Imagine one of your patrons — we’ll call her Sage — is out walking her dog when she receives a marketing email about an exciting show you’re putting on. Oh, what a great idea for tonight! With her leash hand busy, she uses the other to buy a ticket in a single tap, securely completing the payment with a quick scan of her face. In less than a minute, she’s got a digital ticket in her Apple Wallet, ready to go.

Later that night, Sage arrives at your venue with no purse, just her phone, making it easy for her to mingle and move around. As showtime approaches, her ticket automatically pops up on her Apple Watch as well as her phone’s lock screen, ready for your box office team to scan. When she gets thirsty at intermission, it just takes a tap to buy a drink — and hey, she gets a snack while she’s at it, too. Then, when the show’s over, she realizes she wants a T-shirt to commemorate the fantastic night she’s had. All it takes is another tap to make it hers.

This version of Sage’s audience experience was entirely possible because of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet.

To be clear, there are two intertwined products that we’re going to talk about here. The first side is digital wallets, aka Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, the phone app that digitally stores credit/debit cards as well as membership cards, loyalty cards, and tickets. Secondly, there’s mobile payments, aka Apple Pay/Google Pay. In person, this feature allows a user to make payments with a tap of their phone in lieu of a physical credit card (using a card stored in their digital wallet). Additionally, when paying online, Apple Pay/Google Pay allows users to pay with just a single click and biometric scan, rather than manually entering in credit card information.

Your box office should be able to work with these functionalities, and your ticketing software should support you in doing so. Apple and Google Wallets don’t just make life better for your patrons — they bring real benefits to your organization and your bottom line.

Meet Your Customers' Expectations 

Apple Pay celebrated its 10-year anniversary in October 2024. In that time, customers have gotten used to paying via Apple Pay and Google Pay wherever they go, from stores to restaurants to subway turnstiles. Many people don’t even bring their wallets out with them anymore.

According to Capital One, in 2024 there was "an estimated 61.3 million Apple Pay users in the United States" and Adyen cites that “over 29% of Canadians [have] completed a purchase using a digital or mobile wallet.

You don’t want your organization to miss out or fall behind. When any of those Apple Pay and Google Pay users come to you, you should be able to accept their payment. It’s that simple.

Minimize Friction, Maximize Revenue

In today’s events market, it’s critical to bring in new audience members, then to re-engage them again and again. You don’t want anything getting in the way of those customers making a purchase. From the start, Apple Pay and Google Pay streamline your payments process, removing many of the steps that can come between having the inclination to go to a show and actually buying tickets.

With a traditional payment method, customers often have to:

• Wait until they are in a secure location where they can conveniently use their card alongside a phone/computer.
• Retrieve their wallet or purse — which may not even be close by.
• Take out their credit or debit card.
• Manually input a long string of numbers.
• Find and enter the expiration date and CVV code.
• If anything is incorrect, they have to enter it all over again.
• Put everything back when they’re finished.

None of those steps are necessary when using Apple Pay or Google Pay for tickets. There’s no need to enter card details into your ticketing system or to have them already saved — they’re securely transferred via the ticket buyer’s own device. A customer can be out and about, in a waiting room or comfy in bed, and they can make the purchase go through without having to juggle their possessions.

This means fewer reasons for why patrons can’t purchase their ticket right there on the spot, as well as less time and fuss between receiving a marketing campaign and having tickets in hand. Transactions happen quickly and easily — they won’t have to think twice about it.

Plus, that power of not having to think twice comes into play again when they’re at your venue. Because they’re able to use Apple Wallet/Google Wallet to provide their ticket for entry and to pay for anything they need, today’s patrons are not bogged down by their purses and wallets. If their bag is in coat check, underneath their seat or in their car, it doesn’t matter. They can seamlessly purchase drinks, food, merch and other add-ons — driving more revenue opportunities for you.

The faster you can get your transaction process, the more conversions you can make, with more people buying tickets and more revenue being generated.

Enhanced Security and Fraud Protection 

In general, Apple and Google Pay are safer for consumers than traditional credit and debit cards. In fact, Apple cites that 87% of their users say security is a top reason why they love Apple Pay.

A huge part of this heightened security is the identity verification that comes default for U.S. users and has widespread use globally. In order to make a purchase, users have to provide their fingerprint, Face ID or passcode to prove who they are. While traditional credit card numbers can be grabbed and used by anyone — be it by physically taking the card or through online hacking — that extra step significantly helps prevent fraudulent charges from being made through Apple Pay or Google Pay.

Meanwhile, Apple Pay and Google Pay use tokenization for transactions, meaning that they don’t provide a user’s actual credit card number to the place that they’re making a payment. So, if there is a data breach at an online merchant, the user doesn’t have to worry about their credit card information being stolen.

Of course, better security for your customers is a great thing in and of itself, helping to ensure that bad actors aren’t using stolen credit cards to buy up tickets at your venue. But what’s especially interesting for live events organizations is how that extra layer of security relates to chargebacks. Apple Pay in particular shifts the liability away from the merchant to authenticate the identity of the person making the payment. That means you’re not on the hook if the cardholder files a chargeback claiming their ticket purchase was fraudulent. It’s not your responsibility to make sure the right person is using the card; it’s Apple’s.

(Note that Google Pay does not offer the same explicit liability shift, though it still provides a more secure experience than traditional cards.)

As you’re thinking critically about how to prevent fraud and chargebacks at your organization, enabling Apple Pay and Google Pay transactions can be a really powerful step.

Smoother Audience Experiences

Perhaps the best part of these features is the ease and flexibility they bring, allowing patrons to focus on the experience you’re producing.

Without the need to have a physical ticket or credit card on them, guests can move comfortably and freely about your space, always able to purchase anything they want in just the blink of an eye. This is particularly important for festivals, shows that inspire dancing or audience participation and venues where patrons typically check their bags.

Being able to store their ticket in your Apple or Google Wallet allows guests to have easy access to it — no need to print anything or hunt through their inbox. As we noted with Sage’s story, the ticket pops up on the lock screen when the start time approaches, with a QR code ready for your team to scan.

Quicker check-ins and payments add up to shorter lines. Plus, the convenience reduces stress for your customers and allows them to just enjoy themselves while they’re at your event.

Of course, there are many ways to innovate around your audience experience. But with these features, Apple and Google have done a lot of the heavy lifting for you.

Start Talking With Your Team About Digital Wallets

If you don’t already have the ability to accept Apple Pay and Google Pay at your box office or to push tickets to a patron’s digital wallet, talk to your ticketing software provider. If they can’t provide what you need, come talk to Spektrix! We’re always here to connect you with the best technology to maximize your revenue and enhance your audience experience.

This article was sponsored by Spektrix.