Sell tickets online yourself: five steps

The amateur drama club is putting on three evenings in the parish hall in November. Until now, ticket sales ran through the secretary's phone: a text message, a bank transfer, a name on a list, and on the night itself a search to find out whether someone had actually paid. This year the committee wants to sell tickets online yourself, without an agency and without a platform taking something from every ticket. This article shows you how to sell tickets online, from an empty account to the first ticket landing in a visitor's inbox.

What you need, and what you don't

You need four things:

• an email address for your club, which you use to log in;
• the official name and address of your club, because they appear on the ticket;
• a bank account in the club's name, for your payment provider;
• a smartphone for the door.

What you don't need: your own website, software on your computer, ticket paper or a printer. Your ticket shop is a web page in its own right, and the ticket lives on your visitor's phone.

How to sell tickets online in five steps

1. Create your account. Through get started you answer six short questions about your organisation. At the end, the wizard suggests a plan and tells you why. Allow about two minutes.
2. Fill in your organisation. Under Settings → Organisation you enter your name, your country and your organisation code: one short word that becomes part of your ticket shop's address. Choose that code carefully, because it will end up on every poster.
3. Connect your payment provider. Under Settings → Payments you choose Mollie, Stripe or Bancontact Pro and connect your own account. Your visitors' money goes straight to your club's bank account; we are not in between. Which provider suits you is explained in Which payment provider to choose. Then make one test payment with your own card.
4. Set up your event. Under Sales → Events you click New event. The wizard first asks for the name, the date and the Seats in total, then the ticket types with their prices. Click Create and your event is live in your ticket shop. The details are in the guide under Events.
5. Share your link. On your organisation's Your shop tab you will find your ticket shop's address, ready to copy. Put it in your newsletter, on social media and as a QR code on your poster.

Even without a connected payment provider, your ticket shop already works for free registrations. That way you can get started while your application with the provider is still being processed.

The example: three evenings of theatre

The drama club creates three events, one per evening, because each evening has its own hall full of seats. For each event:

Seats in total is a single pool shared by all ticket types. Ninety seats stay ninety, however the split between adults and children turns out. Once an evening is full, the shop shows Sold out and your visitor picks another evening.

Whoever orders pays with a payment method they already know and receives their tickets by email straight away. With one tap they add them to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. At the door, a volunteer scans the QR code with the scanning app. That volunteer gets the scanner role: they can scan, but they see no revenue and no settings. If the network in the hall is weak, read how scanning without a network works.

What does it cost to sell tickets online yourself?

Two parties can charge something when you sell tickets online.

• Your payment provider charges a fee per payment. That runs directly between you and the provider, as with any online shop.
• The ticketing platform. With Passavo there is no amount per ticket and no percentage of your revenue.

You start on the free plan. Free events are unlimited, and every paid event sells up to 100 paid tickets, for as many events per year as you like. As long as each of the drama club's evenings stays under that ceiling, the club pays us nothing.

If you sell more, you have two options:

• pay for that one event separately at €19.00, up to 2 times per calendar year;
• the Start plan at €9.00 per month, which also includes the box office till for people who turn up at the door without a ticket.

All amounts are on the pricing page, excluding VAT.

Three things that help your sales

Start early. Put your ticket shop online three to four weeks in advance. The more you sell beforehand, the better you know how many chairs and volunteers you will need.

Test your own link on your phone. Open the link the way a visitor receives it, and buy one ticket. That way you see exactly what your visitor sees.

Reuse what you already have. A fundraising dinner or a quiz night is set up the same way; also read how to sell tickets for your fundraising dinner.

Want to see first what that looks like for your event? Take a look at selling tickets online or walk through the whole process step by step in Getting started.