46% of people surveyed said they would make more online purchases if they felt their information was secure. This means online event ticketing security is essential to boost your ticket sales and create happy customers.
You also need to keep the ticket purchase simple for customers so you don’t lose them in the purchase process. It might seem like secure and ease-of-use are non-compatible, but that’s not the case.
With some simple security steps in place, you can keep customer info secure while providing a simple process. This means optimizing platforms so your customers don’t second-guess their purchase decision.
Optimizing Online Event Ticketing
Selling tickets online requires a good website and event management platform. Even if you’re promoting your event through social media, you need a platform to process ticket payments.
As an event planner, it’s your responsibility to make sure customers trust your ticket platform.
How to Make Online Payments Safe
Your first step to selling tickets online is an event management platform. This is the system you use to process and track ticket sales. You want an event management platform that’s easy to use for event planners and customers.
You also want a platform that’s secure so people feel comfortable sharing their personal info. While the security of the platform is up to the platform seller, you need to do some research before integrating it.
Make sure the admin space for your platform is easy to understand and navigate. You also want to make sure only your internal team can access this admin space. Check out customer reviews and do your research so you’re clear about the platform’s security features.
Security Certification
It’s your responsibility to keep customer payment info secure. To do this, make sure your event website has adequate security certification. This is the certification that shows customers your site will protect their data.
If you’re using a third-party vendor, make sure they have proper certification and you’re clear about how they deal with customer info. The security certification is what allows a website to have the “https” rather than “http” designation.
You can also post what security certification you use on your website so customer’s know it’s safe.
Website Firewalls and Security
Stolen customer info isn’t the only security threat to your event website. You also need to protect against hackers that will try to crash your site. Some hackers will try to flood your system so the traffic overwhelms your website.
You can use firewalls to protect against these threats. To use firewalls effectively, you’ll need to configure the settings so good traffic makes it through while excluding hackers.
You can also add extra security to login pages and contact forms. These are the most sensitive areas for your website, so make sure you protect that data from cyber threats.
Verify Customers
You can protect your payment programs by requiring customer verification. This can involve requiring them to type info from a CAPTCHA or a simple click on a box that involves an agreement they’re not a bot. This protects against crashes on your apps due to bots flooding the system.
Make sure the verification process is clear to customers and simple to complete. If a real customer has difficulty completing a verification process, you’ll lose a ticket sale.
Data Storage
Another sensitive area for ticket sales is the customer data you store. Many online sales depend on stored customer data to make the customer’s process simple. The more info you store for returning customers, the easier it is for them to purchase from you.
The other side of this is that you’re storing more customer data, so there is more threat to that data. This means you need to remain cautious about what customer info you store for later use. For instance, if you don’t need to store credit card info, don’t do it.
Making Ticket Purchases Simple
The simpler you make the checkout process, the fewer customers you’ll lose at this stage. People lose patience with a prolonged checkout process. Too many steps and you’ll see an increase in ticket abandonment.
You want to have steps in place to verify payment info, but this can get done in the background so customers don’t lose patience. If you use verification processes against bots, make sure it’s simple to complete!
Keep the checkout steps to a minimum. Also consider offering a checkout bar so customers can see their progress and know how many steps are left. This helps ensure they don’t abandon their purchase before completing the process.
Optimize for Mobile Users
People spend 51% of their online time on mobile devices. Searches, payments, and updates get completed on mobile phones and tablets more than desktop computers.
This means you want to ensure your event website is compatible with these mobile devices. You want to make sure people don’t have to zoom in to see info on your site during a search or payment.
You can use a website design that’s compatible with these devices or use a mobile app to make sure pertinent info is compatible with mobile. With a mobile app, you can control what aspects of your site are mobile compatible so people can easily access event info from their phones.
You can also make tickets mobile to make things easier for customers. If you’re willing to accept mobile tickets, you can make things easier for you and customers. This means you don’t have to collect tickets and they don’t have to print anything out.
Secure Ticket Selling Online
With the right tools in place, you can keep the online event ticketing process secure from hackers and simple for customers to use. Proper security certification, secure management platforms, and proper firewalls let you provide an event website customers will trust.
By optimizing for simple payment processes and making your site mobile-friendly, you cut down on the issue of abandoned tickets.
If you want to get started with a secure platform that lets you keep the payment process simple for your team and customers, sign up to create an event with our management platform today.