The world today is expanding vastly in every aspect of their life via innovative technologies and intuitive mobile apps. And a common aim of every mobile app available is- To make our lives easier. Same is the case with online ticket booking app. For quite some time, the online booking industry has gained immense popularity because of the flexibility of the process and intuitive interfaces developed by the service provider. From events and movies, to travel and stays, these smart ticket booking apps have made the tiresome booking task, simple. And because of this ease in the process, the online ticket booking industry is expected to generate a whopping revenue of USD 67.99 billion by the end of 2025. So, if you are planning to invest in online ticket booking industry, then we’ve got you covered. In this article, we’ll be covering all the aspects that you need to know to design a ticket booking app like StubHub, and how to scale it up with a robust monetization model. So, let’s start from the starting

What is StubHub?

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StubHub is an online ticket booking app that is smartly developed to help people buy tickets for various events, and shows like movies, sports, travel, plays, and so on. It is a safe and secure platform, with a brilliant interface that allows users to explore events and book tickets for a particular location. Some of the interactive Stunhub’s industry firsts include online booking, 360-degree virtual view of the seating arrangement, effective price recommendation, the best value of tickets, and so on. In exchange for all those interactive services, StubHub demands a negotiable charge from your transactions.

Why are Ticket Booking Apps Popular?

In today’s rigorous lifestyle, people don’t have much time to spend on themselves. So going out to the physical location and booking tickets for their favourite show might sound a tedious task to them. That’s where the online ticket booking apps come into play. These ticket booking mobile apps offer a flexible functionality to the users and save them from the hassle of booking tickets from a physical location. For instance, movie buffs can go online, search out for their favourite movie, virtually view their seating arrangement, and can book tickets accordingly. Moreover, these ticket booking apps have multiple payment options to facilitate digital payments and provide secure payment options to the user. Due to immense flexibility and user-focused features, the online ticket booking apps have gained a considerable fan base in the competitive market. The popularity of these mobile booking apps is so much that StubHub alone has generated a whopping revenue of $1.2 Billion in the year 2019. So, it is certain now that ticket booking apps are gaining quite a popularity in the market. 

What Are The Essential Features To Apps Like StubHub?Image Source

An ideal ticket booking app has certain features that simplify the tedious task of ticket booking. For your convenience, we have categorized the features of ticket booking app into two parts, viz., the user panel and the admin panel. 

User Panel

1. Login/Signup

One of the essential features of any app, the Login/Signup panel enables the user to access the mobile app while using either his email or his contact number.

2. Choose Location

This feature will provide a list of events or shows happening at your preferred location. Users have to put their current (selected) area, and they are done.

3. Homepage

After successfully entering the location, the user will be directed to the home page of the app, where he can the details of all the events happening near him/her.

4. Show Details

Once the user has selected a movie or a play of his/her choice, then this option will provide them all the details of their desired show like name, ratings, language, star cast, etc. 

5. Booking Window

This panel will help the users to seamlessly book a ticket by tapping on the desired event or show. The users can view the show timings, pick specific seats, or can select a theater (for a movie) very conveniently.

6. Payment

This essential feature will provide well-integrated payment wallets to pay for the bookings done by the user.

7. Cancel Tickets

An important feature to add in your mobile app is to Cancel Tickets. This feature will enable the user to easily cancel the tickets and manage the change in plans with a single tap.

8. Ratings

The user should be able to give ratings and reviews so that others can benefit from that.

Admin Panel

1. Login

Like users, the admins too can quickly login to the portal by registering themselves on the mobile app.

2. Intuitive Dashboards

The dashboard will give all the relevant details to the admins like listed movies, total events, total earnings, and full bookings. The panel will also provide the necessary stats filtered based on data and date-range.

3. Manage Users

While using this feature, the admins can easily view the list of all the users active on the app. Moreover, the admin can also add or remove any existing user via this feature.

4. Invoice Management

This panel will enable the admin to efficiently manage and process invoices for the bookings made by the user. They can also track the payment made through this feature.

5. Manage Content

The admin, while managing all the users, can also control the content of his/her app using this feature. The content will include both the text, as well as the images.

6. Report and Analysis

An essential feature that will generate visual rich reports for various criteria and will access performance based on analytics.

7. Offers and Discounts

An interactive feature that will design and manage various offers and discounts for the users to make their booking experience fun.

8. Connect to Customers

That is an inbuilt feature that will help admins to connect them with the users seamlessly. 

Besides all these basic innovative features, you should also include some advanced features that will make you stand out from the competition.  

Advanced Functionality of Apps Like StubHub

1. Smart Search

This feature adds comfort in the search process by offering suggestions to the user based on their search history, or nearby available options. Also, after the application of various filters like price and language, it proves a beneficial tool for the users. 

2. Integrated Calendar

This feature enables the user to manage their schedules and track their plans while booking in advance.

3. Google Map Integration

That is one of the most beneficial features for the users. Using Google maps, the users can seamlessly navigate to their destinations while selecting the most optimized routes.

4. Global Currency Support

In this era of digital advancement, it is nearly impossible for the apps to gain popularity buy only serving the local clients. So to target global audiences, your app should also support multi-currency along with multi payments, and multi-language.

5. Customer Support

Excellent customer support is the backbone of a successful mobile app. So besides an online booking platform, your app must also have a unique online support system to please your customers.

6. Cloud Storage Integration

While using an online ticket booking app, it is vital to store user’s sensitive data at a safe and secure environment. That’s where cloud-based storage can prove beneficial to you.

Let’s now jump directly to the Technology stack associated with the mobile app development.

Technology Stack to Develop Apps Like StubHub

Tech stack is necessary to get an estimate about the technology associated with the project development and also to get an idea about the cost and time estimations of the project development. 

• Log Management – ELK stash and Logstash

• UI Development – ReactJS and BootStrapJS

• Server – Java, Spring Boot, Swagger

• Payment API – Paypal, Stripe, Square

• Push Notification – RabbitMQ

• Code Repository – git

• Logging – Log4J

• Load Balancer – Nginx

Team Structure Required to Develop Apps Like StubHub

To create an extensive ticket booking mobile app with all the above functionalities, you must have a dedicated team in your organization. If you do not have the required team at your marketplace, then you can also contact a good mobile app development company. Your team must consist-

• Project Manager

• iOS Developer/Android Developer

• UI/UX Designer

• QA Testers

• Back-end Developer

What is the Cost of Developing Apps Like StubHub?

The cost of developing a ticket booking mobile app depends on several factors that we’ll discuss one by one.

1. Platform Opted

There are two major platforms for mobile app development, viz., iOS and Android. Both these platforms have their respective features and costings. So, you can choose one of the platforms for app development. Majority of people often choose both the platforms to target more audiences.

2. Features Selected

As discussed above, there are a lot of basic as well as advanced features for your mobile app. The development cost keeps on increasing as you select m number of features. For a low budget firm, it is advisable to select only the essential functions to compete with existing apps.

3. Design Aspect

There is no use of how many features your app has if it is not user-friendly. So the design aspect mainly focuses on building a user-friendly platform besides providing an interactive appearance. 

4. Developer’s Cost

The development cost generally varies as per the geographical landscape. Moreover, the big and reputed firms are obviously going to charge more as compared to small firms. So, you should always try to go for a quality-focused firm. It may be possible that they charge a bit higher than other firms, but to sustain in this competitive market, you must go for quality over price. 

Conclusion

The ticket booking industry will surely be the next big thing in the future. So, you should try to leverage it by investing in a ticket booking mobile app. Although developing a mobile app is not that easy task and also requires a substantial amount of money, but it pays off with handsome rewards if you know how to scale it with a robust monetization model.

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