Navigating Ticket Sales During a Year Filled with Cancelled Events
Back in 2020, it seemed like live events might not ever come back. Thankfully, we’re seeing more and more of a return to live events as we progress through 2021 — and many of these events have been both safe and wildly successful.
Some of the 2020 festivals and events that were canceled or rescheduled early on in the pandemic have already successfully pulled off their 2021 rendition— with plenty of accommodations and adjustments, of course.
Even if some parts of the world are starting to turn the corner on COVID, it’s clear that live events and festivals won’t be the same for years to come. Fans want to securely buy tickets and have the ability to return them if necessary. But many are skittish, wondering what will happen if there’s another outbreak or other reason for a sudden cancellation.
Fans have questions. What happens if they’ve already purchased the tickets? Will they get a ticket refund if the event is canceled? If you’re an event promoter, ticket seller, or box office entity, you’ve likely struggled with manual processing of these issues, too.
Enter Lyte.
Our event and ticketing platform takes the mess and confusion out of ticket sales, including for canceled or postponed events. But most importantly for the event organizer: Lyte removes most of the manual work associated with concert and event disruptions.
How exactly does Lyte work for postponed or rescheduled events? We’re glad you asked.
Lyte Provides Flexible Ticketing Options for Cancelled Events
When you power your event with Lyte, you have powerful options at your disposal, should you need to cancel or postpone your event. Here’s an overview of the top options your ticket holders will encounter.
Return
If your event is all-out canceled, most fans will want to return their tickets for a refund. Lyte makes this simple to do and works with you to facilitate straight-up refund options.
If your event has simply been postponed, fans who can’t work with the new date (or don’t want to do so) can return their tickets for a dynamic fair market value that changes based on demand for the new dates. Again, Lyte makes this smooth and automatic.
Swap
Lyte’s Swap functionality is as flexible as you are, allowing fans to change days, ticket tiers, lodging options, or even entire events if you have more than one event on Lyte. Any changes to ticket inventory are handled automatically and seamlessly.
Send
Sometimes, fans know better than you do how they want to get rid of tickets they can’t use. Lyte lets them do so safely and securely: they can easily sell or give away their secure electronic tickets by sending them via Lyte’s fan-to-fan function.
Sending is handled via a secure link. A fan can share their personalized link with their intended recipient, who can receive the ticket in just a few clicks. If the sending fan sets a price, the recipient can pay securely through Lyte.
Roll Over
Roll Over was a massive feature during 2020. This excellent functionality lets ticket holders roll over a ticket from one year to the next (or one event to the next, depending on your schedule).
By offering Roll Over to Next Year, your venue can avoid the cash flow constraints of issuing real-money refunds on a postponed or canceled event. You’ll also maintain accurate ticket inventory levels because you’ll know exactly who from the canceled event is attending the next one.
Raise Money for Relief Efforts
During COVID, organizers felt the need to offer refunds for canceled events but at the same time felt the financial pressure of absolutely uncertain futures. Obviously, over the last 18 months, we’ve seen inspiring displays of generosity and entrepreneurship throughout this industry, but still, it’s been an extremely tough season.
Lyte provides an option for ticket holders to donate a percentage of their ticket price to a particular charity. Some clients set this up to be their employee relief fund or even a “help us survive COVID at all” fund. Many fans chose to help keep their favorite venue or band running rather than take a full refund. And Lyte made it easy to do.
Other Powerful Event Ticketing Features for Venues & Event planners
Your ticket holders and fans benefit like crazy from Lyte. But so do you! Check out these additional powerful features that will improve your quality of life when you have to cancel or postpone an event.
Reserve, Recapture, Resell
When a ticket holder receives a refund or a credit instead of a rescheduled ticket, Lyte automatically returns that now-open seat to inventory, allowing you to recapture that revenue.
Similarly, we know there can be a lot of reshuffling when fans move their tickets to a new date. If a price point becomes sold out, fans can sell back to Lyte and move to another price point — opening up inventory for other fans.
Waitlist
Creating a waitlist for sold-out tiers can help you keep revenue stable when an event is postponed. When a ticket holder initiates a refund, Lyte reaches out to your waitlist to resell that seat, sometimes near-instantly.
Incentives and Credits
Every event is unique, and cancellations or rescheduled events require flexible novel solutions. Lyte allows you to offer custom incentives for fans to keep their tickets instead of requesting refunds. The platform also allows you to issue credits (rather than cash refunds) if that makes sense for your event.
Perfect for Events of Any Size
Lyte is a powerful, robust platform that has powered events as large as Coachella and the New York Comicon. But it’s also highly adaptable and flexible for events of any size. No matter what kind of live event, festival, or conference you’re involved with, if you’re dealing with tickets to an event, Lyte can help.
We are the live event industry’s go-to partner for ticketing needs of all sizes — and our solutions for postponement and cancelation scenarios far exceed anything else on the market today.