Ticketor is not only a great solution for all your ticketing and box-office needs, but also it is great for your giftshop, restaurant, bar, concessions, souvenir store or selling any merchandise, service, food and beverage. It allows for online sale as well as POS (point of sale), so your staff can sell face to face.
It can create a fully integrated system with seamless user experience and unified reporting and accounting.
The main goal of selling food and drink through your Ticketor site is to increase the sales by eliminating the line and wait time and reducing friction.
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❝How much more you could sell by eliminating the line at your concession, bar, or food trucks?
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Here are some of the highlights of the Ticketor's store:
- Create different pages for giftshop, restaurant, bar, gift cards, etc.
- Buyers can order food or drink and have it delivered to them in certain location inside the venue, such as their seat in the theater, their table in the restaurant or to the lounge, conference room, jacuzzi, pool, their booth, their room, tennis court, etc.
- Buyers can pre-order food / drink along with their tickets and set the order date for a later date/time so, they can pick them up as they arrive at the venue or at certain time.
Your can set schedules for food and drink availability. Schedules can either be tied to all or certain events and automatically get updated as you add events, or they can be on a fix daily / weekly or monthly schedule.
- Buyers can order merchandise or food online and have it delivered or shipped to their home or pick up from your store at the time of the event or any other time
- A preparation page for your bar or kitchen staff so they can receive the orders as soon as they are placed
- Buyers can order and pay for their drink or food from the comfort of their seat within the event and receive it at their seat. Or they can order food or drink while they are on the way to the venue and pick it up as they arrive
- Merchandise, food and drink can be purchased along with tickets all in a single transaction
- Merchandise can be added to the pre-checkout page so as the buyers are buying tickets, the system will suggest that they should also consider buying the related or recommended merchandise.
- QR codes can be posted as signs in different locations of the venue or on the restaurant tables that take the buyer directly to the store page
See a store page on our demo site by clicking on each link:
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❝How much more you could sell by allowing people to order food or drink without leaving their seat and the event? |
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This video and article teach you everything about setting up your store pages, add merchandise, gift cards, food or beverage, create delivery methods for the delivery of items, create categories, sell merchandise, or order food and drink at the POS (point of sales) at your giftshop, bar or restaurant, report and prepare the orders as they are placed, etc.
Overview: Store Pages in Ticketor's demo site
If you navigate to Ticketor.com/demo, you will see 5 store pages to demonstrate how things work for each type of store.
1- Bar
You can use the Store functionality to create a page for your bar to sell beverages online, in-person at the POS, or over the phone.
Users can order drinks on their phone and have it delivered to their seat in the theater or different areas of your venue such as the lobby, the lounge, conference room, Jacuzzi, pool, tennis court, etc. or they can pick it up at the bar.
The items on the page can be categorized and the user can click on each category to filter by that category. For example, the buyer can easily click on the 'Wine' category to order a glass or bottle of wine.
Each item can belong to one or more categories.
The items can be shown on the page in different formats. They can be shown as cards in a gallery format or they can be shown as a list with or without pictures. The bar page in our demo site, shows items as gallery.
Each store page can be set to show items from certain categories. For example, the bar page is set to display items from 'Alcoholic Beverages', 'non-alcoholic beverages', 'wine' , etc.
Items may have options that may or may not affect the price. For example, when ordering the wine, you can choose to order a glass at $8 or a bottle at $28. Or when ordering a t-shirt from the giftshop, you can select the size and color.
At the top of the page, you can use the 'Pencil' icon to use the web editor to add content such as text, pictures or video to the top of the page. Also using the 'image' icon, you can add a slideshow or banner to the top of the page.
Your staff can use the POS page to accept in-person or over-the-phone orders and accept cash, or credit cards. Just click on the POS option and it will take you to the touch-friendly, fast POS page where you can accept orders and accept cash or credit cards for the order. You can learn more about the POS page in the following articles and videos: Box-office staff, Retail stores & Phone Agents & How to Set Up a Ticket Booth, Ticket Desk, Box Office or just Sell Tickets On-the-Go and Accept Credit Card, Cash, Checks or Send Invoices Using Ticketor
Your kitchen will receive the order as soon as they are placed on the preparation page and can prepare and handle them.
2- Restaurant
This page is very similar to the bar page. It has all the features to order food or drink online or in-person.
Items on this page are displayed as list instead of a grid.
Unlike the bar page, this page only lists some 'Categories' such as 'Entrées' or 'Desserts' instead of the actual food items. Clicking on each category opens a subpage that lists the items in that category.
3- Concessions
Similarly, the concessions page can be used to order food or drink. This page is set up similar to the bar page.
4- Giftshop Page:
This store page is used to demonstrate the gift-shop capability. Users can buy items online and either pick them up at the store or select a mail (post) delivery method and have them get shipped to their address.
Your staff can use the POS page to sell the items in-person or over-the-phone and accept cash, check or credit card as the payment.
5- Gift Cards Page:
This page is dedicated to selling gift cards.
Gift cards are great tools that can introduce your business to new patrons and can also generate cash flow. Any unused gift card or unused remaining balance is also free revenue to your business.
Selling gift cards on Ticketor is very easy and requires no effort on your side. You just create a store page and add gift cards at different amounts.
You can optionally put the gift cards on sale to sell them at lower price or you can set an expiration date on them so they get expired after certain period of time after the purchase.
The user adds the gift cards to their shopping cart and purchase them. They immediately receive an electronic gift card, with a code and barcode on them, that they can print or send electronically to a friend or family member.
The owner of the gift card can use the code on the gift card on the checkout page to use the gift cards balance. A gift card can be used in multiple transactions and it can be used along with other gift cards or a credit card if the balance is not enough to cover the transaction.
The owner or you can also pull reports that show the gift card balance and all their transactions.
The gift cards can also be used at the POS. Your staff can easily scan the barcode or QR code on the gift card to apply it or they can manually enter the gift card code.
For more information, check out our blog and video:Everything About Selling and Using Gift Cards on Ticketor
Buying Some Merchandise and Food as an End-User
Let's check the store functionality by ordering some stuff as an end-user.
While watching the event in the theater, I am going to order some food and have it delivered to my seat inside the theater, also I am going to order a t-shirt from the giftshop and have it shipped to my home, and also, I am going to order a gift card that I want to send to a friend for their birthday.
To show that tickets and merchandise can be purchased together, I am also going to buy some tickets and make a donation in the same transaction.
To start, I go to the restaurant page and order a burger and a drink.
Then I go to the giftshop and add the t-shirt to my shopping cart.
Then I go to the Gift Cards page and add a gift cart to my cart.
Then I go to the tickets page and add 2 tickets to the kids show.
Then I click on 'proceed to checkout' button to checkout.
On the pre-checkout page, I am offered related items, events or donations to consider purchasing. These are the items that the event organizer wants to promote or upsell.
I add some donation amount.
And proceed to checkout.
On the checkout page I get to decide how I want to receive my tickets, food and drink and the t-shirt.
I select e-ticket for the tickets, so I can easily show the tickets on my phone or print them at home.
For the food and drink, I can choose it to be delivered to different areas in the venue or my seat in the theater. If I choose 'Deliver to me within the venue' then I get to select a location from the available options. Or if I select 'Deliver within the restaurant or lounge' then I can select my table number. However, I choose the option to deliver to my seat in the theater. I select the 'Section', 'Row' and 'Seat number' that I am sitting at. These information is printed on my ticket so I can easily find them.
For the t-shirt, I can either choose the pickup option and pick it up at the giftshop or have it shipped to my address.
Then I select my payment method, fill out the billing and shipping address and credit card information and finalize the checkout.
I am redirected to the confirmation page. A copy of this page is emailed to me as the buyer and a copy is emailed to the administrators of the site who opt in to receive sales emails.
My credit card is charged at this point and my order is sent to the kitchen to prepare and deliver my food and drink. The t-shirt order is also sent to the giftshop so they can ship it to me.
My tickets and the gift card are available right away electronically so I can either print it or show it on my phone or I can simply download or share them with friends.
I can share the tickets or the gift card via text (SMS), WhatsApp, email, Facebook etc.
So, I am going to send the gift card to my friend for their birthday as a text message.
And I am going to share the second ticket with another friend who is joining me for the show.
Selling Merchandise at the Point of Sales
While the buyers can place their orders on their phone, your staff, bartenders, waiters, cashiers or sales staff can also use the point of sales at your restaurant, bar, concessions stand or giftshop cashier to sell food or merchandise.
You can use the Control Panel > Box Office > POS page. This pages lists all your tickets and merchandise from all store pages for sale.
However, if you want to go to the POS page for certain store, for example if you are the bartender and only accept bar orders, then you can go to the Bar page and use the POS page from the 'Actions' menu. It takes you to a similar POS page but the items on the page are only limited to the drink items and you cannot sell tickets or giftshop items from this page.
The POS page is a touch-friendly and very fast page. You can simply click on the items you want to order and place the order.
You can place the order for an existing or new user or you can sell anonymously without specifying the user.
You can choose the delivery method or where and how the order should be delivered.
You can accept cash, check or credit card as the payment method.
Depending on your permissions, assigned to you by the administrator of the site, you may be able to give ad-hoc discount or add additional fees.
I am placing this order as a cash order.
Setting Up Store Pages and Merchandise
1- Add Store Pages
To start selling merchandise or food, you need to add a page of type 'Store'. Go to Control Panel > Account & Settings > Pages & Navigations and add one or more pages of type 'Store'
Pages may or may not be added in the top nav or they can be added as a sub-menu.
Then click on the link to the Store page to navigate to the page.
The gear icon at the top of the page allows you to customize the page and select the categories of items that are shown on the page. When a page is created, a private category is automatically created for the page and so any item that is part of that category will show up on the page. However, you can edit the page and change the categories that the page will use.
You can also set the design and style of the page and how the items are shown. Items can be shown as cards in a gallery or a list with or without pictures. If you choose the gallery view, the card items may all have the same size or they may have different sizes. If you intend all the cards to have the same size, make sure to select that option and also make sure the primary image uploaded for items on the page all have the same aspect ratio or same size.
Note that making all cards the same size may result in longer text and titles to be trimmed but allowing the cards to have different flexible sizes will show the full text and titles.
You can use the 'pencil' icon to add content to the page or use the 'image' icon to add a slideshow or banner to the page.
2- Add Categories
Next step, is to add some categories. Categories can be public or private.
Private categories are only visible to you and your staff to categorize items for your operation purpose. While the public categories are visible to the buyer for filtering and categorizing items.
One item can be in multiple categories. Categories themselves can be part of other categories to create sub-categories.
Categories have multiple purposes:
- Each store page is set to show one or more categories. This is how you control what items to show up on what pages.
- Categories may show up on the store page as filters so the buyer can easily filter items by category. This option can be set on the store page settings. If a store page is set to list multiple categories, all the public categories will show on the store as filters.
- Sub-pages: If a page is set to show a certain category, all the sub-categories in that category will show up as sub-pages. For example, in the demo restaurant page, 'Entrées' and 'Desserts' are sub-categories that are displayed as sub-pages.
- POS page: POS pages can be set to show items from certain categories so for example the bartenders can only place bar orders and giftshop staff can only order giftshop items
- Preparation, shipping and handling and operation: Items may be placed in categories for the purposes of operation and preparation. For example, you may want all the food orders that require a stove oven to show up on the preparation page of the 'stove section of the kitchen' while all other food orders go to another section of the kitchen and all the beverage orders to go to the bar. For this purpose, you can put items in private categories that are only visible to you and your staff, such as 'oven foods' and you can have a computer or tablet in each section of the kitchen that shows the orders in certain categories as they are placed.
- Reporting: Reports can also be filtered by categories
Categories can be created or edited from the Control Panel's merchandise page. Give the category a name and you can optionally make it sub-category to other categories. Optionally add some description and pictures for the category.
When you create a store page, a private category is automatically created for that page to make it easy for you to add items to that page. However, you may choose to ignore or delete that category.
3- Add Delivery Methods
Before adding merchandise to your store, it is best to add some delivery methods so when we create merchandise, we can select what delivery methods are available for that item. However, you can always come back to add new delivery methods or update the existing ones.
Use Control Panel > Account and Settings > Delivery methods to create and manage your delivery methods and associated fees.
On this page, you can create, edit and manage delivery methods that can be used by events or merchandise. The system allows delivery methods to be shared between events and merchandise, however, in practice, it is usually best to have different sets of delivery methods for tickets and merchandise.
Add a 'pick-up' Delivery Methods
So, let's add a delivery method for 'Pick up at the bar' or restaurant or giftshop so the buyers have the option to pick up their items.
Give the delivery method a name and optionally a description. Set the delivery fee to zero as we are not going to charge for pick-up method. Since this method is not used in events, you can skip the 'For tickets' tab and go to 'For merchandise' tab.
I enter a large number, 1000, in the 'Delivery fee is for' box and check the box that 'Multiple shopping cart items can share the cost of delivery'. Then save the delivery method.
Combining Delivery Methods Between Different Items:
Normally, the buyer needs to select the delivery method for each item in their shopping cart. For example, if a buyer is ordering a shirt and a CD, they can select the shirt to be shipped and the CD to be picked up.
While this functionality may be desirable in the case of shirt and CD, it may not be expected in some other cases. For example, if a buyer is ordering a Pizza and a Burger and a Pepsi, they do not want to select the delivery method 3 times for each item. The same delivery method should apply to all 3 items. In other words, all 3 items should bundle together so the buyer can pick the delivery method only once.
To achieve this, you should:
- Tick the box that 'Multiple shopping cart items can share the cost of delivery'
- All the items (Pizza, burger and Pepsi) must have the exact same set of delivery methods. Meaning that if one item supports 'Delivery method A' and 'Delivery method B', all items must support the same delivery methods.
- All the delivery methods supported for all the bundled items must have the box 'Multiple shopping cart items can share the cost of delivery' ticked.
If all the above conditions are met, then the items in the shopping cart get bundled together and the buyer will select only one delivery method that applied to the bundle.
Delivery Method Fees and Fee Sharing
Delivery methods may have a fee associated with them. For example, the fee to ship a toy car may be $10 and it ships in an individual box. Obviously, the cost of shipping 2 toy cars would be $20. This usually applies to items that ship individually using a mail (post) system.
However, there are cases that the delivery cost is the same no matter how many items you order. For example, the cost of local pizza or food delivery is the same flat fee no matter if you order 1 pizza or 5 , or if you also order some drinks.
Or in some cases you may want to combine the delivery fees to encourage the buyer to purchase more. For example, the delivery cost of 1 CD may be $5. However, you can fit up to 10 CDs in the same package and ship all of them at the same cost.
To achieve this goal set the 'Delivery fee is for X items'. If you set it to 1, it will be suitable for the toy car scenario. If you order 5 toy cars, you pay 5 times the delivery fee.
However, if you set it to a large number, like 1000, it means the fee is the same, no matter how many items you order, which makes it suitable for a scenario like local food delivery.
For the CDs example, you can set it to 10. So, if the buyer orders 1 to 10 CDs, they pay 1 time the delivery fee. If they order 11 to 20 CDs, they will pay twice the delivery fee.
However, fee sharing is usually useful when used along with the 'Combining delivery methods between different items', explained in the previous section.
It is unlikely that a buyer would buy 5 of the same CD. They would probably want to buy different titles. So if all different CDs are created with the same set of shareable delivery methods, a buyer can buy 5 different titles and combine delivery methods to pay 1 time the delivery fee.
Similarly, all bar or restaurant options should be created to share delivery methods and so the delivery fee applies to all items.
Add a 'Deliver Within Venue' Delivery Method
I am going to add a second delivery method. Choose 'deliver within the venue', name it 'Deliver to my seat in the theater', add some description, set the fee to zero and switch to the 'For merchandise' tab. To make this delivery method sharable with all food and beverage inside the buyer's shopping cart, I am ticking the box for 'Multiple shopping cart items can share the cost of delivery'
Then I switch to the questions tab. This delivery method should ask where exactly is the user seating. Which in the context of a theater the seats are usually identified with 3 values for 'Section', 'Row' and 'Seat number'.
So, I am opening the question manager page to create 3 questions.
'What section are you sitting at?', 'What row are you sitting at?', and 'What is your seat number?'
I create the first 2 questions of type Dropdown with certain items that the buyer can choose from. I will set the default value to blank and I add a blank option as the first option so by default, no section is selected. Then I add the list of sections as the next options. I marked the question as 'Answer required' so the buyer cannot leave the question blank.
For the seat number I create the question as a textbox with a maximum answer length of 3 so the buyer can enter a 1 to 3 digit seat number.
Then I switch back to the tab where I was creating the delivery methods and by typing a few letters of the question, I add the question to the delivery method and I save the delivery method.
Add a 'Local Delivery' Delivery Method
We are adding a local food delivery. So, I am choosing 'Mail / Post / Delivery' as the delivery type. This method automatically collects the shipping or delivery address.
Name it 'Deliver to my location', set some description like 'Deliver within 10 Miles of the venue' and let's set the delivery fee to $10. This fee is fixed regardless of how many items such as how many pizza or food or drink they order.
So, in the 'For Merchandise' tab, I set the 'Delivery fee is for' to a large number and I tick the box that 'Multiple shopping cart items can share the cost of delivery'. Then save the delivery method.
Add a Shipping Delivery Method for Larger Items
We are now adding a ship by mail / post service delivery method for larger / heavier items that ship individually in individual packages.
So, I am going to choose the 'Mail / Post / Delivery' method, name it '2 day air shipping', add some description and set the fee to the fee for that specific merchandise weight or box size. You may need to create multiple delivery methods with different fees for bigger and smaller or heavier and lighter items. When you create the merchandise, you can select what delivery method applies to that specific merchandise.
I am setting the fee to $10 for this one.
In the 'For merchandise' tab, I set that the fee is only for 1 item. So, if the buyer orders 2 items, they should pay double the delivery fee. I am also un-ticking the 'Multiple shopping cart items can share the cost of delivery' so each item will ask for the delivery method.
Add a Shipping Delivery Method for Small Items
We are now adding a ship by mail / post service delivery method for small / light items such as CDs that we can fit multiple into a single package.
So, I am going to choose the 'Mail / Post / Delivery' method, name it '2-day air shipping', add some description and set the fee to the fee for that specific merchandise weight or box size.
I am setting the fee to $10 for this one however, I can fit up to 5 CD's in the same package and ship them all at the same $10 shipping fee. So I am taking this opportunity to encourage the buyers to order more items. I add in the description that the fee is good for up to 5 CD or DVDs.
In the 'For merchandise' tab, I set that the fee is for 5 item. So, if the buyer orders up to 5 items, they get charged $10. But if they order 6 to 10 CDs, they will pay $20. I am also ticking the 'Multiple shopping cart items can share the cost of delivery' the buyer can combine different CDs and DVDs or any merchandise that use this delivery method.
Add More Delivery Methods
You can add as many delivery methods as needed, with different charges.
4- Add Merchandise
Next, we are going to add merchandise for sale. It includes all giftshop items, food, drink and gift cards.
Merchandise can get added, edited or managed from the Merchandise page on the control panel. However, there are other places and shortcuts that allow you to add or manage merchandise, such as the 'Actions' menu on the Store page or the merchandise page.
Click on Add a new merchandise.
Then set the name.
The code is optional and can be the barcode of the merchandise or a code that your sales staff can easily remember to find and sell the merchandise.
Keywords are hidden to the user and are only used for search engine optimization.
You can mark the product as Active. Inactive products do not show in the store and are not sellable.
Featured products show at the top of the list of items in the store page.
If a product is marked as 'Sold out', it will not be available for sale.
Private items are only visible and sellable by you and your staff and buyers cannot buy or order them online.
Set the item price.
If the item is on sale, you can set a sale price. It will show the original price as well as the sales price to the buyer.
Set the currency for the item.
Optionally set the sort order. Items with higher sort order show first in the store page.
Set the event organizer for the merchandise. In most cases, the event organizer is you, the admin. However, if this product is sold by a 3rd party, by adding that 3rd party as the event organizer, it allows them to receive emails when their merchandise sell and they can report that merchandise.
Also, if the event organizer is using a different payment processor and bank account, the sales money for the item will go to the event organizer's payment processor.
If the item is taxable, set the tax percentage to be collected. The tax amount will get added to the buyer's invoice and you will receive the tax amount along with the item price and your accountant can later file the tax and pay any due amount.
Items can be eligible for Tip or not. If an item is eligible for tip, the system will ask the user to consider tipping and will offer different tip amounts or percentages in accordance to your settings in your site settings.
In the categories tab, select all categories that this item belongs to. Check out the categories section above to learn what categories are used for and why they are important. The item should be in a category for it to be shown on the store page.
In the delivery tab, select all delivery methods that apply to this item.
Remember that as mentioned before in the 'Combining delivery methods between different items', section, if you want all or certain products in the shopping cart to get bundle together and ask for delivery method only once, as opposed to once per item, all the items should have the exact same set of delivery methods and all the selected delivery methods should have the box ticked to be sharable.
This is probably the expected behavior for all food and beverage items. So make sure all the food and beverage items have the exact same set of delivery methods.
The easiest way to achieve this is by creating an item as template with all the shared data fields and then replicate the template item to create other items.
Then switch to the pictures and videos tab and add pictures and videos for the item. You can use drag and drop to re-order the pictures. The first picture is considered the primary picture and that is the one that shows in the store page.
Note: If you want all cards in the store to have the exact same size, you should make sure all the primary pictures for all items in the store have the same aspect ratio or are the same size.
Then you can go to the details tab and fill out the rest of the item's details including the item description.
Then save the merchandise. And you can create as many merchandise, food or drink using the same method.
5- Duplicating Merchandise
To replicate an item to create a new one, simply edit the item and from the actions menu, duplicate it.
6- Adding Gift Cards
Adding gift cards are very similar to adding merchandise.
You can add as many gift cards, in different amounts and for different occasions, with different pictures.
