Ticketcorner

 

About the Customer

Ticketcorner operates as a ticket-selling organization for 70 ski resorts in the Alps and is the Swiss leader in the event ticketing business, serving the B2C market. They facilitate the direct execution of contracts between event organizers, mountain railways and consumers.

They also collaborate with ski resorts to offer various ski passes. Ticket buyers can purchase tickets for events and ski resorts via various sales channels, including an online platform. Alternatively, customers can order and have their tickets delivered digitally to their keycards along with various related products such as gift cards, SOS kits (a mobile app), and hotel-related purchases.

Ticketcorner is part of the Ringier and CTS EVENTIM groups, which are Europe’s market leaders in the ticketing field with activities in 25 countries. More than 140 million tickets for more than 200,000 events are marketed annually via EVENTIM group systems. In addition to more than 20,000 stationary outlets in Europe, EVENTIM distributes tickets via call centers and online platforms.

Their Challenge

In the past, ticket prices were defined by ski resorts before the beginning of the season and transmitted manually to Ticketcorner. Prices were entered by the staff into the platform using an online-based back office. The only way to adapt prices during the ski season was to communicate the changes to Ticketcorner directly. Indeed, this was a time consuming and error-prone process which necessitated multiple reviews, and neither Ticketcorner nor the ski resorts had the flexibility to react to changing market conditions quickly. This process did not reflect the digital needs of the targeted consumer groups and our modern age. In summary, the ski-ticketing industry wasn’t highly digitized and had a low online maturity rate.

Ticketcorner wanted a pricing software that could dynamically calculate prices and display them in real time using various web shops, including the current Ticketcorner ski platform, as well as the ski resorts’ cash register system, while supporting a Linux-based environment and an SQL-based database. Furthermore, the company sought a solution where the current ski platform would continue to be utilized and adapted only for dynamic pricing – all with a friendly back-end system where all the ski resorts’ price parameters and categories could be easily configured and changed with immediate effect.

Pricefx’s Solution

Their vision became a reality when our experts designed the ticketing business’ solution – a pricing engine that enabled value-based pricing with advanced pricing logics and a fast response time.

Pricefx’s software was configured with pricing calculations that were based on a multitude of variables and then integrated using an API that was designed to provide a quick response. This specialized solution works with Ticketcorner’s e-shop and other online ski resort stores as well as the cash desk, called Skidata, in large Alpine ski resorts. Preferable outcomes were then segmented leading to tangible outcomes, and the new system supports better pricing balance and compliance.

Our pricing tool was able to tackle the issues that plagued the ski-ticketing industry, such as changing demographics, uncontrolled price slashing, the impact of climate change, and currency change fluctuations.

The prices are calculated using the PriceBuilder module, with Live Price Grid and advanced pricing logics, which continuously deploy a data feed from SwissMeteo. The prices also take into consideration other seasonal and pre-set metrics such as pre-orders, multiday or loyalty discounts, and can calculate prices daily or for the duration of a whole season.

PriceAnalyzer saves data points so that Ticketcorner can retroactively evaluate the best prices. PriceAnalyzer’s dashboards are able to provide customer care with insights into calculation drivers of previous prices. The analytics module further offers the possibility of extracting reports from the system.

Results

When Ticketcorner came to us with a clear vision of their innovative approach, we knew that they were set for a speedy delivery. From kicking off the project in August 2017, it took us only three months to deliver all of Ticketcorner’s requirements – bring the software live in November of the same year, just in time for the new skiing season.

Currently, 5 Swiss ski resorts are utilizing the Pricefx pricing engine to calculate their ski pass prices, and additional Swiss Alpine Ski Resorts will be added over the upcoming years. We are also thrilled to enable Ticketcorner to digitalize and transform the ski-ticketing market, and are proud that our pricing software delivers some serious success indicators.

Delivered/Recognized Value: Driving Profitability Growth through Dynamic Pricing

Ticketcorner was able to become a pioneer in dynamic pricing for the ski-ticket industry. They achieved this honor because they were the first to move the industry from staticity to a dynamic system that can factor in snow quality, seasonal changes, and the popularity of skiing in the region. Value-based pricing was a positive for new price-sensitive skiers who were willing to take weather-related risks. This type of skier, who would not otherwise visit the ski slopes, purchased their tickets in advance and were then rewarded with lower prices.

The introduction of dynamic pricing brought to participating ski resorts a better-balanced cashflow throughout the season, increased sales volume and, with that, also an increased demand for associated business (hotels, restaurants, etc.). By utilizing the available weather data, which was seamlessly integrated into Pricefx’s pricing engine, businesses can successfully lower their dependency on positive weather conditions.

Pricefx’s solution further facilitated the shift from offline to online booking and enabled Ticketcorner to collect additional behavioral data to support their business activities further. The move online became a driver of profitability, lowering the impact of the weather, increasing efficiency in quoting, and setting Ticketcorner apart from its competitors that did not utilize a dynamic pricing model.

 

Some ski resorts were skeptical about dynamic pricing in general but are now impressed about the features and flexibility that Pricefx brought to our system. We could not have achieved this without their outstanding work and we are glad that we made the right choice to partner with Pricefx. To Pricefx, thank you for your enormous contribution and enthusiasm, the instant feedback, suggestions and solutions. Dynamic pricing is a hot topic in our business right now and we are confident that we can convince more and more ski resorts to work with it in the upcoming months because of what we have been able to achieve together.

Enrico Karg

Head of Customer Journey Driving Project at CTS EVENTIM and Manager Business Development at Ticketcorner AG