San Francisco-based ticketing company Vendini — one of a growing number primary ticketers to see its business pick up since the Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger took effect — is ramping up its mobile ticketing efforts as one way to distinguish itself from the competition.
The 10-year-old company, whose software processes 30,000 tickets per day, has seen a steady increase in those tickets coming from mobile devices, with more than 7 percent of ticket purchases being made from cell phones or tablets like the iPad. Vendini, with offices in Beverly Hills, CA and Boston, offers cloud-based software ticketing solutions for venues, theaters and arenas that not only offers ticketing operations but also marketing, fundraising and customer relationship management tools.
Vendini has more than 1,500 clients.
“More ecommerce is being done on mobile devices,” Mark Tacchi, president and CEO of Vendini, told TicketNews. The company’s software handles more than 11 million tickets per year. “We’re finding that it’s being used in all three aspects of live entertainment, concerts, theater and sports.”
Of those mobile devices being used to purchase tickets through Vendini’s system, iPhones are the most prevalent followed by iPads, which combined make up more than half of the company’s mobile sales. Android-based cell phones are currently second but growing.
In addition to giving its clients the ability to sell tickets to mobile devices, Vendini also offers tools for venue staffers to use iPhone or iPod Touches to process tickets at the gate with a laser scanner that wraps around the device. Clerks at Apple stores use a similar system to quickly process orders on the sales floor, which speeds up checkout.
Tacchi said the reception from venues for the mobile scanning system has been positive. “We were able to bring this to market very quickly. It’s cool technology, and it allows fans to get into the venue faster.”
Tacchi said that since the Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger, his company has seen an increase in interest from venues that are considering alternatives to the ticketing giant, and he believes features such as the company’s mobile ticketing offerings give them an edge.
“We were worried about the merger at first, but Ticketmaster is shedding accounts, as venues look for more control over their pricing and fees,” Tacchi said. “The merger shook up the industry in that suddenly venues took a step back and said ‘maybe Ticketmaster isn’t the golden goose after all.’ Nowadays, if you want tickets you go to Google, not just Ticketmaster, and venues are realizing that. They spent money creating and marketing their brand, and they’re realizing that they don’t need to send their customers to another, outside brand to buy tickets. That always seemed odd to me.”
