Ticket shop conversion: where buyers drop out and why

The poster is up, the link is in the newsletter and people are clicking through. Yet the counter sits lower than you expected. The first instinct is to advertise more. Often the gain is closer to home, because some of your visitors already choose tickets and then never buy them. Improving your ticket shop conversion means losing fewer of those people along the way.

How many buyers drop out, and where?

Conversion is the share of people who actually finish a purchase. You don't have to guess it. Open Orders in your back office and filter on Status:

• Paid: the purchase is complete;
• Draft: someone chose tickets but never went on to payment;
• Expired: the time to check out ran out, or the buyer never came back from the payment page.

A made-up example. A theatre group plays three nights and, after the first week of advance sales, counts 140 orders: 98 paid, 30 draft and 12 expired. That is a conversion rate of 70%. At an average of two tickets at 15 euros per order, the other 42 orders stand for 1,260 euros. Not all of that money is lost, since someone who is just looking sometimes returns later. But the split tells you where to look: many Draft orders point to the shop and the form, many Expired ones to the timer and the payment. Every status is explained in Following up orders.

1. Does the final price come as a surprise?

Someone who sees 15 euros and has to pay 17 at checkout hesitates. So show the price people really pay from the start. With Passavo, we add nothing on top of your ticket price: the buyer pays what you entered. To see what an extra charge on the last screen can cost you, read Passing service fees on to the buyer.

2. Are you asking for more than you need?

Every field is a reason to come back later, and people who mean to come back later don't always do so. Your shop asks for a name and an email address by default, and the buyer doesn't have to create an account. A phone number is optional unless you make it required. Only do that if you really have to reach someone, for instance when a guided tour might move. The same goes for each participant's name: ask for it only when you need the names.

3. Does it work on a phone, with one hand?

Many people open your link from a message or a social network, so on their phone. Buy a ticket on your own phone once. On that screen the bar with the total stays at the bottom, so the checkout button sits right under the thumb.

If you take payments with Stripe, Express checkout appears at the top of the checkout page with Apple Pay or Google Pay: one tap, and the name and email address come from the wallet. With Mollie, a separate button appears on a device with Apple Pay. How to turn this on is explained in Apple Pay and Google Pay. If you ask for each participant's name, the Express checkout block goes away, one more reason to think that field through.

4. Can your audience pay the way they're used to?

In Belgium a buyer looks for Bancontact, in the Netherlands iDEAL, and a tourist reaches for a card. You connect your own payment provider and switch on the methods that suit your audience; Which payment provider should you choose? helps you decide. If someone abandons a payment, their seats are released straight away and they can start again. Many Expired orders after adding a new method? Test it yourself.

5. Does the buyer have enough time?

During checkout your shop holds the seats and the buyer sees the time counting down. The default is 10 minutes; under Settings → Organisation → Your shop → Time to check out you choose between 5 and 30 minutes. If you ask for a lot, such as names or a billing address, allow more time. If you have few seats on a busy day, a short time frees them up sooner. More in Time to check out.

6. Does the shop look like yours?

Anyone who lands on an unfamiliar payment page looks twice. A logo, a cover photo and a good photo per event help the buyer see they're in the right place. Your own colours and logo come with Start, your own domain with Growth. Sharing the link with a French-speaking audience? Use the French link: the language is in the address. The Popular badge appears by itself on your busiest products. You'll find it all in Making your shop look good.

Where do you start?

1. Count your statuses this week: Paid, Draft and Expired.
2. Pick the biggest leak and change one thing.
3. Count again a week later, for a comparable sale.

If you change everything at once, you won't know what helped. Curious what the shop, the till and the scan app can do? See the features or the pricing.