Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
By Kevin Woodward
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Independent sales organizations and acquirers considering mobile ticketing as a value-add service to sell to merchants have a new option.
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Chirrpy Event Management, a Franklin, Tenn.-based ticketing company, is developing a reseller program that could make it easier for small and mid-size merchants to use mobile ticketing for special events.
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The service works like this. Merchants use a Web portal to set up their events, including details about the name, Web site, times, available tickets, and pricing. Chirrpy also enables sharing to social media sites and via email. It includes tracking to check number of tickets sold, number of tickets remaining, and a list of attendees.
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After purchasing a ticket, attendees either present a Chirrpy Quick Response barcode within the iOS app or printed on paper to gain entry. An Android version of the app is in development.
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Chirrpy, which debuted to ISOs and acquirers at the Southeast Acquirers Association annual conference in March but has been in business since 2010, is building its program for resellers, says Laurie Snively, Chirrpy president. That includes a reporting tool to view merchant activity, she says.
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Current pricing is 2% of an event’s entire sales plus 99 cents per ticket for those merchants buying the service directly from Chirrpy, Snively says. Resellers get a half-percentage discount, she says.
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Snively says Chirrpy works with events, such as beer and wine tastings, political, athletic, and music events. Nonprofit organizations and alumni groups have used Chirrpy, and the company currently is working on an event of more than 8,000 attendees, Snively says.
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Chirrpy’s success in the ISO and acquirer community will hinge on finding those resellers whose merchants typically host events, such as restaurants and bars, says Adil Moussa, principal at Omaha, Neb.-based Adil Consulting.
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Smaller merchants that already use a multifunction service like Constant Contact Inc., a Waltham, Mass.-based company that provides event and other marketing campaign services, may be reluctant to switch, too, Moussa says.
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“Value-added solutions are very viable, but it really depends on the solution itself,” Moussa says. “From experience, I noticed that small merchants would rather spend money on solutions that bring them new customers rather than on solutions that help solve a logistical problem.”
