One of the simplest changes you can make to your event’s ticket sales page to boost sales is to show how many tickets are remaining.
If you sell tickets using the AttendStar platform, you can show the number of tickets remaining next to each ticket type on your ticket sales page as shown in the image to the left.
A number of psychological theories provide proof of why showing the number of remaining tickets is so effective at increasing ticket sales revenue. Let’s take a look at five of these research-backed reasons:
1. Principle of Scarcity
The Principle of Scarcity says people are more likely to take action if they perceive a real scarcity in the future. They’re also more likely to place a higher value on scarce items.
In other words, if people think an event might sell out, they’re much more likely to buy tickets than if they don’t know how many tickets are remaining. Putting this theory into action, scarcity marketing tactics have been shown to increase sales by as much as 226%.
2. Social Influence Theory
Social Influence Theory says social influence is the process people’s attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors are modified by the presence or action of others.
Applying this theory to ticket sales, when people see that a lot of other people are going to an event that they’re interested in, they’ll feel influenced by those people to buy tickets. This is true even if they don’t know who the other people are.
3. Fogg Behavior Model
The Fogg Behavior Model says three elements must converge at the same moment for a behavior to occur (such as buying tickets): motivation, ability (understanding), and a prompt (trigger). When a behavior doesn’t occur (such as not buying tickets to your event), it means at least one of the three elements is missing.
When you add the number of tickets remaining to your ticket sales page, it triggers a sense of urgency, the perception of scarcity, and other cognitive biases. It’s a powerful prompt that makes a person much more likely to buy.
4. Prospect Theory
Prospect Theory is a psychological theory of choice that says people are more influenced by the possibility of loss than the prospect of an equivalent gain.
In other words, people who are interested in your event will feel more motivated to buy tickets if they know there is a chance tickets will sell out (for example, they can see the number of tickets remaining), which would mean they won’t be able to attend.
5. Cognitive Biases
Cognitive biases allow people to make many decisions based on their own subjective perception of the world, situation, and information. Many cognitive biases in psychology play a part in whether or not people buy tickets to your events.
Some of the key biases that show how important it is to display the number of tickets remaining on your ticket sales page include loss aversion, regret aversion, and fear of missing out:
- Loss aversion bias says people feel the pain of losing to be twice as powerful as the pleasure of gaining. In simplest terms, a person would prefer not to lose $50 than to find $50. Similarly, people would rather buy a ticket than lose out on the chance to buy that ticket because the pain of losing the opportunity to attend your event is more powerful than the prospect of getting an equivalent gain.
- Regret aversion happens when a person makes a decision to avoid regretting a different decision in the future. People don’t like to feel regret and will often make decisions solely to avoid feeling regret in the future.
If there is a chance a person will regret not attending your event, then they’re much more likely to buy tickets. When they see the majority of tickets have been sold, the potential for regret if they don’t buy increases, which leads to more ticket sales for your event.
- Fear of missing out (FOMO) is the anxiety or apprehension that a person feels when there is the possibility that they could miss out on something others are doing and rewarding from.
Psychiatrists have discovered that FOMO can actually have significant mental and physical health implications, so it’s not surprising that showing the number of tickets remaining on your ticket sales page elicits FOMO and boosts ticket sales.
Key Takeaways
To leverage these powerful psychological principles on your ticket sales page, you should display the number of tickets remaining, particularly as the event date nears or when the majority of tickets have been sold.
It’s easy to show the number of tickets remaining for every ticket type you offer when you use the AttendStar ticketing platform. Contact us to learn about all the ways AttendStar can help you sell more tickets to your events.
