IN CONVERSATION WITH EIGHTY80
Inset: Balloons to celebrate follower milestones are popular orders.
Above: The Eighty80 team is made up of three, along with Noelle’s dad from time to time.
Above: Noelle says her customers generate her creative content for her.
story, it actually works. Eighty80 has a 25% return rate for customers, who clearly appreciate the personal service that goes with every order. Although Noelle is currently replying to all social media messages single handedly, she ensures all customers are treated well: “I always want to make sure customers are responded to on an individual level, as opposed to here’s a template, just send that out.” And the personal service is based on a robust business plan. Noelle started out using Amazon as a testing platform for the business, and grew to include Etsy and Ebay. A dedicated B2C website will launch soon, but the plans don’t stop at retailing products. Noelle explains: “We are intending to go into stores and small retailers, so essentially moving from B2C to B2B.” She furthers: “I’m trying to start
my own small brand and I should be bringing out multiple languages in the fonts. I’m from Cyprus, so my main language is Greek and nobody at the moment is manufacturing the Greek alphabet in the balloons, so I would be the first to do that. Then I could potentially sell to Cyprus and Greece as well, or American sororities.” As the business grows, Noelle is expanding her team and recently hired a part time staff member along with her daughter, who
is doing an apprenticeship with the business before going to college. Noelle’s dad also helps out sometimes, and her newly adopted rescue dog, Gary, can often be found in the office, barking at email notifications. The company is run as sustainably as possible, while also making life easy for the customers. Eighty80’s balloon letters are air fill only, so are reusable and all the products stocked are either reusable or biodegradable. “We provide everything that the customer needs. We found something that was frustrating when you buy balloons was that they didn’t send you the string, or they didn’t send the inflation techniques, so we always provide everything so that customers only have to go to one place. “And all of those accessories are biodegradable too. Our new packaging will be made purely out of paper or recycled paper. A lot of balloon companies supply everything in plastic, which defeats the point if we’re trying to be sustainable.”
Above and right: The order that helped Eighty80 go viral earlier this year JUNE 2021 PROGRESSIVE PARTY EUROPE
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