archetypes, activities, interactions, and principles.
- 03
Journeys
The full customer journey, from discovery to purchase, with the opportunities at every stage.
- 04
Strategy
Vision, connections plan, framework, KPIs, and roadmap.
- 05
Design
Wireframes for the tool and the store, low-fi prototypes tested with users, and a design system in Sketch based on carnival.com.
- 06
Development
The store runs on a custom Shopify template. For the tool, we teamed up with an outside vendor on a three.js 3D canvas with 100% customizable garments.
Problems & fixes
04
Problems we ran into and how we fixed them
Two experiences, one screen
- Problem
- The Shopify store and the 3D lab were two different products that had to live together on a phone.
- Fix
- We designed the store with the same look and feel as the tool, plus back-and-forth navigation between the “design lab” and the store.
- Result
- Customers move between the two without noticing they’ve changed pages.
Freedom without the overwhelm
- Problem
- We wanted total freedom, but too many choices paralyze anyone.
- Fix
- Fixed, pre-designed templates with text you edit in simple fields. And for anyone who wants more: move, add, and rotate text and images from a library.
Everything within thumb’s reach
- Problem
- On a phone, every option fights for what little space there is.
- Fix
- Everything in five tabs, no option overload, with submenus on top of the main menus.
- Result
- A smooth experience that’s easy to navigate.
3D on a phone
- Problem
- A 3D tool that worked well on a smartphone was a challenge most competitors hadn’t cracked.
- Fix
- A product designed for mobile from the very first wireframe, with extra attention to gestures and touch.
- Result
- 68% of first-quarter purchases came from mobile, at the same conversion rate as desktop.
What we built
05
Pieces of the project
- 01
Personas
Profiles built with data from carnival.com and onboard customers.
02User journey
From discovery to purchase.
03From wireframe to product
The customization tool, from sketch to final screen.
- 04
The tool on mobile
Templates, text, and colors in five tabs.
05Desktop and mobile
Product page, bundles, and cross-selling.
Results
06
What we pulled off
$250K
in the first quarter
May–July 2019: 18% above forecast. Product validated in 90 days.
$5.5M
in projected annual revenue
From the customization tool alone, in a $50M+ market.
5.5×
projected return
On the initial $500K investment.
68%
of purchases made on mobile
Converting as well as desktop, 3D and all.
−30%
design-to-development handoff time
Thanks to the design system.
6 months
from discovery to launch
On time and on budget.
Services
Built with
