An NSF I-Corps Funded Innovation Venture

No More Sourcing Tab Overload. Plan Your Entire Party in One Click.

Stop wasting hours searching for items one by one on Amazon, Walmart, or Target. Our custom AI Agent immediately sources your entire party layout—decorations, games, tableware, and infrastructure—into one smart list.

Save 5+ Hours of Sourcing
Prevent Duplicate Purchases
No More Return Hassles
Zero Waste Packaging
Our Origins

Why I Built CoCarting

A real story from our founder, Lily Meng

I love gathering my friends and family. There is nothing better than seeing everyone laughing, sharing food, and celebrating together. But as a busy, working mom trying to balance professional goals with the infinite list of things required to manage a household and raise kids, setting up these celebrations had become an absolute nightmare of stress and exhaustion.

I found myself doing what millions of other busy moms do: scrolling on Amazon, Target, and Walmart at 2:00 AM in the middle of the night. I would shop "as I go" during tiny pockets of free time, opening dozens of tabs, desperately trying to guess if the plates from one store matched the banners from another.

🎂

"At my kid's last birthday, after spending hours buying coordinated supplies on my phone over two weeks, I still forgot one simple thing: the cake cutter. When it came time to sing 'Happy Birthday' and cut the cake, we had nothing. It was so embarrassing. We literally cut the birthday cake with a fork and a paper plate in front of all our guests."

It was silly, frustrating, and incredibly stressful. More than anything, it was my breaking point. I realized that moms are carrying a massive cognitive load, and current e-commerce platforms aren't designed to support our busy lives. We buy duplicates because we buy out of panic, and we miss key items because we are doing it all alone in the dark.

That is why I created CoCarting. To build an AI-powered assistant that does the heavy lifting, bundles matched decor seamlessly, and lets your friends keep you organized—so no mom ever has to cut her kid's birthday cake with a paper plate again.

YM

Yi (Lily) Meng

Founder, Working Mom, Penn State Alumna

Common Hurdles & Our Cures

Let's Solve Your Biggest Party Planning Headaches

We mapped out the exact problems moms experience when organizing milestone celebrations online and engineered the absolute cures to save your sanity.

The Headache

Spending Hours Sourcing and Still Missing Stuff

Moms waste an average of 5+ hours trying to hunt down matching cups, banners, table centerpieces, and favors across 10 different website tabs. At the end, there is always that nagging feeling that something essential was left behind.

🛡️
Our Cure: Complete Event Assembly. Our AI maps out a mathematically balanced, fully coordinated 5-part set of decor, tableware, infrastructure, games, and food accessories all at once. No forgotten details, no mismatched tones.
The Headache

Buying Duplicates and Enduring Return Hassle

Out of sheer planning anxiety, moms often buy duplicate supplies or mismatching accessories just to make sure they are covered, leading to bloated bills and exhausting reverse-logistics return packages.

🛡️
Our Cure: Cross-Off Deduplication. Already have solid gold tableware or forest plates left over from another event? Simply cross them off your interactive checklist and watch the total bundle price recalculate instantly.
The Headache

Blowing the Budget on Overpriced Siloed Stores

Niche party supply boutiques charge premium markup fees for themed collections, while giant supermarkets lack coordinate matching, forcing you to pay premium prices to multiple sellers.

🛡️
Our Cure: Cross-Brand Optimization. Our algorithm searches the live catalogs of Amazon, Target, and Walmart simultaneously to find high-quality products that fit your exact budget limits perfectly.
The Headache

Planning Alone and Guessing What Friends Like

Sharing generic shopping links via text causes disjointed conversations, lost links, and general disagreement over what is actually being purchased, creating avoidable social friction.

🛡️
Our Cure: Collaborative Voting. Invite your inner circle directly into your shared CoCarting space. Everyone can chat, poll, and vote natively in the cart to lock in agreement before checkout.
Interactive AI Assistant

Meet Coco, Your Custom AI Party Planner

Interact directly with Coco, your custom AI assistant. Select a celebration style, check off items you already own, or type in products you have to dynamically remove duplicate retail purchases!

Coco the Agent

ACTIVE CO-PLANNER

Already bought or own something?

Coordinated Shopping Checklist
Theme:

Cart Total

$111.48

This collection is built to match completely. Cross off items you already have to prevent duplicate deliveries!

Synchronized Co-Planner Feed

Pre-checkout Consensus
L
S
Y

Sophie: "I love the canvas fingerprint tree! Unchecked the standard Guestbook since this is so much better!"

Smarter Sourcing Timeline

How Natively Easy It Works in 2 Simple Steps

We designed CoCarting to completely take over the heavy load of party planning. No complex workflows—just ask and let the agent do the rest.

01 1. ASK

Ask Your AI Agent Natively

Just tell your AI Party Shopping Agent what you're planning, how many people are coming, your budget limit, and your location or theme. It's as simple as texting a friend!

📝 Custom Prompt Example

"Ask AI Party Shopping Agent to Set up party needs supply: for my son 3 yrs old birthday party, 35 guests, 500 dollars budget, at my backyard, theme prefers Space."

02 2. DONE

Done! Save, Collaborate & Buy

Coco immediately compiles all matched materials, decorations, and items. Share with co-planners to vote on products you're unsure about, and check out securely!

Instant Agent Output

"Done: all of your party things needs is ready! You can create a shopping list and save all the items. You can add friends and family to your shopping lists to make decisions together on any unsure products, or click the product and check out."

Environmental & Economic Impact

Why It Matters: Every Smarter Choice Protects Our Families & Our Planet

At CoCarting, we believe the best return is the one that never happens. By planning your party thoroughly before checking out, our AI Party Shopping Agent helps eliminate unnecessary purchases, double orders, and impulse buying—making milestone events stress-free for you and sustainable for the environment.

The Growing Crisis of E-commerce Returns

U.S. Merchandise Returned

$849.9 Billion

Worth of products is returned to U.S. retailers each year, bloating micro-logistics overhead.

Source: National Retail Federation (NRF) Annual Report

Online Order Returns

19.3% of Orders

Nearly 1 out of every 5 online purchases is returned, causing massive packaging waste.

Source: National Retail Federation & Appriss Retail

Average Sale Return Rate

15.8% of Sales

For every $100 spent, about $15.80 in merchandise is returned due to poor planning.

Source: NRF & Appriss Retail System Survey

Landfill Waste Generated

90.6B Lbs

Product returns generate an estimated 90.6 billion pounds of waste every year, with many ending up in landfills.

Source: Optoro Return Environmental Impact Study

Annual Carbon Emissions

29M Metric Tons

Of CO₂ is emitted annually from shipping, packaging, transportation, and disposal of returns.

Source: Optoro & US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

🛡️ Our Sustainable Promise to Busy Families

Our AI Party Shopping Agent is structurally engineered to help moms reduce shopping stress and eliminate systemic product returns:

Plan your entire party in minutes instead of days.
Shop within your designated budget.
Buy only what you actually need.
Avoid duplicate and anxiety-driven purchases.
Reduce spontaneous impulse buying.
Reduce unnecessary product returns.
Reduce single-use cardboard packaging waste.
Lower carbon emissions from shipping routes.
AI Party Shopping Agent Impact

One Small Shopping Cart Can Make a Big Difference

If just 100,000 families use CoCarting's AI Agent to avoid just one unnecessary, duplicate $30 party purchase, together we can:

Financial Savings

$3,000,000

Saved directly in family bank accounts

Logistics Prevented

100,000 Carts

Unnecessary shipments avoided

Materials Saved

150,000 Lbs

Cardboard and plastic saved

Protection

290 Metric Tons

Of direct CO₂ emissions prevented

Shop Smarter. Save More. Waste Less. Together.

Early Access VIP Waitlist

Get Early Access to Your AI Co-Planner

We are launching invite-only private beta slots soon! Join our VIP Waiting List today. The first 500 moms get Lifetime Premium Custom Themes completely free.

Free Premium Access

Lifetime premium templates unlocked for early members.

First to Try

Exclusive invitation to the mobile beta app before launch.

Early Mom Community

Be part of the active collaborative shopping movement.