Historically the online market for event tickets – while much improved in recent years – has remained an imperfect experience for the consumer. Ticket buyers endured a “10 stop shopping” process of hopping from one event ticket Web site to the next in search of the best seats for sporting events, concerts and theater shows only to find themselves a step behind in trying to snag the most in-demand tickets.

But more recently there has been significant technology innovation underway that has fueled an evolution in the event ticket category – notably through advances in the capabilities and tools utilized by event ticket search engines. These developments have been focused on addressing a host of inefficiencies as they relate to the online ticket buying experience, and are designed to:

*Bring clarity and unbiased results to an inefficient online market
*Create more educated ticket buyers so they can find the best value seats more quickly and easily
*Enable the ticket buyer to search the expanse of the Internet for the best seats

This article highlights five key areas of innovati0n powering the event ticket marketplace.

1) Depth and Breadth of Search

The evolution of comparison shopping for event tickets is directly traceable to a concerted effort by leading event ticket search engines to not only expand the number of online ticket stores that can be scanned for results, but also provide buyer with a normalized view of available seats. As a result, ticket buyers can now easily search the expanse of the Internet for the best-priced tickets being offered at dozens of top ticket sites, while centralized parsing capability provides buyers with a normalized view of available tickets.

2) Live Results

Past efforts at comparison shopping for online event tickets have been hampered by the short shelf life of indexed tickets. The most in-demand event tickets to the hottest events were scooped up by ticket brokers and other professional buyers within minutes of being posted, which meant the average consumer was consistently one stop behind. The evolution of comparison shopping/vertical search engines has addressed that challenge by building in Live Results capabilities so that ticket buyers are alerted in real-time when new, hot tickets become available.

3) Unbiased Results

The number of online sources for event tickets has exploded in recent years. On the surface, that’s a good thing for consumers. But more choices create a related challenge for buyers to vet ticket sites and understand which ones are truly presenting unbiased results. For example, some sites might periodically display partial ticket listings in an effort to move less-desired inventory, while other sites might provide more prominent ticket placement to site sponsors or partners and consequently the results are highly discriminatory.

At the same time, acquisitions and exclusive deals in the event ticket industry have changed the concept of what a primary or secondary ticket seller looks like. For example, MLB.com bought Tickets.com while Ticketmaster’s parent company increased its stake in Front Line Management – the agency representing several high profile musical artists.

A core value of today’s generation of event ticket search engines lies in the ability to scan major online event ticket sites and present a full and objective list of results. By doing so, ticket buyers are not left to hop from ticket site to ticket site or wonder whether they are seeing discretionary results.

4) Price Rating

Unlike shopping for commoditized items, event tickets are subject to a number of unique variables that relate directly to the satisfaction of the buyer – most notably the seat location and price. While primary and secondary online ticket sites present buyers with a wide array of ticket options, it is still up to the consumer to determine where each seat is located – and whether or not that location makes the seat a good value based on its offered price.

Today’s event ticket buyer is benefiting from innovation on the part of comparison shopping search engines that are building price rating tools into their offering. Ninja Tickets, for example, offers a price rating capability that lists available tickets for listed events based on which offer the best value to consumers. More specifically, the tool scans complete index of tickets, where each ticket is located for each event, then normalizes the ticket to determine where the ticket should be located based on its offered price. By identifying outliers (tickets located in better seats than normalized price) and presenting consumers with list of these “good value” seats, buyers no longer have to wonder if a seat is priced too high or too low for its location at the venue, and can easily identify the best values – often the hottest tickets.

5) Interactive Seat Maps

Ultimately, creating a more educated ticket buyer requires improving venue transparency so that shoppers have unprecedented insight into the quality of seats being purchased. The static, vague maps of the past have given way to interactive seating charts that not only allow the buyer to better understand angles, views and location, but also to see how those seats compare in price to others located nearby.

While comparison shopping/event ticket search has come a long way, we are still in the nascent stages of its evolution. Going forward, ticket buyers can expect to see further developments that will enhance their online search experience and key the category’s growth and maturation.

Many thanks to Cliff Mark over at Ninja Tickets.