Ticket system for organisers - a case study
Ticket sales with WooCommerce for theatres and event organisers
Online ticket sales have become indispensable for theatres and similar event organisers. Whether it's theatre performances, concerts, dance performances or other cultural events, the ability to buy tickets online offers numerous advantages for both organisers and visitors. But which system is best suited to ticket sales?
As an event organiser, you are faced with the decision of whether to sell tickets via a specialised external ticket platform or directly via your own website. In this article, I will show you the advantages of selling tickets via your own website using the WooCommerce shop system from WordPress.
Do you have questions about a ticket system with WooCommerce for your events?
Your contact person - Claus Pescha
The challenge of ticket sales
Why are WordPress and WooCommerce ideal for theatres and event organisers?
WordPress is the world's most widely used CMS and, with its flexibility and user-friendliness, offers an ideal platform for online ticket sales. With WooCommerce as an e-commerce solution, tickets can be sold directly via your own website, enabling seamless and professional processing.
The ticket
The special features of the "Event ticket" shop product
Event tickets place special demands on the presentation in the online shop. Thanks to WordPress, you can add customised data fields that are specific to your events.
A crucial aspect of the event ticket is the event date. Events are often clearly displayed in a calendar that is sorted by date. By linking the ticket to a calendar view, a customer can book tickets directly from the event calendar. The calendar answers the question "What's on when?" and the visitor can purchase the ticket immediately in the shop.
Sales and payments are then processed via WooCommerce, which offers all common payment methods as well as the option to send or download tickets.
Crux
Calendar display of events
In addition to the WooCommerce shop system, the calendar display of events is a key factor for the success of ticket sales. There are various approaches here.
In my projects, I generally check whether a ready-made solution fulfils the customer's requirements or whether individual programming makes more sense. For a current ticket project, I first tested and compared four interesting calendar plugins:
Brief introduction
Calendar plugins for WordPress
Below I present the approach of four selected calendar plugins that we have tested in more detail, and of course there are others.
1. the events calendar
One of the most popular plugins that generates its own custom post type for "Events". It offers calendar views, and with additional add-ons WooCommerce can be integrated to sell tickets.
CostsAnnual licence fees for the main plugin and add-ons.
2. modern events calendar
An established plugin that also creates its own custom post type for events. We particularly liked the list display, which clearly shows events over several months. Integration with WooCommerce is possible.
CostsAnnual licence fees for the main plugin and add-ons.
3. ticket machine
A cloud-based solution with a WordPress plugin for integration on the website. Event management, sales and payment are handled via the cloud service.
Special feature: German supplier.
CostsFrom €1 per ticket sold.
4. pie calendar
This plugin takes a different approach: it does not generate its own post type, but links to existing post types and extends them with custom fields such as date and time information. This allows daily, weekly and monthly views to be generated.
CostsAnnual licence fees.
Our choice
After extensive testing, we decided against one of the standard plug-ins. None of them met all the requirements of our project. We quickly reached the limits of the ready-made solutions and therefore decided in favour of a combination of WooCommerce and individually programmed calendar display of the ticket products. Below you can read how we implemented this.
Our specifications
Requirements for the ticket system
The client had the following requirements for a theatre operation:
- Full control over data and standardised design and branding of the ticket shop.
- Purchase processing according to WooCommerce standard with:
- all common payment options,
- automated invoicing,
- Customer account management.
- Individual data fields for the ticket product, such as
- Event date,
- Start, end, admission time,
- Event location,
- Event type (premiere, guest performance),
- Details such as direction, stage design, etc.
- Display number of free seats and "sold out" label.
- Customised display of data fields in the fixture list/calendar.
- The fixture list, which is centrally located on the homepage, should be sorted by event date indefinitely. A click on the event leads directly to the ticket booking for this date.
Theatre ticket system
Customised solution with the WooCommerce, Secure Custom Fields and GenerateBlocks Pro plugins
Together with the customer, we opted for a customised solution with WooCommerce, Advanced Custom Fields and GenerateBlocks Pro. This combination offers us the following advantages:
1. customisation
The custom fields enable us to create data fields and content tailored precisely to the organiser's requirements.
2. unique design and user experience
Customised programming allows the design of the website and the calendar to be fully adapted to the corporate design.
3. integrated shop functions through WooCommerce
All functions of the WooCommerce shop are also available for ticket sales. This means we are flexible and can realise special requirements.
4. scalability and future-proofing
An individually programmed solution can be flexibly expanded and new functions can be added at any time.
Links to plugins used:
Conclusion
A WooCommerce shop with calendar overview offers theatres and event organisers a flexible and powerful solution for online ticket sales. The possibility of customisation ensures a unique user experience and gives you a competitive advantage.
Take your theatre's ticket sales to the next level - with WooCommerce and a customised calendar event overview!
Do you have general questions about developing your own WooCommerce shop? Write to me with your questions and make an appointment.