Why Selling Tickets Through Your E-commerce or Point of Sale May Hurt Your Ticket Sales

I don't get it, honestly. I see so many wineries and tasting rooms linking to their events in their shopping cart, or requiring guests to call in to buy tickets through point of sale. All to save the guest a $3 service fee?

Take a moment and just think what you are missing out using this strategy and more importantly, what it's costing YOU to handle these types of sales. In the bustling world of event management, ticket sales are the lifeblood of success.

Whether you're hosting a wine tasting, a music concert, or a workshop, the ability to sell tickets efficiently and effectively can make or break your event. Traditionally, many businesses have relied on their own e-commerce platforms or point of sale systems to handle ticket sales. However, this approach may inadvertently limit your reach and hinder your ticket sales potential.

In today's post, I cover several topics that outlines the pitfalls of trying to use your eCommerce or Point of Sale for selling and managing your ticketed events. If you are truly focused on making MORE money and seeing more well-qualified wine buyers are your events, I recommend you read on!

The Pitfalls of Selling Tickets Through Your E-commerce or Point of Sale
While it might seem convenient to handle ticket sales in-house, there are several drawbacks to this approach, particularly in terms of marketing, outreach- and most importantly better quality customers. In this article we'll cover some of the limitations and pitfalls of trying to sell tickets and manage your event using your eCommerce or Point of Sale.

First Impressions Are Everything
Attempting to use an e-commerce or point-of-sale solution to track guests, their ticket levels, checking them in, and conduct post-event follow-ups can lead to several pitfalls. Firstly, these systems are not designed with event management in mind, lacking the necessary features for seamless guest tracking and check-in processes. Without dedicated event management functionalities, organizers may struggle to efficiently handle attendee registrations, leading to long wait times and frustrated guests at the event entrance.

Additionally, follow-up communication, such as post-event surveys or promotional offers, may be challenging to execute effectively through e-commerce or point-of-sale platforms, resulting in missed opportunities to engage attendees and foster long-term relationships.

Furthermore, the lack of integration between these systems and event management tools can result in disjointed data management, making it difficult to gain valuable insights into attendee behavior and preferences. Overall, relying on e-commerce or point-of-sale solutions for event management tasks can hinder the attendee experience and limit the organizer's ability to build lasting connections with their audience.

Limited Audience Reach
Perhaps the most significant disadvantage of selling tickets through your e-commerce or point of sale system is the limited audience reach. Your marketing efforts are confined to the attendees you already have a relationship with. This restricts your ability to attract new customers who may be interested in your event but are not within your existing network.

Lack of Targeted Marketing
Without access to a broader audience, it becomes challenging to implement targeted marketing strategies. You may struggle to reach individuals who have a genuine interest in your event, resulting in lower conversion rates and missed opportunities.

Inadequate Promotion
Effective promotion is key to driving ticket sales. However, relying solely on your e-commerce or point of sale system may not provide the promotional tools and resources needed to effectively market your event. This can result in lackluster promotional campaigns that fail to capture the attention of potential attendees.

The Importance of Leveraging a Dedicated Ticketing Platform
To overcome the limitations associated with selling tickets through your e-commerce or point of sale system, it's crucial to leverage a dedicated ticketing platform like CellarPass. Here's why:

Access to a Larger Audience
Ticketing platforms like CellarPass have access to millions of well-qualified wine consumers who are actively seeking new experiences and destinations to visit. By listing your event on such a platform, you instantly expand your reach and tap into a vast pool of potential attendees.

Targeted Marketing Opportunities
Ticketing platforms specialize in event promotion and marketing. They offer advanced targeting capabilities, allowing you to reach specific demographics, interests, and preferences. This ensures that your event is showcased to individuals who are most likely to be interested, maximizing your chances of driving ticket sales.

Enhanced Promotional Tools
Ticketing platforms provide a range of promotional tools and resources to help you effectively market your event. From email campaigns and social media promotion to targeted advertisements and promotional partnerships, these platforms offer comprehensive marketing solutions to ensure your event receives the exposure it deserves.

Streamlined Ticketing Process
Dedicated ticketing platforms streamline the ticketing process for both organizers and attendees. With intuitive interfaces, secure payment processing, and real-time reporting capabilities, these platforms make it easy to manage ticket sales and track performance.

Lack of Proper Capacity Controls
Moreover, point of sale or e-commerce platforms often lack the specialized features required to properly control capacities of individual ticket levels as well as the total number of tickets sold. Effective event management requires careful management of ticket inventory to ensure optimal attendance without overcrowding.

Dedicated ticketing platforms like CellarPass offer robust ticket inventory management tools, allowing organizers to set specific capacities for each ticket level and monitor sales in real-time. This level of control ensures a seamless ticketing experience for attendees while preventing overselling and maintaining the integrity of the event.

Underwhelming Promotional & Discount Features
Additionally, point of sale or e-commerce platforms often lack the required level of discounts and promotional tools necessary to attract and retain attendees. Successful events often leverage discounts, early bird pricing, bundle deals, and promotional offers to incentivize ticket purchases and drive sales. However, traditional e-commerce systems may have limited capabilities when it comes to implementing complex discount structures or targeted promotional campaigns.

In contrast, dedicated ticketing platforms like CellarPass provide a wide range of promotional tools, including discount code generation, referral programs, and integrated marketing campaigns, allowing organizers to create compelling offers that resonate with their target audience and boost ticket sales. This comprehensive suite of promotional features ensures that events can effectively compete in a crowded marketplace and maximize their revenue potential.

Passing the Fees
It''s important to note that most e-commerce and point-of-sale systems often come with an additional 2-3% service fee for each transaction- above and beyond the credit card processing fees. This fee can significantly impact the bottom line for businesses, especially when selling tickets in bulk for events. However, with ticketed events, organizers have the flexibility to pass this service fee onto the ticket buyer, thereby saving their business the 2-3% expense. This cost-saving measure further emphasizes the advantages of utilizing a dedicated ticketing platform like CellarPass, where organizers can optimize revenue streams and maximize profitability without incurring unnecessary transaction fees.

All Ships Rise with the Tide
Cross-promoting events is essential for maximizing attendance and revenue, but it can be challenging to execute effectively using a point-of-sale or e-commerce system. Ticketing platforms like CellarPass excel in this aspect, offering robust cross-promotion features that make it easy to showcase related events to attendees.

With integrated marketing tools and access to a large network of potential customers, ticketing platforms facilitate seamless cross-promotion, helping organizers reach a broader audience and increase ticket sales. In contrast, relying solely on a point-of-sale or e-commerce solution makes cross-promotion extremely difficult, as it lacks the necessary integration and promotional capabilities.

Using a ticketing platform like CellarPass, your public ticketed events will appear at the bottom of your neighbors' ticketed events and visa versa. This allows you to not only leverage the visitor traffic of the CellarPass website, but traffic from other event organizers' events.

By leveraging a dedicated ticketing platform, organizers can capitalize on cross-promotion opportunities and drive attendance to all their events, ultimately increasing revenue and ensuring the success of their endeavors.

Conclusion‍

While selling tickets through your e-commerce or point of sale system may seem convenient, it can ultimately hinder your ticket sales potential by limiting your audience reach and marketing opportunities. To maximize your event's success, it's essential to leverage a dedicated ticketing platform like CellarPass. By doing so, you can access a larger audience, implement targeted marketing strategies, and take advantage of enhanced promotional tools to drive ticket sales and ensure the success of your event.