How Mobile Has Changed Ticket Sales

By Mark Hunter, Senior VP of Sales and Business Development, Mobile Ticket App

Mobile devices and smartphones are everywhere.  People are reading emails, sharing their lives on social networks, staying connected, and buying products and services including tickets.

Facts:
ComScore data revealed that smartphone penetration ticked up in the three months prior to August 2013 to about 61%.  It is noted that people who carry smartphones also have higher disposable income and use their smartphones more frequently.

According to Google, tickets are the #2 product category purchased on smartphones, just below clothing and accessories.  Additionally, 66% of ticket purchasers used more than one device to research and buy their tickets. 

Sales Process:
When ticket apps where first released 3.5 years ago, many ticket brokers looked at apps and mobile sites as separate sales channels.  Traditional ideas about traffic and conversion rates were applied to apps and mobile sites to judge their success.

Today, the facts show, that the mobile device is an integral part of the ticket buying process, and that traditional conversion rates are hard to apply to measuring the success of the mobile app and mobile site.  Logic and observation need to apply here and the correct way to measure mobile success is through mobile activity and use. 

The mobile industry has two successful platforms that are measured by use- the Apple iPhone and the Google Android. 

A mobile site can be used by all smartphones including the iPhone and Android, which should be considered the bare minimum if you want to have a mobile presence.  Like your traditional website, a user must come to you to shop for tickets on your mobile site. 

Having an iPhone and Android app is a necessary product set for any ticket broker who proactively sells tickets to retail buyers.  The ticket app is a piece of software that sits on the mobile device and uses all features of the mobile device to make finding and buying tickets easier.  A correctly built app will be built using the same operating system code as the mobile device,  meaning an iPhone App should be built using iPhone software code and an Android app should be built using Android software code.  Some developers have cut costs and outsourced development to India using a standardized software code called HTML5, which Facebook and LinkedIn have dropped for numerous reasons.

When you decide to embrace ticket apps, it is prudent to have an individual iPhone app and a separate Android app. They are two different systems and each should have an app tailored to that specific platform.

Summary:
Information and facts have shown us that having a mobile presence isn’t just important for customers that wish to start and complete the entire purchase process on their smartphones, but is necessary for any ticket broker who sells tickets to retail buyers.  Having a mobile site is an entry point, and having an iPhone app and an Android app is the norm for any organization trying to sell their products and services to the community of retail buyers who use smartphones to research and purchase tickets, which is 61% of the United States population. 

For more information on out mobile ticket apps and mobile ticket websites, email Mobile Ticket App at info@mobileticketapp.com.

www.MobileTicketApp.com
888.206.6374, extension 1