Ticket brokers seeking to take their business to the next level, whether by increasing revenue or growing their brand, have an ally in Epic Inventory Management (EIM). The company, which will be one of the exhibitors at Ticket Summit in New York January 13-15, partners with brokerages to become their off-site back office, performing services such as mailings, answering phones, order processing, and even last minute selling. It’s a business model based on the idea that freeing a broker from mundane office tasks will help them to focus on the entrepreneurial aspects of growth and revenue.
EIM’s inception came six years ago, as part of ticket marketplace Epic Seats. Epic Seats was looking to grow its consignment program, and after one large brokerage consigned their entire inventory to Epic in an effort to focus their energies elsewhere and still get returns, the model for EIM was born. The company was launched officially three years ago and since then, with the secondary market becoming more competitive and operations/overhead costs growing, the model has sustained itself by handling brokers’ back offices and lowering their overhead costs.
“Brokers don’t have to worry about managing staff, office hours, customer services calls, customer shipping,” CEO Scott Barrows told TicketNews. “They just purchase tickets and work on making good buys.”
Barrows said that EIM has two major types of partners: those focused on buying, selling, and increasing their inventory, and those focused on growing their brand. Whatever the case, Barrows said, “You get to half a million sales and you’re doing the day to day task and you never get to say, ‘I want to take my company to the next level; become the 2 million, 3 million company.'” EIM, said Barrows, helps brokers and their companies get to that next level.
Brokers are not required to sign long-term contracts with EIM. In addition to managing a broker’s virtual office, EIM also gives brokers access to major networks, such as RazorGator and StubHub, without having to pay a fee. EMI has full time staff members who watch markets and adjust prices, giving brokers the highest possible returns.
The company is currently partnered with seven major brokerages and is set to manage $10 million in inventory by the end of this year. Their goal is to manage $30 million in inventory by next year.
EIM does not solicit brokers for partnerships. The company prefers to foster relationships through networking and face to face meetings. Given this approach, Barrows said their presence at the Las Vegas Ticket Summit was a networking success and led to three new partnerships. Barrow’s said his company’s approach to the upcoming NYC Ticket Summit will be similar to that taken in Vegas: create a presence and educate brokers about EIM’s unique program.
“As far as plans for New York,” Barrows said, “it’s about getting to meet people face to face, understanding their goals, and trying to find quality partners to work with.”
