Few things are harder than establishing ticket prices. You can display the price any way you want; in the end the consumer decides if they buy, regardless of how the price is displayed.
Most ticketing systems like AttendStar allow you to display the numbers any way you desire. The question is: what are the pros and cons for coming up with the event ticket price? Then, what are the pros and cons for each way you can display that price to the consumer?
Plus, what are some other factors that come into play with displaying ticket prices?
Here is a list of options on a $20.00 ticket based on a 3% credit card fee:
Option 1
$20.00 ticket + $1.50 in ticket fees = $21.50 to consumer
Option 2
$20.00 ticket + 1.50 in ticket fees+ .65 in credit card fees = $22.15 to consumer
Option 3
$20.00 ticket + 1.50 in ticket fees + .65 in credit card fees + .50 in sales taxes and any venue related fees = $22.65 to consumer
Option 4
$22.65 ticket with all fees built into ticket price. In other words, $22.65 is the only “price” the consumer knows.
Typical Outcomes with Options 1 – 3
- Answering more phone calls with consumers asking where to buy tickets to avoid the fees
- May need to print and ship hard tickets to outlets
- Making phone calls each week and obtain ticket counts from outlets
- Must collect and balance money from outlets
- Unable to obtain consumer’s email address for further marketing
- If consumer loses a ticket, then what?
- If consumer is not on your social share marketing plan, then what?
- If one ticket outlet runs out of tickets, does that start the rumor the event is sold out?
- Once the concert is over, there is no “Post Event Survey” opportunity
- Consumer “frustration” when family of 3 buy tickets expecting a total of $60 and the number is now higher
Typical Outcomes with Option 4
- Advertised price is same as final price–avoiding confusion and consumer frustration on price!
- If ticket buyer loses ticket(s), they can be resent
- Ticket buyer is now part of your online social marketing plan
- Post event surveys can be sent to accumulate invaluable information
- No outlet will run out of tickets–avoiding the “sold out” rumor
- No printing hard tickets
- No shipping hard tickets
- No calling stores each week for ticket counts
- No balancing or collecting of money the day of the show
- Consumer is pleased with advertised price being the price they pay
- Fewer phone calls asking where to avoid fees
As an event manager, your biggest fear is not selling enough tickets. That is certainly a valid fear. And quite often you will hear things like “this age group does not like to buy online,” or “not everyone has a computer/email address.” The reality is, there is always a way to get tickets from a family or friend; most of these people have flown on Southwest or shopped on Amazon.
Here’s another idea: make your tickets at the outlets $22.65 (like in the above example) as a test to see what happens.
We know all of you are saying, “AttendStar recommends this so they can sell more tickets.” To that we say–absolutely!!
It’s what we both want.
