US consumers sceptical about buying tickets though resale platforms

A survey from HostingAdvice, a platform that aims to educate and inform on web hosting, has found that the headlines around singer Taylor Swift and ticket-resellers made concert-goers more sceptical about purchasing tickets from resale platforms. 

Some 41% responded to the survey agreeing that they were sceptical about buying tickets on third-party platforms. This scepticism grew to 48% among Gen Z respondents between the ages of 18 and 24.

An online survey of 1,015 US consumers, aged 18 and up, was conducted by Propeller Insights on behalf of HostingAdvice earlier this month.

While Gen Z demonstrated the most concern over third-party ticketing selling platforms, the age-group was closely followed by Millenials and Gen X; some 44.4% of respondents were sceptical over resale.

Elsewhere, the survey found that nearly one-fifth (17%) of Americans had experienced fraud concerns relating to event tickets over the last year.

Some 35% of Gen Z respondents had experienced ticket fraud concerns, while those in the 35-44 age category were the second-highest with 25.6%. However, those in the 55-64 and 65+ categories reported having the least concern for fraud, despite having a high level of mistrust for purchasing resale tickets at 33.9% and 42%, respectively.

Additionally, nearly six in 10 said they did not feel comfortable sharing their payment information with the likes of StubHub or Ticketmaster.

“Even with the issues surrounding Ticketmaster’s Taylor Swift Eras tour presale, it’s generally the safest option to buy your tickets from an official ticket distribution provider,” said Tim Keary, contributing expert for HostingAdvice.

“If consumers do end up using third-party apps to purchase tickets, then the best way to protect their financial information is to use a cash sharing app like Paypal, which offers more protection for buyers and sellers than other virtual payment services.”