No online sales?

[Karl Fields]

We are thinking about doing away with online ticketing for 2017. Why? Well, it's a pain in the butt for one.

For our attraction, customer buys a ticket, before entering the compound, and then that ticket gets punched at the various haunts. One ticket lets them thru the haunts once.
Obviously we use a hard stock ticket.

When someone buys online, first they are paying a premium (conveyance fee or whatever). Then they are receiving a paper voucher, or phone image or transaction number. Heck some even come in with just their name. They wait at a ticket window, either the online window or a regular one, just like everyone else, to get their real ticket. Regardless of how easy it sounds, when there are problems it is with the online sales, image won't scan, no record of purchase, they bring in some other haunts vouchers, whatever.
When all is said and done, 95% of our disputed transactions are online, where there is no card swipe involved.

Why am I going thru this hassle? Since we started taking credit cards at the windows this year, 50% of our in person sales are with cards. Sure was a lot more fun to count cash than sort CC slips Before this, the online made sense since all we had onsite was cash sales or the ubiquitous ATM machines.

In our case, I see no benefit, in fact a lot of drawbacks, to offering online sales.

Any bigger haunts out there who don't do online sales? Don't want to shoot myself in the foot on this, but ...

(edit) Should have mentioned that we do about 25% of our sales online. Been right around that % for 5 years or so. I don't think that those oline people won';t come, it's just that they will need to purchase at the door. Maybe I'm thinking wrong? In our 25 year history, I have been wrong on a couple of occasions

[Abunai]

This was our first year.
Online sales accounted for fewer than 4% of our sales (by volume).
We also had groupon and a Cumulus Radio thing called "Sweet Deals" which were a pain in the ass to scan and didn't make us anywhere near the promised extra traffic.

Another local, professional haunt tells me that 1/3 of their sales are online.

I won't be doing the groupon or sweet deals things again, but I'm not totally soured on online ticketing, for these reasons:
* I can add a coupon for another local business on my online vouchers which allows me to sell them on cross-promotion or even sponsoring my ticketing expenses.
* I can add a follow up page, after they've purchased their tickets, to also buy merchandise (t-shirts, etc.). They're more likely to make an impulse buy online, and I did sell a few t-shirts this way, even at only 4% of my ticket sales.
* I can do timed ticketing, which I think I will have to do next season, to spread my crowds over my opening times and keep my queue line wait times low

YMMV

[drfrightner]

Karl,

HUGE MISTAKE! Everything it seems now is bought offline. People are so in tune with buying online. We are at or above 50% of all sales are online. Dwayne from 13th gate used our system this year and I told him if he makes some changes he would triple his online sales... he didn't they went up like 5 or 6 times.

People buy tickets and it rains they use the ticket another night. The buy a ticket then someone asks them to do something else they still come yet another night. You can't leave it up to the customer to change their mind at the last minute... put a ticket in their hand when they'are committed to buy.

Furthermore we could customize a ticket for you with a graphic for punches that isn't a problem. However I don't know why you would do it that way... we don't and Creepyworld has several haunts. Once they enter no other tickets needed except for hayride so we just stamp their hands.

There are a million ways to do it but selling tickets online is the wave of the future not a thing of the past. I sold over 1 million dollars online last year and this year.
As service fees... listen up on this one. With my ticket system we are only charging you 30 cents, you charge your customers a 2 dollar service fee. I made on service fee's alone over $130,000.00. How can you pass that up?

You keep that money!

Lastly if you sell a speed pass for a cheaper price online you'll sell way more, and guess what people use those tickets on nights in many cases where a speed pass isn't needed.

Karl you should have come to my seminar last year. As for next year sign up with me and I'll work with you to get it figured out trust me.

Larry

[43 nightmares]

Correct me if im reading wrong but you said you still have to go to ticket booth window even after you buy online... cause to me buying online kinda lets you skip the ticket booth at least at least our haunt we have two line either you need tickets or you dont need them that way people that buy them go to ticket booth the other people go to the already have tickets line and skip the whole ticket booth line and go straight to the security check point then go straight to the mid way. That way our ticket booth is not over crowded and we can move the people into the mid-way quicker. In which i know everyone has there own system also and what works for one might not work for another.

[tommy g]

alot of ticket sales

wow Larry thats 65000 tickets sold online......but thats 50% of ticket sales mean you see 130000 customers and you said you were down 20% this year thats 156000 customers per year .....you are the MAN

[Abunai]

Correct me if im reading wrong but you said you still have to go to ticket booth window even after you buy online... .

Not sure if you were talking to Larry or to me.

In my case, you are right. Regardless of the purchase method, everyone needed to come to the ticket booth for physical, card stock tickets (cash, charge, online voucher, groupon, sweet deal). Then they would head to the queue line. Then the ticket taker / door man would tear the ticket, keep the stubs for counting, and hand back the remainder of the ticket (which had the rules and legal shtuff printed on the back) to the customer.

There wasn't really a benefit to buying online to the customer, other than convenience.

[Spikerip]

We’re at about 30% of our ticket sales are timed tickets. We charge $3 more (no coupons accepted) and they pay a service fee. We have two queue lines outside. One for general admission and the second line is for timed tickets and VIP tickets. We make more money on the timed tickets and VIP tickets. Yes, it can be slower sometimes verifying their purchase at the box office, but we’re making more per tickets.

We opened a second inside box office window this year; one for cash only and the second window for timed tickets and credit card transactions. The cash window moves the fastest and keeps the inside queue line full.

Kelly
The ScareAtorium

[drfrightner]

Why in the WORLD would you have someone come to the ticket booth for a card stock ticket... that is a TOTAL WRONG MOVE!

WHY?

Let me tell you something I'm selling ONE MILLION DOLLARS ONLINE and its GROWING! Man o Man ... you should have come to my seminar last year let me tell you what. One of the incentives of selling online is that you don't have to wait in another ticket line whereby saving a lot of time at the actual attraction.

Buy online and then walk right into the line to get in saving half the time... half the time is spent waiting in line to buy a ticket the other is waiting to get in. BUY ONLINE AND SAVE THE TIME.

Your ticket tearing person has a phone scanner and simply scan the ticket as they walk up. Its really simple.

Incentives to sell online ... 1) Cheaper Fast Pass Online 2) No waiting in Ticket line 3) Use ticket any night you're open

Incentives for Owner ... 1) More people will buy upgrades online including fast passes even though many nights they will come on a night no fast pass was needed thereby raising your revenue. 2) You keep the ticket fee so say you add $2.00 ticket fee that goes into your pocket. 3) You get people to your website don't let them leave without a ticket 4) You can do promotions for ticketing online you can't do that at the box office 5) People also tend to buy more tickets online because they will bring people with them and if it rains they will simply come another night. 6) Takes a ton of pressure off your ticket booth

And the list goes on!