Glossary
Event & Ticketing Glossary
Everything you need to know about ticketing, event management, and technology for organizers — explained in plain language.
Access Control / QR
A ticket validation system that uses QR codes scanned at the event entrance. It verifies each ticket's authenticity in real time, prevents duplicates, and keeps an accurate attendance log. QR-based access control is the current industry standard for events of any size.
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Accreditation
The process of registering and verifying attendees, press, artists, staff, or VIP guests before or during an event. It includes issuing credentials, wristbands, or IDs that grant differentiated access levels depending on the type of accreditation.
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Venue Capacity
The maximum number of people a venue or event space can legally hold, as determined by safety regulations and municipal permits. Monitoring capacity is required by law in most countries and is critical for logistics planning and ticket sales.
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Fraud Prevention
A set of tools and algorithms designed to detect and prevent fraudulent transactions in online ticket sales. It includes identity verification, suspicious purchase pattern analysis, card validation, and protection against bots attempting bulk purchases.
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Reserved Seating
A sales model where each ticket is assigned a specific seat (row and number) within the venue. It requires an interactive seating map that lets buyers visually choose their seat. Essential for theaters, stadiums, and any venue with a fixed seat layout.
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Bordereau / Settlement Report
A financial settlement document detailing an event's gross revenue, applied discounts, taxes, fees, and the net amount payable to each party involved. It is the standard accounting instrument in the entertainment industry for transparently distributing revenue among producers, venues, and artists.
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Service Charge
A fee added to the base ticket price to cover the costs of the ticketing platform, payment processing, and technical support. It can be absorbed by the organizer (included in the price) or passed on to the buyer as a visible line item at checkout.
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Cart Recovery
An automated marketing strategy that sends emails or notifications to users who started a ticket purchase but didn't complete it. Recovering abandoned carts can boost sales by 15–35%, making it one of the highest-ROI tactics in digital ticketing.
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Check-in
The moment when an attendee presents their ticket (physical or digital) at the access point and is recorded as present at the event. Check-in can be done via QR scanning, NFC reading, manual list verification, or a combination of these methods.
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Responsive Checkout
A ticket purchase flow optimized to work seamlessly on any device — phone, tablet, or desktop. A responsive checkout reduces purchase friction and lowers cart abandonment, which is especially critical since over 60% of ticket purchases in LATAM happen on mobile devices.
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Discount Code
An alphanumeric code that buyers enter at checkout to receive a reduced price or special benefit on their ticket purchase. Organizers use them for promotional campaigns, sponsor deals, loyalty programs, or exclusive pricing for specific groups.
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Chargeback
A reversal of a credit or debit card payment initiated by the cardholder through their issuing bank, typically claiming fraud or non-recognition of the purchase. Chargebacks pose a significant financial risk to event organizers, as they result in loss of the amount plus an administrative penalty.
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Access Control
A comprehensive hardware and software system that manages entry to an event or venue. It covers everything from ticket validation with QR or NFC readers to restricted zone management, real-time capacity counting, and attendance reporting.
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CRM
Customer Relationship Management: a platform for managing the relationship with an event organizer's attendees and customers. It centralizes contact data, purchase history, preferences, and behavior, enabling audience segmentation and personalized communications to increase repeat attendance and average ticket value.
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Refund
The process by which a buyer requests a full or partial reimbursement for one or more tickets. Refund policies vary by organizer and local legislation, and may include a full refund, credit toward future events, or a date change.
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Domain / Subdomain
A domain is a website's primary address (example.com), while a subdomain is a subdivision of the main domain (tickets.example.com). In ticketing, organizers can use subdomains to separate their institutional site from their ticket shop while maintaining brand consistency.
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Custom Domain
A personalized web address (e.g., tickets.yourbrand.com) where the organizer sells tickets under their own brand, with no ticketing platform name visible. It's a key white-label feature that strengthens brand identity and improves the organizer's SEO positioning.
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Early Bird / Presale
A discounted ticket sales phase that opens before general sale, usually with limited availability. It's a strategy to generate early revenue, gauge event demand, and create purchase urgency. Prices increase progressively as presale tiers sell out.
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Service Fee
A fee charged by the ticketing platform for each processed transaction, covering technology, payment processing, support, and infrastructure costs. It can be a fixed amount per ticket, a percentage of the sale price, or a combination of both.
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Conversion Funnel
A model representing the stages a potential attendee goes through from discovering an event to completing a ticket purchase. Optimizing each funnel stage (awareness, interest, consideration, purchase) is essential to maximizing conversion rates and total sales.
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Landing Page
A web page designed specifically to promote an event and convert visitors into ticket buyers. An effective landing page includes key event information, compelling images, reviews, clear pricing, and a prominent call-to-action (CTA) leading to purchase.
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Tier / Batch
A block of tickets with a defined price and quantity within an event's sales structure. Organizers set up multiple tiers (e.g., Tier 1 at $50, Tier 2 at $70, Tier 3 at $100) that activate sequentially as each sells out, creating a price ladder that incentivizes early purchases.
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Seating Map
A visual, interactive representation of a venue's seat, zone, and sector layout. It lets buyers visually select their location when purchasing tickets, and lets organizers set different prices per zone, block sections, and manage the capacity of each area.
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White Label
A software model where the ticketing platform operates under the event organizer's visual identity, without showing the tech company's branding. The public buys tickets on a site that looks and feels like the organizer's own, with their logo, colors, domain, and custom design.
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Membership
A subscription model where attendees pay a recurring fee (monthly or yearly) in exchange for benefits like early ticket access, exclusive discounts, special content, or free entry to selected events. It's a strategy for generating predictable recurring revenue and building audience loyalty.
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Metrics / Analytics
Quantitative data measuring ticket sales performance and buyer behavior. Key metrics include conversion rate, average ticket price, traffic sources, peak purchase times, cart abandonment rate, and return on ad spend (ROAS).
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NFC
Near Field Communication: a short-range wireless technology used in wristbands, cards, or devices to validate event access, enable cashless payments inside the venue, and track attendee activity. It's especially popular at festivals and multi-day events.
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Overselling
The practice of selling more tickets than a venue's actual capacity, anticipating that a percentage of buyers won't show up (no-shows). While common in airlines and hospitality, overselling at live events is a high-risk practice that can lead to legal issues, safety concerns, and reputational damage.
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Payment Gateway
A technology service that processes electronic transactions between the ticket buyer and the event organizer. It acts as a secure intermediary that encrypts card data, communicates with issuing and acquiring banks, and confirms or declines the transaction in seconds. Examples: Mercado Pago, Stripe, dLocal.
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Payout
The transfer of ticket sale revenue from the ticketing platform to the event organizer's bank account. Payout frequency, timelines, and fees are decisive factors when choosing a platform. With Fanz, payouts go directly to the organizer's account.
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PDF Ticket
A digital ticket in PDF format that the buyer receives by email or downloads from the platform. It contains a unique QR or barcode for validation, along with event details, section, seat (if applicable), and terms of use. It's the most universal ticket delivery format and doesn't require internet access to present.
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QR Code
A two-dimensional quick-response code that stores unique information for each ticket. When scanned with a mobile device or dedicated reader at the access point, it instantly validates the ticket's authenticity, logs the entry, and prevents the use of duplicate or counterfeit tickets.
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Remarketing
A digital marketing strategy that shows personalized ads to people who already interacted with the ticket sales page but didn't complete the purchase. It uses cookies and tracking pixels to reach these users on social media and websites, reminding them of the event and driving conversion.
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Revenue Share
A business model where the ticketing platform charges a percentage of each ticket sale as commission, instead of (or in addition to) a flat fee. Under this model, the platform's revenue is directly tied to the organizer's sales volume. Fanz does not use revenue share: organizers pay a fixed subscription.
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PR / Promoters
Public Relations: in the event context, it refers both to the communication and press strategy and to the team of promoters who manage guest lists, complimentary tickets, and special access. PR is a key sales and distribution channel, especially for nightlife events and festivals.
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Sell-out
The state where all available tickets for an event have been sold, completely exhausting inventory. Achieving a sell-out is every organizer's goal and a success indicator that builds buyer trust. An efficient ticketing platform facilitates sell-outs with marketing tools and dynamic pricing.
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Event SEO
A set of search engine optimization techniques applied to ticket sales pages and event websites. It includes using structured data (schema.org Event), SEO-friendly URLs, well-crafted meta tags, relevant content, and fast load speeds to help events rank in the top Google search results.
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Payment Split
A feature that automatically divides each ticket sale's revenue among multiple recipients (organizer, venue, artist, producer, platform). It simplifies financial settlement for multi-partner events and eliminates the need for manual post-event transfers.
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Box Office
A physical point of sale where tickets are sold in person, either at the event venue itself or at authorized locations. Modern box offices run on POS systems integrated with the online ticketing platform, unifying inventory and preventing overselling across channels.
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Online Ticketing Platform
A digital platform that enables event organizers to create, publish, sell, and manage tickets over the internet. It centralizes ticketing operations including payments, reports, access control, and buyer communication. It's the primary ticket sales channel in the digital age.
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Upselling / Cross-selling
Sales techniques aimed at increasing the value of each transaction. Upselling offers the buyer a higher-tier ticket (e.g., VIP instead of general admission), while cross-selling suggests complementary products like parking, merchandise, food and drink packages, or cancellation insurance.
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Waitlist
A system that allows interested buyers to register for a notification if tickets become available for a sold-out event (through cancellations, refunds, or new inventory release). It's a valuable tool for measuring unmet demand and capturing sales that would otherwise be lost.
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White Label
A software product or service developed by one company (like Fanz) but presented and operated under another company's brand (the event organizer). The entire ticket purchasing experience happens within the client's visual ecosystem, with no references to the underlying technology platform.
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Will Call
A ticket pickup method where the buyer collects their physical tickets at a designated window at the venue, typically by presenting ID and proof of purchase. It's common when special physical tickets (wristbands, credentials) are required or when the buyer lacks access to online payment methods.
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