The Evolution of Mobile Ticketing and What To Expect in 2019

Getting tickets to our favorite shows or our next train ride isn’t the tense, uncertain, rushed experience that it used to be.

This is because the world is shifting toward mobile-based ticketing. While online ticketing already made buying tickets easier than obtaining them in person or through the mail, mobile ticketing streamlines the process even further.

Here’s how mobile ticketing has evolved, as well as what you can expect from the emerging industry in 2019:

Enabling last-minute purchases

Admittedly, I’m a last-minute person. My last-minute lifestyle generally isn’t conducive to purchasing tickets (in the past, I’d fail to buy, finding that the tickets are either sold out or being sold at exorbitant prices by scalpers), so I didn’t go to many shows or games at all.

Mobile ticketing has evolved to make last-minute purchases not only possible, but also fairly easy and stress-free.

Nearly all mobile ticketing apps allow users to set alerts when tickets for their favorite events are available for sale, or when prices for their desired tickets are particularly competitive.

Even public transit, an industry which tends to lag somewhat in the shift towards mobile, has been become more user-friendly because of mobile ticketing apps. Such apps, created by companies like Genfare, Infeon, and others, reduce the need for riders of public transit to plan ahead. Because riders can receive mobile alerts and real-time updates, they’re able to make strategic last-minute transportation choices.

Mobile ticketing options are also helping people buy last-minute by making the purchasing process itself even faster. Buyers can securely save their personal information, and even their credit card details, so that they don’t have to spend time filling out an online form and so they aren’t prevented from buying if they forget their credit card. This, too, is useful for public transit ticketing options, since riders no longer need to search for loose change to come up with the exact fare.

As mobile ticketing platforms race to become even more streamlined, the coming year will see such platforms adjust themselves to last-minute buyers — from sending notifications for important, time-sensitive alerts to quickening the purchasing process itself.

Facilitating the decision-making process

Online ticketing options have existed for a long time, and they’re often the first pages users navigate to when doing a quick Google search for game or concert tickets. But many sites often have far too many options — so many, in fact, that searching for a ticket is a tedious and time-consuming process.

When users are forced to confront a long decision-making process, it’s all too easy to put off the purchase rather than buy right away. Think about how time-consuming it is to buy airline tickets, in large part because the number of options available is overwhelming.

This is one area where mobile ticketing has made huge leaps compared to online ticketing. The current trend in mobile ticketing is to use algorithms to present users with only the best available options, rather than inundating the user with too much information. Furthermore, mobile ticketing apps encourage users to do all their searches on the same platform, so that they don’t have to browse several different sites.

Skipping the dreaded printing stage

While printing often seems like an afterthought, overshadowed by the overall purchase process, it’s often the biggest obstacle in online ticketing.

When mobile ticketing first emerged as an option, most websites and platforms still required you to print your ticket after confirmation. But nowadays, many different types of tickets — including airline tickets — don’t require printing at all.

Mobile ticketing apps are catching on to this trend and, seeking to eliminate the need for a printer, are striving to make the process entirely digital. Brad Griffith, founder and CEO of mobile ticketing app Gametime, claims to have been inspired to create the app after having printing issues of his own. The result was a platform that offered a purely mobile option, one that eliminated the printing process altogether.

As the printing stage is gradually eliminated, users are also finding that they can send tickets to friends and family members in a purely digital way. Within the next year, it looks like more and more platforms will enable you to go wholly digital, letting you save tickets on the app and send them via email or SMS.

Summary

These days, all online activity — from app-based functions to Google searches — is shifting towards mobile. The ticketing industry, too, is shifting towards mobile, streamlining the ticketing process even more. Just as online ticketing eliminates the obstacles of traditional ticket purchasing, so too does mobile ticketing eliminate the ever-present barriers in buying online.

The Evolution of Mobile Ticketing and What To Expect in 2019 was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.