10 Key Features to Look for In an Online Ticketing Platform

Event ticketing is a massive global industry that is expected to grow by 6.5% in 2024 and the market volume is expected to reach $90 billion by 2027. Events, both virtual and face-to-face, are a common practice among businesses of all sizes.

A whopping 80% of businesses believe that live events are crucial for business success and 61% of marketers use events as an important marketing tool.

If you are planning to create and run an event, the first thing you need is a ticketing platform that lets you create, manage, and run an event.

Problem?

There are hundreds of online ticketing platforms with varied features which makes it hard to make the right decision. Not all ticketing apps are created equal. Not all features are essential.

When you know what features are necessary and which ones you can forgo can make decision-making easier and it reduces costs significantly.

This article explores the primary features that you should look for in a ticketing platform as they are necessary.

Here are the best features you should consider when choosing an online ticketing platform:

1. Simple User Registration Process

The major feature that you should look for in an online ticketing platform is a simple registration process for attendees. User experience and ease of use make it super simple for your audience to sign up and register for the event.

Research shows that 86% of customers are willing to pay more for an exceptional customer experience and 13% of consumers are willing to pay a premium price if they receive great customer experience in return. And a whopping 88% of consumers will not return to a website with a bad user experience.

Ease of use is one (major) component that shapes the user experience and it begins as soon as a visitor initiates the registration process for the event. Make it great, and you won’t just generate leads and sales, but you win loyal customers.

When looking for an online ticketing platform for your event business, make sure that it gives you full control over the registration process and makes it easy to tweak the process as per your needs.

TicketsCandy, for example, has a user-friendly widget that makes it extremely easy to sell tickets via your website. The widget is customizable and lets your audience register for an event by filling out a short, simple form.

2. Multiple Event Types

You might need a single event type at this moment, but it can change in the future. Do not make the mistake of sticking with a tool that allows you to create and run only a single type of event.

The ticketing platform should support multiple event types such as:

• Single-day events
• Multiple-day events
• Recurring events.

The platform should also support unlimited events and tickets. If the number of events you can run is capped, it might get problematic.

This is especially important for event planning companies that create multiple events of different types regularly. They need platforms that let them create unlimited events with ease.

This makes TicketsCandy an ideal online ticketing platform for businesses of all sizes including event businesses as you can create, run, and promote different event types without any restrictions.

3. Multiple Languages

Around 66% of the world’s population is multilingual or bilingual. That’s more than half of the world’s population and this has to do a lot with the way you sell event tickets online.

You need to communicate with your target audience in the language it is comfortable in. And it is challenging when you are running a virtual event targeting people from across the globe. In such a situation, you need a ticketing app that supports multiple languages.

The best online ticketing tools do the heavy lifting by automatically translating your event landing page into a relevant language based on the visitor’s location.

According to a study, Fortune 500 companies that invest in translation to communicate effectively with their customers were 2.67x more likely to see an increase in revenue and 2.6x more likely to have higher profits.

The science is simple: Having your event page available in more than one language increases its reach and it gets more visitors (organically) leading to a higher conversion rate.

Stick with online event ticketing sales platforms that offer support in more than one language. Better if they auto-translate content (accurately) based on visitor location. This will save you time and resources.

4. Attendee Management

Does your ticketing software give you full control over event attendees and lets you manage them the way you like?

It should.

Attendee management might seem to be an unnecessary feature as there is little you have to manage after registration completion. Things don’t always move as expected.

You need an event ticket management app that supports manual ticketing and attendee management for two main reasons:

1. If the front-end collapses and your target audience can’t complete registration due to a temporary glitch or a bug, you should be able to create bookings and appointments manually
2. You need access to attendee information and details to address and solve support queries. For example, the correction of an attendee’s personal details.

A nice and clean attendee management dashboard makes it easy to send invitations, group and segment attendees, create charts and reports for decision-making, and perform a lot of other tasks.

When you are dealing with thousands of attendees and running hundreds of events, you can’t go without an intuitive and easy-to-use attendee management feature.

5. Event Page Builder

A dedicated event page is a must-have as it increases the conversion rate significantly. An event page focuses on converting visitors into attendees and has all the information potential participants need.

Here is an example of an event page:

It has all the information about the event including event tickets, event description, venue, images, contacts and social media, and more. Event pages have a single purpose: To generate event ticket sales and registrations. And this is done with a clutter-free and distraction-free landing page.

These types of dedicated event landing pages have 160% higher conversion rates than other types of sign-up pages:

You should look for an online ticketing platform that lets you build event pages with a few simple clicks. It saves you money because you won’t have to spend money on a landing page builder and then integrate it with your event ticketing app.

It doesn’t just cost you money but it gets too complicated because leads from the landing page should move to your event page.

TicketsCandy makes it easy to create branded event pages with a few simple clicks. You get access to an easy-to-use event page builder where you can build a page from scratch to promote your event.

6. Quick Checkout Process

The checkout process is the key to conversions for your event. Your checkout process should be simple, short, and transparent. This is what your ideal customers want.

A study reported that too long or complicated checkout process along with the unavailability of guest checkout are the two major reasons for cart abandonment:

Additionally, you lose up to 18% of ticket sales if your checkout process is slow and 34% of people won’t buy a ticket if you don’t offer guest checkout.

The event ticketing software you use should have a simple checkout flow like the one at TicketsCandy. It has a simple 2-step checkout flow where you only collect the information you need. This improves the conversion rate and helps you generate more registrations by reducing cart abandonment.

Ideally, the ticketing tool should give you control over the checkout process so you can tweak it as per need. Here are the best practices you should stick with when creating a checkout flow for your event brand:

• Keep the checkout process short and transparent
• Mention event cost including taxes upfront with no hidden charges
• Offer one-click checkout
• Show the checkout process bar with the number of steps remaining in the flow
• Ensure you have guest checkout enabled for your attendees
• Enable autofill
• Minimize form fields and only collect the required information
• Offer multiple payment options including famous ones such as PayPal.

7. Payment Processing

A clean and short checkout process won’t work if your ticketing tool doesn’t support leading payment methods. Payment processing is a major feature of online event ticketing apps that you shouldn’t ignore.

As much as 9% of people abandon a cart due to a lack of payment methods or when they don’t find a payment method they use.

So, you don’t just want the ticketing tool to process payments but it should work with multiple, trustworthy payment methods such as PayPal, credit cards, Apple and Google Pay, and others.

The more payment methods your sales ticket tool supports, the better.

And since you will be processing payments via your website or event page, including popular payment methods, it makes you trustworthy and credible. For example, even if a potential customer doesn’t have a mobile wallet and doesn’t want to pay through Apple Pay, having the Apple Pay option available during checkout, makes your brand trustworthy.

A study reported that adding a trust badge increased the conversion rate by 42%. And the most popular trust badge is Visa-Mastercard, according to another study:

A survey reported that 48% of people said that trust badges reassure them that the site is trustworthy and secure:

The same is the case with adding multiple payment methods along with their trust badges. For example, you can add Google Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal, and other trust badges on the event page.

What payment methods you can accept depends on your ticketing platform, and this is why it is crucial to do your homework. The online ticketing tool should offer multiple payment methods so you can add relevant trust badges to make your event page trustworthy.

You also need to look for two more payment-related features:

1. How quickly the ticketing app sends payout
2. The available payout options (aka withdrawal methods).

Ideally, the app should send payouts instantly. If it holds your payments for a few days, it isn’t a good sign. This is because it is your money and you should get it immediately in your bank account without any delay or hefty fees.

The payout methods are also important. Make sure the event ticketing tool offers a payout in your preferred method. Bank transfers work best as opposed to check payments as they need a lot of time to reach. Wire transfers are immediate and you can access and use your funds instantly.

Make sure you fully understand and take into account these payment processing and withdrawal related features when choosing an online event ticketing tool.

You can give a try to TicketsCandy where you get:

• Multiple payment methods including Google Pay, Apple Pay, and credit cards
• Instant payouts
• Immediate bank transfers.

8. Marketing Tools

Creating an event page and having everything set up and ready doesn’t mean you will start getting registrations. Selling event tickets requires marketing and this is where your ticketing app should play its role.

According to a study, 36% of event marketers cite increasing event registration as their biggest event marketing challenge:

Does your ticket selling online event management platform offer any marketing tools?

If it doesn’t, stay away from it.

Because there are several event ticket selling apps that offer marketing tools like TicketsCandy and this helps you a lot. When you get marketing tools from your ticketing tool, it saves cost as you don’t have to spend money on a dedicated event marketing app.

However, the marketing features you get with most of the ticketing apps offer basic services such as social media marketing, email marketing, etc.

For advanced marketing techniques, you need to have your own event marketing strategy. For example, if you want to reach your target audience organically through content marketing, you need to develop a content marketing strategy with a detailed plan of action for content creation, publication, distribution, and promotion.

The event ticketing platforms that support event marketing and provide you with marketing features should be your top priority as it makes it easy to generate event registrations.

9. Customer Support

Customer service by the event ticket selling platform is another key feature you shouldn’t ignore. Even if the app is extremely user-friendly and easy to use, you might need help.

Normally, ticketing apps offer customer support but it is linked to your plan.

If you are at the basic level, you might get access to email support only. You have to upgrade your plan to get the phone and live chat support. If this is the case, stay away from the software.

The simple rule is that you should have access to customer support 24/7 and this shouldn’t be limited to email support (which is usually the slowest).

The average customer service response time is 12 hours and 10 minutes. Make sure the ticketing app has its response rate in this range:

You can track the response rate before signing up with the event ticketing app by sending a query via your preferred customer support channel. See how quickly you receive a response.

Verify response time through different channels and see where it falls.

Also, look at the response time on social media. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are decent options to search for support accounts of the event ticketing platform and see how responsive it is.

Getting customer support is one thing and getting timely customer service is another thing. Look for the latter, not the former.

10. Low fee

You can’t ignore the app fee. It plays a key role in profit and customer acquisition cost.

Event ticketing platforms charge fees in three different ways:

1. Monthly subscription fee
2. A fixed percentage is deducted from the total revenue generated by the user
3. A fixed percentage is charged to the ticket buyers with no cost to the user.

Some apps use a hybrid pricing model and charge you in different ways. For example, they charge a monthly subscription and then charge a certain percentage per successful sale.

Look for platforms that with low fees as it will keep CAC low and you will be able to have a profitable event business:

The fee you pay for the ticketing platform impacts CAC, LTV, and profit, and it eventually plays a key role in how balanced your business model is.

Look at the fees carefully when choosing an event ticketing platform and decide carefully.

Better yet, go with a free platform like TicketsCandy. It is 100% free as it charges a small fee to the ticket buyers which is a measly 0.9% so you don’t pay anything. And 0.9% is quite low and affordable. It won’t turn away your customers.

Sign up free of cost here.

What’s the Right Online Ticketing Platform for You?

There is no right or wrong event ticketing app. It comes down to the right fit. The software that fits your specific ticketing needs is the one you should go with. And the best way to find the right tool for your event business is to prioritize all the features based on your requirements from most important to least important.

Shortlist event ticketing apps and go with the one that fits your criterion. No single app will score best for all the features. A platform that offers superior customer services might not be cheap and an app that has a drag-and-drop event page builder might not be available in multiple languages. You need to set your criterion and pick the right ticketing platform.

However, if you’re in the market for a solution that offers an ideal balance of all the features – ranging from a user-friendly interface, quick checkout process, multiple payment methods, to effective marketing tools and excellent customer support, then TicketsCandy might just be the all-in-one platform you’re looking for. It is built with both the event organizers and the attendees in mind, making it a win-win solution for everyone.