Ticket cool-off pays dividends for Skiddle

Skiddle grew concert ticket sales an impressive 69% in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2016, capping off a record-breaking year for the UK ticketing start-up.

Also up year on year were sales for club nights (32%) and festivals (48%), as well as a 22% increase in website visitors, attributed by Skiddle’s Jimmy Coultas to the introduction of its innovative Cool:Off and Re:Sell initiatives and “a more customer-focused approach” resulting from 18 months’ consumer research.

Sales overall were up 67%, in what the company says is evidence of its “leading the charge for innovation [in] ticketing”.

Cool:Off, introduced last summer, “enables customers to experience the same flexibility offered in the retail industry” by offering a 72-hour grace period to return unwanted tickets, while Re:Sell is a Twickets/Scarlet Mist-style face-value ticket exchange.

According to Skiddle’s research, customers are 25% more likely to make a purchase since the introduction of Cool:Off, boosted by its adoption by several festival promoters, including Gatecrasher and The Warehouse Project (Parklife).

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.