Optimising the ticket buying journey, part 3
In part three of our series on optimising the customer ticket buying journey, we focus on the decision phase — getting your audience to commit to purchasing tickets.
Action 3: Convert browsers to buyers
Parts one and two of this series focused on building awareness and consideration from your audience to attend your event. You’ve invested in driving website visits and securing ticket sales, but how clear and straightforward is your website once people arrive? Once an interested visitor is on your website, the user experience (also referred to as UX) plays an important role in whether or not this person will buy tickets. Optimising your site to be both visually pleasing and simple to use is essential in driving ticket sales.
The example shown above is the Wanderlust 108 landing page. A video plays in the background, showing highlights of the festival beneath two very clear actions; Buy Tickets or Learn More. This immediately shows site visitors what you want them to do — either commit to buying tickets, or learn more to help make a decision.
If a visitor clicks ‘learn more’, they are given clear information and highlighted features of the festival. Notice in the top right hand corner, the Buy Tickets button remains in frame at all times. This means at any point in the process, a visitor can make the decision and buy tickets with a single click.
The ticketing purchase page continues seamlessly by maintaining their brand’s trusted look and feel, with a clear ticketing order process. With Eventbrite’s simple and customisable purchasing process, Wanderlust website visitors are only ever 2-3 clicks away from finalising a ticket sale — maintaining their attention and providing a hassle-free customer experience.
Reducing the number of clicks a user needs to take to purchase tickets is a simple way of optimising the customer experience and improving sales. The ideal customer experience should be fast, simple and intuitive so that they leave your site having had a positive experience.
Research from Microsoft has found that since the beginning of the mobile revolution, the average attention span has dropped from 12 seconds to just eight seconds. That means not only will people feel frustrated if they have to hunt for information, they’re more likely than ever to give up completely. In fact, the average rate of online cart abandonment is almost 70%. By introducing a simplified 2-step purchasing process such as Eventbrite’s ticketing platform, you minimise the risk of losing sales.
Mobile-friendly is a modern must
Not optimising your website for mobile is no longer an option, with time spent on mobile devices increasing in Australia month on month. Not convinced? In February 2016, Australians spent an average of more than 28 hours per person browsing websites and apps on their smartphone alone, higher than any other device.
If your website or ticket purchasing page isn’t optimised for mobile, you risk losing the opportunity to sell to an actively engaged audience. Particularly when targeting a younger audience, ticket sales on mobile is a necessity. Bottle Shop Concepts recently released the pre-sale tickets for their ‘Games of Rhones’ event and were astonished to discover that 78% of tickets were purchased on mobile devices (vs just 21% on desktop). By ensuring that both their website and ticketing page is optimised to create a seamless experience on mobile, they never risk missing a sale.
Below is the mobile-optimised path to purchase for Bottle Shop Concept event, Game of Rhones. Users can scroll to read through all of the event information and access ticketing for any location, or jump straight to buying a ticket in their city with a single tap.
