Dealing With High Demand Ticket Sales?
Dealing with high demand ticket sales.
We have seen a tenfold rise in website traffic in the last few months, events are getting more popular than ever and are seeing 3-4 times the demand for a limited number of tickets. Which we have seen can cause issues with any ticketing system even ours.
It's great to create a hype and advertise an opening date however with this can with some issues. Put it simply trying to get 1000 people through your front door at 10am on friday will not work. Getting 1000 people through your front door in an orderly manner on Friday will work.
At The Entry Point, we've always strived to avoid those notorious website queues that often get bad press—you've probably seen the recent headlines.
So whats the answer?
Please get in touch prior to your event going live and we can get something in place for your event.
We have 2 options available in order of preference and recommendation:
1 - Soft Website Launch
This is by far the best option and causes no issues with spikes in demand at all and is our first recommendation in all cases.
We have many large scale events who open their entries for an event way in advance and in some cases the week after their current event has finished. They do this to capture the runners who have finished and are keen to take part in the event again. (as soon as they have forgotten the pain from completing the event)
A good solution is to set your event live and then use our built in newsletter system to let your previous participants know that the entries are open. And as a past participant you have been informed first and can enter using the link you provide.
We have found that runners love this option as they feel they are getting preferential early access due to taking part in the past events.
By soft launching your event and not having a set date each year you completely take away the hype and demand for entries.
2 - Website Queue
Anyone who's recently tried to buy concert tickets, especially for Oasis, knows the frustration of the dreaded queue. No doubt, you probably gasped at your place in line, too.
We can integrate a queue system into any of our entry pages.
Tickets go live.
- Our queue system is monitoring traffic for spikes in demand.
- If demand rises too fast then the queue will activate and people will be directed to our queue.
- As soon as the queue is empty and demand has dropped the queue is not used.
It is important to only use a queue if you really need to. As a guide if you know your event opens on a set date every year and traditionally sells out quickly (within an hour or so) then a queue may be a good choice.
A word of caution, using a queue can compound the high demand problem further. We have seen in many cases that people will join the queue on multiple devices increasing the demand 2-3 times more than needed. As an example a queue could contain 1000 actual people but could appear to have 2/3000 people due to participants using multiple devices.
Conclusion
No system will ever satisfy everyone and criticism is inevitable. When demand outstrips supply, issues are unavoidable, so measures must be taken to make the process easier and fairer for all. Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference.
Please get in touch so that we can advise on the best system for your event.