In this article, you’ll find
- What Exactly Is A Shopify Digital Ticketing System?
- Features to Look for in Digital Ticketing Systems for Shopify
- Why Should You Integrate Shopify With Your Digital Ticketing System?
- Best Digital Ticketing Solutions for Shopify
- Choosing the Right Digital Ticketing Software for your Shopify Business
- Wrap up
- FAQs
Imagine this. You are lazing around in your house after a long day’s work, and you see a post from your favorite band or musician’s official Instagram account announcing that they are performing in your city. How would you react? The first thing you would likely do is book your ticket through a digital ticketing system. Gone are the days when consumers chose the ‘pay at the door’ path to secure a seat for an event.
Today, online ticketing systems or digital ticketing have garnered immense popularity for various reasons, including convenience, instant access, dynamic updates, and the mobile-first mindset of consumers.
The global digital ticketing transaction value will reach $1.4 trillion in 2027, up from $768 billion in 2022. This growth of 78% over the next five years represents a strong recovery from the heavy impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, driven by the ongoing success of contactless payments.
Additionally, the increasing number of climate-conscious consumers has compelled event organizers to minimize the sales of paper tickets, paving the way for secure and personalized digital ticketing. These stepping stones for greener and climate-friendly event management highlight the symbiotic relationship between technology, environmental sustainability, and event management.
The combination of these factors and the increasing focus on offering a flawless user experience have propelled the demand for digital ticketing on platforms such as Shopify.
With so many options floating in the market, choosing the right digital ticketing system for your Shopify store or event could get a bit tricky.
This article sheds light on various topics closely linked to digital ticketing systems and the best digital ticketing solutions for event organizers that depend on Shopify to boost their sales and revenue, customer satisfaction, and engagement.
Let’s start with the basics.
What Exactly Is A Shopify Digital Ticketing System?
Shopify e-ticketing or digital ticketing systems are online platforms that enable businesses and consumers to purchase, manage, access, and distribute event tickets through Shopify. These solutions eliminate the need to carry physical paper tickets as they are delivered online via email, messaging apps such as WhatsApp, or online stores such as Shopify. From ticket purchasing to validation at the event and everything in between, digital ticketing systems are loaded with a wide range of features to facilitate seamless event management.
Read on to learn more about what the features look like.
Features to Look for in Digital Ticketing Systems for Shopify
As mentioned before, with so many digital ticketing systems, making a decision can be time-consuming and tedious. This is why we have compiled a list of must-have features for an e-ticketing system for Shopify.
- Compatible With Multiple Channels
If you are eyeing improved sales and engagement, you should know that your customers use various online channels, including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, SMS, and Whatsapp, to name a few. Therefore, choosing a digital ticketing system that supports these channels becomes crucial.
- Shopify Integration
Integrating your digital ticketing system with Shopify has several benefits, particularly when you are focused on generating awareness about an event, providing a smooth ticketing experience, managing ticket inventory, and streamlining ticket management. Integrating your e-ticketing system with Shopify also opens cross-selling opportunities, creating a safe passage for higher ticket sales and revenue.
- Live Chat
Customers’ interactions with businesses have drastically changed over the past decade. Today, businesses invest millions of dollars to improve customer experiences on their digital platforms, including websites, social media, and more.
A survey conducted in 2022 revealed that around 46 percent of consumers are okay with waiting for around three days to get a response from a business. Do you know what can give you an upper hand over businesses that take time to get back to their customers? The live chat feature. Customers seek swift responses from brands, event organizers, and businesses to clear their doubts and plan better.
- Automation Flows
Automation is everything in today’s fast-paced digital and business landscape. From redirecting a customer to the right landing page, assigning a relevant customer support executive, and influencing the desired actions from a customer, automation is crucial to improving internal processes and customer experiences.
- Self-service Portals
As mentioned above, the modern-day customer is more restless and impatient than ever. Therefore, they seek instant clarifications and solutions instead of waiting for days. Event organizers looking to sell event tickets on Shopify should look for a digital ticketing system that automates customer support and enables customers to resolve issues with minimum human intervention.
As the name suggests, self-service portals are designed to do just that. They allow customers to access their accounts and interact with the data tied to their accounts, such as the number of tickets, order status, and more.
- Check-in Features
‘Check-in’ features are an absolute must in digital ticketing systems today. These features aid event organizers in verifying the attendees’ identity and tracking the validity of each ticket. Additionally, check-in features provide accurate attendance tracking, capacity management, and fast and efficient entry instead of paper ticketing. All in all, check-in features enhance the attendee experience, security, and operations.
- Reporting
Event promoters and organizers must stay on top of real-time data to evaluate whether they are on the right path. Right from the number of tickets available for each category to pricing trends, refund requests, and response times, reporting features allow organizers to evaluate the success of their event in real-time.
Why Should You Integrate Shopify With Your Digital Ticketing System?
This section explores some of the most compelling reasons event organizers should integrate Shopify with their digital ticketing solution.
- Access to Money
Event organizers are paid instantly as they make sales through Shopify payments.
- Ownership of Customer Data and Brand
Integrating your e-ticketing system with Shopify offers complete ownership of your customer data and brand. In short, it is your space to manage ticket sales, track operations, and slice and dice customer data.
- Sales via Multiple Channels
Event organizers can sell tickets through multiple channels, including websites, social media platforms, email newsletters, and more.
- Better Online Marketing
Digital ticketing systems paired up with Shopify becoming a powerful marketing channel to promote and manage tickets simultaneously.
- Upselling Opportunity
Shopify is one of the best online platforms to sell add-ons with your event tickets – a perfect upselling opportunity.
Best Digital Ticketing Solutions for Shopify
After getting a fair idea of digital ticketing systems and their features, let us explore some of the best online ticketing solutions for Shopify.
Event Ticketing is extensively used by event organizers in the U.S. due to its ease of use, straightforward event registration and setup, and integrated calendar that can be synced with your event. Organizers can also create customized ticket designs that align with their brand’s theme. This digital ticketing tool is designed to deliver efficiency from tracking ticket sales to validation. Equipped with features to handle different types of events, Event Ticketing is an affordable and go-to white-label digital ticketing solution.
Free Trial: 3 days
Pricing
- On-Demand: Free to install (you pay $1/ticket sale)
- Advanced: $19/month
- Professional: $99/month
- Plus+: $999/month
Evey is one of the best ticketing systems if you own a Shopify store and arrange events. The dashboard offers a bird’s eye view of various parameters, including ticket sales, event attendance, check-in accounts, etc. End-users also have the flexibility to choose how their tickets are printed and delivered to customers. Evey also has a mobile app that allows event organizers to check in attendees and provide confirmation via SMS, Apple Wallet, SMS, and PDFs through email.
Free Trial: 14 days
Pricing
- LITE: Free to install (you pay $1/ticket sale)
- Standard: $49/month
- Professional: $189/month
Online events are in vogue, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Driven by necessity and innovation, event organizers do not shy away from hosting and streaming online events while providing a spotless experience. Not only is Starstream loaded with features to organize events on online platforms, but it is also an excellent option to sell tickets for physical events. Starstream is one of the top choices if organizers are looking for a digital ticketing solution that can cater to the requirements of both; online and offline events.
The ‘event replay’ option is one of the unique features which enables organizers to send a recording of the event to all participants once the event is over. This ensures that individuals who bought tickets but could not attend can still benefit from their purchase.
Free Trial: N/A
Pricing
- Business Plan: Free to install (you pay $0.99/ticket sale)
- Premium Support: $99/month
Eventbrite is one of the top e-ticketing systems in the world, and for good reasons. Event organizers can use Eventbrite to sell event tickets and reach a wider audience without burning a hole in their pockets. The digital ticketing tool has some of the best features for event creation, ticketing, event payouts, and customizing event pages and tickets. Additionally, the attendee discovery features, marketing tools, and event-sharing options enable organizers to build their community and engage with them in a streamlined and professional manner.
Free Trial: 14 days
Pricing
- Flex: $9.99/event (pay as you go)
- Pro: $29/month (for 100 tickets)
- Premium: Custom pricing
Ticket Tailor is another highly-rated digital ticketing solution by event organizers. Trusted by over 80,000 organizers, Ticket Tailor has a perfect blend of features well-suited for first-time and seasoned event organizers. The tool is ideal for organizers looking to host multiple events since multiple events can be listed without additional costs.
The best part about Ticket Tailor is that they do not charge a single cent to list and manage free events.
Free Trial: N/A
Pricing
- Free Events: Zero fees for free events
- Pre Pay: Purchase advance credits and save $0.26/ticket
- Pay-as-you-go: Payment starts from $0.65/ticket
Choosing the Right Digital Ticketing Software for your Shopify Business
It is no secret that thousands of online ticketing solutions are available in the market. Putting a finger down on a single solution is not as easy as it appears and requires thorough due diligence.
Wondering where to begin/ Here are some points you should consider before choosing a digital ticketing system that fits your requirements.
- Read Online Reviews
Yes, online reviews are still a thing despite getting significant flak from people for their occasional misuse and subjectivity. Reading online reviews to discover experiences shared by other event organizers is a good idea. You should check out Shopify’s app store reviews, as software vendors and application developers are prohibited from incentivizing merchants for reviews.
Consider opting for an online ticketing system with at least 150-200 reviews.
- Free Trial
Almost all digital ticketing tools come with a limited-period free trial. Just how car-owners opt for a test drive to get a first-hand experience of the driving experience before finalizing the purchase, you should explore all the features before arriving at a decision.
You can start by finding out whether the solution can integrate with your marketing channels, provides automated customer support features, and comes with a user-friendly interface.
- Product Demo
The top digital ticketing software vendors will likely have a dedicated sales and customer success team to take you through the product through a live demo. Additionally, the vendor will go above and beyond to ensure a smooth onboarding process.
- Pricing
After going through multiple tools and narrowing down your options, you can compare each vendor’s pricing. Check out the list of inclusions, extra charges, and find out if there are any unhidden costs. This exercise will help you select a tool that aligns with your requirements and objectives.
Wrap Up
It is safe to say that online ticketing has revolutionized the event ticketing space. From standing in long queues for hours to purchasing event tickets within a few seconds from the comfort of your house, we have come a long way.
Digital ticketing systems and the increasing demand for pleasant attendee experiences have been key in driving this change. Apart from providing the best possible ticketing experience, event organizers leave no stone unturned to provide a pleasant end-to-end event experience.
While there are endless ways to choose the best digital ticketing system for Shopify, we hope this article serves as a good starting point. The ball is now in your court.
FAQs
What is a digital ticketing system?
A digital ticketing system is an online platform that allows event organizers to sell tickets, manage ticket sales, track event attendance, and more from their website or other digital channels.
Which are the top-rated online ticketing systems for Shopify
Event Brite, Evey, Starstream, Event Ticketing, and Ticket Tailor are some of Shopify’s highly-rated online ticketing systems.
Should I opt for a mobile-friendly digital ticketing system?
Yes, you should consider using a mobile-friendly digital ticketing system, as it allows you to track your event’s key details and analytics in real time from any place at any time.
How can I find the best digital ticketing system for my event?
Identify your requirements, read online reviews, and contact the vendor to learn more about the company. You should also opt for a free trial and discover all the features before choosing the most suitable online ticketing system for your event.
Do all e-ticketing vendors offer customer support?
While most of the top e-ticketing system vendors offer end-to-end customer support, we recommend conducting thorough research from your end.
