Challenge

When TicketSocket launched its online ticketing platform in 2012, the company aimed to address one of the most persistent challenges in the event space: low conversion rates. Attending an event—whether a marathon, concert, or conference—often requires significant commitment, including time off from work, travel, lodging, and expenses beyond the ticket price. As a result, event operators often see relatively low conversion rates and high customer acquisition costs.

“Conversion is huge in the event space. If we could increase conversion, that could really move the needle in this industry more than in probably any other industry,” said Mark Miller, CEO of TicketSocket.

TicketSocket believed it could help increase event conversion by improving the payment experience with a white-labeled platform that supported global payment methods and simplified money movement. The white-labeled platform reduced distractions for potential buyers, and it gave event operators greater ability to engage directly with their customers.

However, in 2016, TicketSocket found that its payment partner wasn’t supporting its goal to deliver a pure white-labeled experience. Because the provider couldn’t easily split payments to pay out multiple parties at once, each purchase would result in two separate transactions for the customer—one from the event operator and the other from TicketSocket.

When customers would see a second charge on their card statements coming from a brand they hadn’t heard of, they would often dispute the transaction.

These challenges spurred TicketSocket to seek a new payment provider that offered the functionality to support TicketSocket’s global, white-labeled service model, providing an easy way to split payments and supporting settlement in multiple global currencies. Ideally, that provider would also offer sophisticated payment processing technology to boost authorization rates, manage fraud, and support multiple payment methods, so event organizers could give event attendees greater flexibility in deciding how to pay.

Solution

TicketSocket implemented Stripe Connect as the backbone of its new white-labeled ticket platform. Connect offered a way to automate payouts and route money from a single transaction to several parties. That made it easy for TicketSocket to maintain a white-labeled experience, with no mystery third-party charges for eventgoers and no inefficient invoicing system. And because Connect supports settlement and payouts in local currencies, TicketSocket could offer this same experience to event operators in many different parts of the world.

Additionally, Connect came with an integration to Stripe Payments for processing online transactions. This included features designed to enhance authorization rates, such as Adaptive Acceptance, network tokens, and card account updater. To improve fraud management, TicketSocket adopted Stripe Radar. Radar uses AI to detect and prevent fraud while minimizing the blocking of legitimate transactions.

After switching to Stripe, TicketSocket adopted the Optimized Checkout Suite, which includes Stripe Elements—a set of embeddable UI components that improve the checkout flow and drive conversion. With the Payment Element and Payments’ dynamic payment methods feature, TicketSocket could turn on new payment methods with almost no technical work required; it could rely on Stripe to automatically display the most relevant payment methods for each customer.

The company added 11 popular payment methods, including Klarna, for customers who need flexibility to pay for ticket purchases over time. TicketSocket customers also were given access to the digital wallets Apple Pay and Google Pay, in addition to local payment methods such as iDEAL. And to further refine conversion, TicketSocket implemented Link, which saves and autofills customers’ payment information for a secure, accelerated, and frictionless experience.

Results

Local settlement saves 100 hours every month

Stripe’s local settlement capability has simplified international transactions, saving time and money in addition to supporting TicketSocket’s global reach. By not having to reconcile transactions manually, TicketSocket now saves 100 hours of work every month.

“Dealing with reporting requirements and foreign-exchange fees is immensely complex. So for Stripe to have the ability to settle in local currencies—that’s a big deal,” said Miller.

The Optimized Checkout Suite increases conversion and decreases chargebacks

The Optimized Checkout Suite’s powerful features have helped event organizers sell more tickets while decreasing disputed transactions. TicketSocket customers have reported increases in conversion of about 20% and a reduction in chargebacks of 30%.

Stripe-integrated payment methods save 100 hours per payment method

TicketSocket estimates that it has saved 100 hours per payment method, by being able to turn them on with just one line of code via dynamic payment methods.

Average order volume of Klarna purchases is more than $800

Access to buy now, pay later (BNPL) methods has given ticket purchasers more ways to pay for experiences. Klarna, with its dynamic spending limit, has been particularly useful for more expensive events. That’s reflected in the average order volume of more than $800 for Klarna purchases made through the TicketSocket platform—nearly double the average order volume seen with other payment methods.

Klarna has proven particularly popular in European countries, where one major TicketSocket customer reported that the BNPL accounted for 7.6%–8.5% of transaction volume, depending on the country.

38% of all transactions were processed via Link

Nearly two-fifths of all transaction volume for TicketSocket’s customers has been processed via Link. Link’s faster checkout experience enables ticket buyers to check out three times faster than non-Link purchasers. As a result, TicketSocket has seen a 10% increase in conversion rates when customers checkout with Link.