If you ever had a ticket to a concert you couldn’t make or if you wanted to go to a game but had no way to get in, FanPass is the site for you. It is a marketplace for fans to buy and sell tickets to sports and entertainment events around the world.
marketplace
entertainment
sharing economy
API
Design
Development
Digital Strategy
UX
The FanPass team required CobbleWeb’s assistance with a unique challenge. Their online marketplace for event tickets had to produce dynamic search results based on a user’s prior searches and preferred event types.
To achieve that goal, we identified the key traits that the platform needed to display.
The site needed to be able to sort the constantly changing ticket inventory based on different criteria, including type of event and location.
The process for posting and managing ticket sales needed to be intuitive for sellers and event administrators.
Venue managers needed to find the site user-friendly. That meant being able to adjust the online map of their venue based on event requirements and the ability to manage multiple events posted on the platform.
Each event page also needed to be optimised for search engines, which meant a complex integration between Symfony and WordPress.
The entire sales process needed to be automated, which can be a challenge for any sort of online marketplace.
Payments, refunds, penalties and other fees had to be automatically processed based on the actions of the buyers and sellers.
Buyers generally want to know when they are getting their tickets and how much shipping will cost.
Vendors want to sell their tickets as easy as possible without paying additional shipping fees.
FanPass wanted to satisfy both sides and reduce shipping costs at the same time.
Buyers need to know they are going to get the tickets they bought, and sellers need to know they are getting the proceeds from the sale.
We worked closely with FanPass to design a platform that would provide buyers and sellers with a great user experience. After setting our project scope and identifying the key functional requirements, we outlined features, researched ways of organizing a large volume of events, and worked through numerous user flow diagrams.
Search can be complicated when there is a large, complex catalogue of items to sort. We therefore decided on an autocomplete function to help segment the FanPass data.
Autocomplete may seem easy to use, but requires a sophisticated mechanism under the hood. For FanPass it had to take into account the different variables tied to each ticket or event and then customise the results for each user.
The end result was a simple user experience that surpassed expectations.
The amount of information required to create a listing for a sporting event or concert can be overwhelming. More than ten different data sets are required to publish one ticket.
We decided to make the process as simple and user-friendly as possible by using dynamic forms. They respond to user input by automatically completing fields based on information associated with the user's account. Users only have to fill in fields that are not addressed by their previous behaviour.
Dynamic forms can also identify the type of device the customer is using and adjust the forms to make completing the questions easier. If the user has questions, suggestions are automatically provided on how to complete the form.
We wanted to minimize the work for account or venue managers posting events on the site. Our first priority was to create functionality that allowes them to add and edit venues and events. We also made sure that users can reuse previous venue maps when they create new events. This helped to improve efficiency for account/venue managers.
We got ambitious and decided to integrate FanPass's WordPress CMS with the Symfony PHP framework. Combining the two applications allows users to quickly create landing pages for event ticket sales based on information previously published on other pages. When the other pages are updated with new information, the new page's information is also automatically updated.
One of the first steps we took was to automate the complex payment flow, which included pay-ins, payouts and refunds. Since FanPass's business model is based on variable commissions, depending on whether the ticket is being sold at face value or not, we included that structure in the payment system.
We built a sales tracking feature wich included multi-currency updates every 30 minutes for the site administrators. It resulted in a easy-to-use system that makes it a breeze to check sales numbers every day.
This meant that buyers immediately knew how much it would cost to have their tickets delivered and when they would receive them once the transaction was completed.
The platform allows sellers to sell their tickets easily without paying any fees. FanPass even managed to reduce the cost of shipping. Mission accomplished.
Building trust isn't a feature but a process. We spent a lot of time engaging with users who hesitated to buy tickets or struggled with using the site. We iterated constantly and applied best practices to create an ecosystem that promotes trust.
It was important to have a system that highlights trusted sellers to potential buyers on the platform. We also created a feature that displays events that users may be interesetd in based on their search and purchase history. The result was high levels of trust in the FanPass platform.
Discovery metrics in this case are meant to highlight two crucial areas. Firstly, how users buy tickets. This data helps us to trace a customer’s journey through the site. We try to understand how many purchases are impulsive versus rational. We also try to identify the circumstances under which a customer will buy, such as the number of days before the event or ticket price.
The second focus is on how sellers list their tickets. Questions we ask include, how often sellers list their tickets, and what elements of the experience, such as fast payout or ease of use, are the most important to them.
We compared the performance of different traffic sources, and focused on how to optimise the conversion rate for ticket and client acquisition.
Technical metrics are focused on whether the hardware and software perform when the platform experiences high traffic. We tracked:
This process was vital to ensure sure there are no technical barriers to the purchase or listing of tickets.
Usability metrics measure how easy it is for a customer to navigate the site. We conducted a form/navigation analysis to understand:
Once we identified the answers to these questions, we did a series of A/B tests. This involved creating two versions of a given page and finding out which was easier to use based on the behaviour of a pool of test customers.
There are few things better than learning that your efforts to achieve a goal were successful. We were therefore extremely happy with the results of our work on the FanPass platform.
In addition to identifying a new highly profitable segment, we were able to cut FanPass's churn rate in half within six months. Their conversion rate increased threefold and turnover a hundredfold within just eight months.
Highly profitable segment identified
Conversion rate x 3
£50,000 sales per day!
We improved the opportunities for success for more than 30 companies this year. We can do the same for your new digital product or platform.
