CTS Eventim-owned Ticketcorner, a Swiss-based company that sells tickets and ski ticket/ski passes, has underscored the value of dynamic pricing during the pandemic and a post-COVID world, as pricing can be determined by any number of factors that can affect the business and the consumer.
Enrico Karg (pictured below), manager of business development at Ticketcorner, told TheTicketingBusiness.com that as consumers seek a “sense of security in the unknown,” it is beneficial to understand the critical information that affects pricing, such as the booking date and the weather conditions.
Like many industries, the pandemic impacted Ticketcorner when it came to sales of its segments for indoor activities such as tickets to concerts, live shows, and sporting events. In the earlier days, countries implemented lockdowns and restrictions on travel but when those lifted, they were able to sell ski lift tickets that gave consumers the chance to enjoy outdoor recreational activities over the warmer months.
With many attractions and live events suffering greatly over the past year due to closures and cancellations, there is some concern that prices will increase when fans and visitors do come back in full force. However, the Ticketcorner executive assures consumers that with a dynamic pricing tool limits can be set for a maximum price to prevent this from happening.
“Intelligent and robust dynamic pricing solutions like Pricefx, a cloud-native pricing solution for enterprises, have common sense rules built into them which constrain the algorithms to levels that make sense, either up or down,” Karg said.
“COVID-19 is a health emergency, thus companies need to account for the laws around price gouging, which vary by state and region of the world. Pricefx also allows our clients to account for these regulations as part of their logic. That said, it is up to the company using the solution to ensure that their pricing logic makes sense to their customer and adheres to legal guidelines.”
Karg explained how Ticketcorner was also able to pivot in response to COVID-19 by enhancing its existing ticketing app with features that help to trace contacts at events, sport matches and concerts. It also partnered with Mindful, a contract tracing app with the largest audience in Switzerland, to provide the same service to its ski-resort customers and to adapt to ongoing changes made by the government in terms of tracing and limitations for mountain railway operations and restaurants. Ticketcorner now accounts for 20 per cent of all online sales in Switzerland.
In addition to COVID-19, ski resorts have been struggling with unpredictable ticket sales from climate change, changing weather parameters like visibility, snowfall, temps, and more. By applying dynamic pricing to the mix, Ticketcorner experienced a five-times increase in market share and saw dramatically increased online booking for resorts by ten times. The company also saw pre-booking of lift tickets for participating resorts go up by 1,250 per cent, and produced a 36 per cent lift on online ticket revenue for resort partners.
Karg said: “With dynamic pricing we were able to change customer behaviour and improve the financial situation of ski resorts. We were able to better inform ski resorts and their customers by adding the booking date and current weather conditions, which created a dynamic pricing scheme that worked for everyone. Prices changed from day to day and even during the day and the dynamic pricing approach was further enhanced by adding current demand and varying prices depending on the used sales channel.
“Ski resorts are now able to improve their liquidity by following an early booking strategy and to optimise yield management by charging appropriate prices on peak days with optimal conditions. After three seasons, dynamic pricing is no longer questioned by mountain railway operators. We started with the first ski resort in 2017/2018 and now 15 ski resorts in total use a dynamic approach for their pricing. We see an increase in online bookings, which enables ski resorts to connect and engage with their (now known) customer base.”
Ticketcorner first implemented dynamic pricing at a time when online ski ticketing sold at a very low level in comparison to its other ticketing segments. For reference, Ticketcorner sold ski tickets online only, versus via POS and call center, which is how tickets are mostly sold in its core business. In 2017, Ticketcorner decided to look for opportunities to accelerate the business’ online shift.
Despite the changes that the skiing industry was experiencing, with the help of pricing solution Pricefx, companies like Ticketcorner and their customer SkiArena were able to set prices that improved their revenue stream and gave them the ability to plan long term -– despite external market forces.
“The ski ticketing industry is a great use case for dynamic pricing”, Karg said. “From the consumer side, skiers can buy tickets for an attractive price if they’re willing to book further in advance and if they’re willing to take a risk on how the weather will be in a month or so. On the other end, Ticketcorner gives ski resorts the ability to have a more predictable business, equipped with a better revenue stream, and more utilization throughout the entire winter season.”
Ticketcorner has signed two new clients to its dynamic pricing solution this year, Tschiertschen and Splügen, and plans to release its new ski ticketing platform in January 2021.
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