Industry News

Don’t rule out an Amazon Tickets return

Amazon Tickets could make a successful return to the UK ticketing market despite last week’s announcement of its closure, according to industry expert Tim Chambers.

The ticket sales service in the UK last week announced it will be closing soon, and while it will honour existing ticket purchases, no new sales will be made. Amazon did not give exact details of when tickets would stop becoming available, simply stating “some events will still be available for sale on the website for a short period of time.”

Chambers, advisor and consultant in the ticketing and live entertainment business, told TheTicketingBusiness that while the e-commerce giant has withdrawn its ticketing arm in the UK and the US for now, it could potentially try again down the line.

Amazon Tickets’ failure to lock down a wide and diverse ticketing inventory in the UK was central to its demise, according to Chambers.

“It was never going to be a mass market success with the approach they went for,” he told TheTicketingBusiness.

“The reason why people shop at Amazon is because of its far-reaching variety of products – it’s a replacement for high street shopping and people use it expecting to be able to find whatever they need.

“The ticketing offerings they formed through their deals with Ingresso and AEG didn’t meet the diverse range that Amazon customers expect.”

Amazon Tickets UK provided passes for some West End theatre shows through Ingresso as well as some AEG inventory, including the British Summer Time festival.

“If you want to be a mainstream ticketing provider, you can’t just have a little bit of West End and AEG inventory,” Chambers added. “Live entertainment is a supply-led industry, but they didn’t get close to the supplier

“Everyone is patting themselves on the back saying Amazon Tickets is gone… but I’m not so sure.”

Following its demise in the US last year, Amazon Tickets continued to sell tickets for UK venues such as Hyde Park, the O2 and Royal Albert Hall.

In much of Europe, the industry holds an open distribution model where promoters allocate tickets to multiple sales platforms and companies to assist with selling tickets. However, companies in the US such as Ticketmaster, AXS, Ticketfly and See Tickets observe an exclusivity system where firms pay big upfront fees to venues for the rights to exclusively sell tickets to customers.

Tim Chambers is confirmed as a speaker at TheTicketingBusiness Forum in Manchester on 17-18 April