Primavera Sound, BST Hyde Park, Coachella and others use Payment Plan to help increase sales in midst of COVID-19

Since the COVID-19 outbreak began, 40% of Event Genius & Festicket’s orders have been paid for via a payment plan, boosting conversion rates by as much as 35%.

The uncertainty of the past year has shifted the way we purchase tickets to live events. Financial strain, as well as the lack of clarity over when events will finally be able to take place, has meant more and more ticket-buyers are opting to purchase their event tickets via a payment plan, securing their tickets far in advance for just a small deposit.

Mix in the reality that many events are having to postpone to 2022 but need to sell tickets in the immediacy to help with cash flow, and it’s easy to see why many are looking to adopt payment plans into their offering at launch.

Since the pandemic began, 40% of our customers’ orders have been paid for via Payment Plan, boosting conversion rates of events that offer one by as much as 35% and average order value by 74%.

It is a benefit that festivals such as Primavera Sound, Coachella, BST Hyde Park, Southport Weekender and new Australian festival Promiseland have all taken advantage of, with Primavera Sound using Festicket as their official payment plan provider to help them sell out their 2022 edition in just ten days.

Working alongside our friends at Primavera Sound, leveraging the payment plan offering pre-launch allowed us to amass an internal waiting list of over 8,500 fans, leading to a hugely impactful first 25 minutes of the payment plan onsale. 84% of these orders came from international fans, a trend which is typical for events that use payment plans to incentivise accommodation and travel purchases.

Similarly, around over half of our orders for Southport Weekender 2022 (56%) were purchased on a payment plan, while 63% of fans chose the instalments option for Promiseland 2021. These numbers show that demand for flexible payment options is not only confined to Europe, with the trend extending beyond to countries such as Australia and therefore representative of a global shift in buying patterns.

There is also strong evidence that offering a range of payment options for fans at launch – such as payment plan and Festicket’s additional Pay with Friends feature – can help increase the impact of an event’s onsale. Pay with Friends – which allows bookers to easily split the cost of the booking across their group – increases average order value by 300% and number of tickets by 200% as well as increasing the chance of booking accommodation five fold. Read more about Pay with Friends and watch our handy walkthrough video here.

We truly believe that demand for these types of payment options amongst fans will continue even once the effects of the pandemic subside around the globe, and view them as a vital way of giving events the opportunity to realise their full revenue potential.

If you’d like to learn more about how flexible payment options can help your events in a post-pandemic world, get in touch today, we’d love to hear from you.