The purchase flow

This page describes a purchase from the buyer’s point of view: choosing tickets, the form, payment, confirmation and the emails received. It helps you test your ticketing page and answer your customers’ questions.

The purchase happens in a window that opens over your ticketing page, full screen on mobile. Its texts, including the Stripe payment form, are shown in French, English or Spanish:

• on your own domain, in the language of the page;
• on the page’s Sweescape address, in the language the buyer chose with the language picker, otherwise in the language of their browser (English if it is not available).

Step 1: choose tickets

The buyer clicks a button on your page set to the Open ticketing action. See Page blocks.

The Ticketing window opens with the event name and date, then the list of tickets on sale:

• each ticket shows its name, its description and its price followed by Incl. taxes;
• the + and − buttons set the quantity, within the remaining seats;
• a sold-out ticket is greyed out with the Sold out badge;
• tickets hidden behind a code do not appear until a valid code has been entered.

At the bottom of the window, Total to pay shows the amount, with a Discount : line if a code applies. The Get Your Ticket button stays disabled while no ticket is selected or while a quantity does not meet the ticket’s per-order minimum or maximum.

Enter a code

The I have a code button, at the top of the list, opens a field to type the code and the Apply button. The code is entered before choosing tickets, because it can reveal new ones. There is no other code field later in the flow. See Discount and access codes.

With a seating plan

If a seating plan extension is installed on the event, the buyer picks their seats on the plan shown in the page. The purchase window then opens directly on the form. If a seat has just been taken by someone else, the message “This seat is no longer available, please choose another one.” appears. See Extensions.

Seats are held for 10 minutes

When the buyer clicks Get Your Ticket, their seats are held and a countdown appears: Time remaining to finalize your order, starting from 10:00.

• During these 10 minutes, nobody else can buy these seats.
• In the last two minutes, the countdown turns red with “Hurry! Your order is expiring soon.”.
• At zero, the page reloads and the selection is lost: the buyer has to start again.

Possible messages at this step:

Message	Cause
“One or more tickets have insufficient stock!”	Someone bought the last seats in the meantime. The selection is cleared and the remaining seats are refreshed.
“One of these tickets requires a valid code!”	A hidden ticket was selected without a valid code.
“This code has reached its limit!”	The code’s quota ran out in the meantime.

Step 2: the registration form

The Registration Form collects the attendees’ details and the billing details.

Invitation details

• Firstname, Lastname and Email are always required. Tickets are sent to this email.
• Your custom fields appear below, with an asterisk if they are required: text, number, date, yes / no choice or drop-down list.
• Fields set to Per ticket are asked once for each ticket bought, in one box per ticket. When the order has several tickets, the Same details for every ticket ? switch lets the buyer fill them in only once.

See Custom fields.

Billing details

• Fullname and Email: they are used for the invoice, which is sent to this email.
• With the Are you an organization? switch, the Fullname field becomes Organization and a Billing Address is required: Address, City, Zip Code, State, Country (France, United Kingdom, Spain or Belgium) and SIREN or VAT number (SIREN number or European VAT number). A Belgian company enters its enterprise number, with or without the BE prefix (BE0123456789 or 0123456789). All these fields are required.

Final checks

• If a discount code applies, the Code applied box shows the code and the amount taken off.
• The Accept terms and conditions box must be ticked to enable the Book your ticket button. The link opens a terms page provided by Sweescape, which describes the data collected during the purchase.
• The arrow at the top left cancels the reservation and goes back to ticket selection.

When the buyer clicks Book your ticket, an error message can appear:

Message	Cause
“Your reservation has expired. Please select your tickets again.”	The reservation has expired.
“This order can no longer be paid. Please start your booking again.”	The reservation was cancelled in the meantime.
“One of the values you entered is already used by another booking. Please change it.”	A value entered in a field added by an extension is already taken by another booking.
“Online payment is not available for this event yet. Please contact the organizer.”	No Stripe account is linked to the event.

Step 3: payment

After Book your ticket, the Stripe payment form appears in the same window, with the Total price : and the Pay button.

This total price is exactly the amount charged. It takes into account any discount, shown on the Discount : line, and any amount an extension adds to the order, shown on the Extras : line.

• The payment methods offered depend on your Stripe account settings.
• Card details are entered in the Stripe form: they never go through Sweescape.
• If the bank asks for authentication (3-D Secure), it happens in the window or on the bank’s page, which then sends the buyer back to the confirmation.

When the order totals €0 (free tickets or a 100% discount), this step does not exist: the buyer goes straight to the confirmation.

Step 4: the confirmation page

Once the payment is accepted, the buyer lands on the Ticket validation page: “Your ticket has been successfully validated. Please find the invitation in your mailbox.” The Home page button takes them back to your ticketing page.

An extension installed on the event can add content below this message.

Step 5: what the buyer receives

One attendee is created for each ticket bought. They appear in the event’s Participants tab. For a paid order, this happens as soon as Stripe confirms the payment. For a free order, immediately.

• The tickets: each attendee receives the email you designed in the Invitation tab, with their ticket attached as a PDF, built from your ticket template. The ticket’s QR code is scanned at the entrance with SweeScan. See Design the email and the ticket and Scan tickets.
• The wallet: if your email contains the Apple Wallet and Google Wallet buttons, the buyer can add their ticket to their phone’s wallet. See Tickets in the wallet.
• The invoice: for a paid order, the invoice and then the payment receipt are sent to the billing email. See Prices, VAT and fees.

Each ticket is sent in a separate email, to the attendee’s email address. A buyer who takes 3 tickets under the same email therefore receives 3 emails, one per ticket. If the email is asked Per ticket, each holder receives their own ticket.

Note

Sending tickets relies on the event’s invitation email and ticket template: the ticketing page cannot be turned on until both are ready. See Publish the ticketing page.

Declined payment or abandoned purchase

Declined payment. An error message appears in the window, for example the reason the card was declined. The buyer can correct their details or use another card, then click Pay again: if this new payment is accepted, they receive their tickets as usual.

No ticket is issued until Stripe has confirmed the payment. A declined payment does not release the seats: they stay held, as when a buyer abandons at the payment step (see below).

If the payment fails after going through the bank’s page, the buyer lands on the Payment not completed page, with a Back to the ticketing page button to try again. This page also states that if they were charged anyway, their tickets will be sent to them by email.

Abandoned before payment. If the buyer closes the window, leaves the page or goes back with the form’s arrow, their seats are released immediately. Otherwise, they are released at the end of the 10 minutes.

Abandoned at the payment step. Once the Stripe form is displayed, the seats stay held in case the payment goes through. They are released automatically about one hour and ten minutes after the order started: the payment is then cancelled in Stripe, and a form left open can no longer be used to pay. If a payment is still processing (for example a SEPA direct debit), the seats stay held until Stripe confirms or declines it.

Sweescape does not send reminders to buyers who abandon. Abandoned carts are counted in SweeAnalytics. See Conversions.

Test your ticketing page

Make a test purchase before announcing your event, from a private browsing window.

A test purchase counts as a real sale

A test order completed through to the end uses up a seat, shows in your sales and then prevents you from deleting the ticket used. To test without paying, use a 100% discount code: the order is free, you receive the ticket and you can check the email, the PDF and the scan. Then delete the test attendee.

Learn more

• Discount and access codes
• Sales, orders and refunds
• Publish the ticketing page