Tom Mucklow of Addressy highlights how address verification can improve ticketing site UX, conversions and data quality.
It wasn’t too long ago that concert tickets were printed and sent via mail. Oh how times have changed.
Nowadays, events are almost exclusively processed online, with the ticketing industry intersecting with many high-demand areas of business, including the entertainment, travel, and sporting worlds. Considering the sheer volume of customers that use top ticketing sites, the industry should have perfected the customer experience long ago.
Ticketing platforms have yet to leverage the full scope of today’s tech-forward capabilities customer available, there is ample opportunity to create the quick and easy user experience that customers crave. Ticketing companies continue to enhance the user experience with customer verification and search-based address technology has already brought great success to the e-commerce industry worldwide, streamlining the checkout process and increasing customer satisfaction. In the US market, address verification has huge potential, offering simple solutions to speed up the overall purchasing process and alleviate the industry’s mounting customer frustrations.
“Customers don’t have time to deal with the many roadblocks associated with making a purchase on a mobile device”
Enhancing the user experience:
In recent years, the ticket purchasing process has moved almost exclusively online. Key frustrations with ticketing sites stem from the process continuing to favor bots and scalpers over actual customers. Ticketing checkout windows often have timers attached to them, and all inputted information is lost once the time runs out. Customers are left to either try again and hope their tickets are still available, or give up.
In speeding up the checkout process, address verification technology is one thing that can alleviate customer frustrations that plague the industry—including websites crashing, sites loading slowly, and missing out on tickets. By auto-populating address forms and offering tailored, accurate suggestions with each keystroke, the technology reduces the need for manually-entered information and speeds up the process. In fact, address verification technology can reduce the amount of keystrokes at checkout by 73 percent—helping customers beat the bots and the timers.
“When it comes to fully leveraging the rise of m-commerce, ticketing is lagging behind many other industries”
Cleanse your database:
Every ticketing event, whether a concert, a festival, or a sporting event, requires users to enter their address information. Some events require it for physical ticket delivery, while others that have migrated to online tickets simply need it for billing purposes. Having accurate customer data allows sites and vendors to better communicate with customers—they can send information about upcoming events and promotions based on past purchases to drive more ticket sales. So, why aren’t ticketing sites prioritizing quality customer data and fully leveraging it?
Ticketing platforms should be looking to speed up the process and reduce the amount of inaccurate customer data and eliminate errors and typos that are commonly inserted in.
Leverage mobile shoppers:
When it comes to fully leveraging the rise of m-commerce, ticketing is lagging behind many other industries. In the retail world, mobile sales and conversion rates are increasing—mobile devices alone accounted for 53 percent of traffic to U.S. e-commerce sites in Q4 of 2016. Yet, the ticketing industry has yet to take full advantage of these growing trends. According to a FutureTix survey, half of the event organizers and ticket sellers polled said they do not even monitor mobile usage statistics.
As buying tickets becomes more of a frantic rush, customers don’t have time to deal with the many roadblocks associated with making a purchase on a mobile device. Address verification helps eliminate the frustrations of typing checkout information on a small mobile screen. By auto-populating addresses, it speeds up the process, increasing customer satisfaction and overall chances of securing tickets. Online retailers should do as much as they can to diminish slower load times, increase in website crashes, and worst of all, failed deliveries. Implementing technology for mobile shoppers to minimize associated issues and streamlines the purchasing process should every merchant’s main priority.
“Streamlining the checkout process is an important first step, and one that benefits all parties”
Today’s online customer has become accustomed to a higher level of service. As the ticketing world continues to expand, it is essential for those controlling ticket sales to take notice of these long-standing frustrations. Streamlining the checkout process is an important first step, and one that benefits all parties—helping customers quickly purchase tickets, ensuring quality data for vendors, and expanding revenue potential by opening the doors to mobile shoppers.
Tom Mucklow, Head of US Partner Development
Tom Mucklow leads the Addressy team in offering comprehensive and effective solutions to online shopping and delivery frustrations in the U.S. The cutting-edge address verification platform optimizes and streamlines the checkout process for online retailers and their customers by auto-populating address information, narrowing results with each keystroke, and verifying accurate address data for over 240 countries worldwide. As the leader of Addressy, Tom works to convey the cost-saving, user-experience, and data quality benefits of predictive address verification technology to businesses across the U.S.
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