Role of agencies diminishes as online matures?
5 November, 2010 at 4:50 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia 1 comment
Yeah alright, the article below is about travel.
Role of travel agencies diminishes as online travel matures
However, it does raise some interesting points that are relevant considerations for entertainment ticketing online.
“…travel agents may well have to find other innovative ways to be of some value to travellers. However, in a country where a culture of full service prevails, the role of agencies is not expected to dissipate any time soon.“ The same can not be said of ticket agency outlets with the rapid adoption of online ticketing for entertainment and sport, even with the cheeky charges for to serve yourself and even print the ticket yourself.
“Online bookings can yield up to seven per cent savings and are alluring to price sensitive customers.” It is a shame the same does not apply for entertainment and sport bookings online. Afterall it is ‘self service’.
It is an interesting prespective that online booking reduces costs for merchant and consumer and facilitates”… dynamic pricing, a practice for which the airline industry is notorious … allows consumers to balance their own ticket features and pricing.“
Entry filed under: Dynamic Pricing, Online, Paperless. Tags: Agency, Booking Fees, competition, Dynamic Pricing, Online, price.
1.
Andrew Thomas | 5 November, 2010 at 6:04 pm
The role of the ‘Middleman’ in online transactions or in fact offline ones is not diminishing, but there purpose has changed.
Many people use third party sites to reduce what they pay or get better service – online utility and car insurance comparison sites being perfect examples.
The direct route to an arts provider can now be achieved by most venues, quickly, efficiently and most importantly cheaply.
Ticket Agencies are therefore an endangered species – offering a single product at more than you would pay from the venue or production company with less of the service in a lot of cases.
Agencies we have seen are re-inventing themselves as brokers of secondary ticketing or front row/gold circle seats or securing tie ups with artists, record labels and venues (naming no names!) Unless they continue to adapt to offer value and service, their days may be numbered.