Without a doubt, mobile phone has become the most scalable and unprecedented medium of connecting people across all industries – be it media, transport, entertainment, production and manufacturing, medical, engineering, software and what not. It’s no surprise that our smartphone has become the most powerful and most potential device in everything we do in a day. From eCommerce to online banking and fitness to locating an address, each of it can be achieved through a touch on our mobile screen. And ticketing is not an exception here.
According to the latest research report by Juniper on mobile ticketing, it is predicted that around 23 million transport and event tickets will be purchased globally via mobile apps. Juniper Research confirms ticketing as one of the most important commerce applications driving mobile commerce today.
The report mentioned, “With a number of transport agencies enhancing app capabilities and integrating new payment services such as Apple Pay, the past 12 months have witnessed an increase in mobile ticketing users using apps for payments, as well as ticket delivery and validation.”
Juniper’s last year report revealed that airline industry saw the highest year-on-year increase in the number of app-based users, followed by events. Airline industry records a massive growth by a wide margin. In 2015, it showed a 50% rise in mobile user adoption.
One of the air transport ICT specialists also said that mobile is becoming a popular platform among passengers for booking their journey through an app and is expected to grow by 40% in 2016. And it will continue to grow for the next four years from now.
Seeing such a surge in mobile app adoption by passengers and travelers, industry owners and business groups have realized that success is only guaranteed if they launch their personal mobile app. Smartphone usage has even made an impact on public transport services. Railroad tickets and MetroCards will soon be replaced by electronic tickets on passenger’s mobile phones. Further, the bus commuters will be allowed to travel through a non-swipe card system similar to SmartLink cards used in PATH trains, wherein a magnetic chip will be inserted in their devices for ticket checking and boarding.
The main goal of mobile ticketing is to make the whole process more secure and passenger-oriented. Smart ticketing aims at improving the efficiency of existing systems so as to manage the resources well and reduce the costs, developing more sustainable ticketing and transport processes.
Juniper’s reports also shed light on the growing awareness among ticketing providers for using beacons for ticket validation as and when users enter into the gated terrain. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) ticketing apps in the UK have fostered beacon deployments in public locations like train and bus stations and airports for passenger’s convenience and calculating fares automatically without placing a device on the reader and also automatic fare collection.
However, much has to be done for the adoption of mobile app ticketing. Addition of location-based services and better content delivery will certainly make it more passenger-friendly.
According to one of the Product Owners at Trainline.com, “the live nature of mobile ticket in their app will allow passengers to schedule their trip to the station as per its exact time.” They can relax in a coffee shop or do a little shopping before reaching to the platform as they know where their train is at that time and what platform they need to go, beating the last-minute rush.
Moving ahead, few of the airlines have personalized the whole process of booking and flying through a personal app. From booking the ticket to providing boarding pass to allotting a seat, personal messages are sent to passengers and they can also inquire about anything regarding their flight status through a personal airline messenger app.
Event ticketing companies like Ticketmaster and Eventbrite are soon going to sell tickets directly through Facebook. This way brands can connect more with Facebook users and help them find out about events happening in their community.
So it’s all about being available where consumers eyeballs and fingers are ready to make purchases. And of course, provide them convenience and connect with them personally for a better travel and event booking experience.
If you own a travel or event company, don’t wait to develop an app now. We will help your passengers and consumers enjoy easy bookings and secure transactions.
Browse through our ticketing app portfolio here.
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Heena Banga is a Senior Content Developer at Konstant Infosolutions- a globally recognized mobile application development company. She leads marketing and growth initiatives at the company using a mix of technical and business content tactics. Heena also contributes articles to CrowdReviews, OpenSourceForU, Sociableblog, ducttapemarketing, PAYMILL blog. She hopes to enjoy a business conversation onboard a commercial space flight someday. Her ultimate goal is to combine business and writing and go into Advertising.
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