Hi Samia,
I did some research on ticket options and here are some of the highlights. There are some 4-5 online places (I am sure there are more) that allow online ticket management and purchasing. The matrix below shows the cost of tickets for a family of 4 with each of the different vendors:
Adult
$20
16+
Family
2
Adults
Child
$10
5 to 15
2
Children
Under 5
FREE
0
Free
Ticket Cost
Service Fee
Ticket Leap
$1 + 2% + 3%
$60
$7.00
$67.00
Event Brite
2.5% + 0.99 + 3%
$60
$7.26
$67.26
TicketBud
1.9%+0.99+3%+0.3
$60
$8.15
$68.15
BrownPaper
0.99+3.5%
$60
$6.06
$66.06
EzEvent
.89+3%
$60
$5.41
$65.41
The pricing model typically has two components:
a) surcharge on a per ticket basis - typically a fixed fee or a % based on price of the ticket or a combination of both
b) a surcharge for the use of a credit card - typically a flat 3% that visa/mastercard charges plus some additional per ticket or % base.
So for a $20 ticket, you might have in the case of EzEvent, $0.91 + 3% of $20 = $1.51 added to the ticket. So the person would pay $21.51 for the $20 ticket. With TicketBud for instance, it would be $0.99 + $0.30 + 1.9% of $20 + 3% of $20 = $1.29 + $0.98 = $2.27 per ticket
Benefits:
a) Easy setup of an account.
b) Ability to collect mobile payments on the day of
c) Ability to setup discount codes and time-based pricing... e.g. different ticket prices if purchased by xx/yy date
d) Credit card or bank based (routing number) payments
e) Ticket numbering and reporting features we can use to check progress, # of tickets sold, limit/cap on # of tickets etc
f) Formal eTickets sent via email/PDF or on a mobile phone or sent to a mailing address via US mail. There are also Fedex and other ways of getting tickets (for a fee).
Net net - the event will have a nice formal feel to it, etickets that can be printed and checked at the door on the day of the event, and a way to collect and ticket on the day of the event.
Other points:
a) Pricing - obviously no frills as we want to get the cheapest possible ticket. The theoretical minimum will be the charge for the credit card - i.e. 3% of a $20 ticket = $0.60. But most vendors will charge at least $1.50 - so they make about $0.90 per ticket. You cannot find anything or anyone cheaper. Again, this seems fairly reasonable to me.
b) Funding - There are some companies that will send you the money AFTER the event has been completed... a few days later. There are others who would send weekly payments. The ones who send payments more frequently obviously end up charging more on a per ticket basis. Whoever is owning the finance/accounting function will have to decide how best to manage cash flow.
c) Pricing - we have to quickly figure out the pricing level for Adults/Children and whether we want to offer an early discount. Once we start selling tickets, it would be good not to keep moving the pricing etc. The initial pricing needs to be based on the following parameters I think:
What we want to do and total budget needed
Amount ($) of sponsorships expected to defer some of the costs
Minimum # of people we would need to run net positive.
Based on this, one simple way would be to price the early bird discounted tickets at the "cost of food" plus some additional nominal amount that covers rental of the location and other base costs. I do think sponsorships, and the non discounted premium etc can be used to pay for any additional frills we would add once we are beyond the critical minimum costs.
I created the below event through Ezevent. Note:Please dont go through with the transaction and pay etc because it will generate a real ticket. But you can see what a minimum/low frills provider will be able to provide. Its not that bad at all.
http://www.ezevent.com/Live/WestwoodIndiaAssociationDiwaliCelebrations/10252014/353561
Anyways, I can do all the setup's necessary and turn this over to whoever is running the accounting and finance aspect of the event.
Thanks,
Ganesh