Selling vendor pitches online with Coconut Tickets

Coconut Tickets supports multiple models for selling vendor pitches online:

Fixed Layout
Measured Pitches
Front category
Area pitches
Fixed Size

Fixed layout can be used when you already have a map of the layout of all of your pitches at the event site. For example, for an event in a marquee where there is limited space you would already have a layout map of where the pitches are going to be and what size they are.

To sell Fixed Layout pitches in Coconut Tickets you first have to create the pitch layout map in the application, for which we have a visual tool. You can assign a pitch category to each pitch and this pitch category will have an associated cost. Therefore you can sell different types of pitches with different prices at the same event without having to assign a price to each and every pitch individually.

Measured pitches allow you to sell pitch “frontage” to your vendors. For example this could be used at events in a large open field or in an exhibition hall. You can define the cost per unit length and then let the vendors select how many units they want to pay for. During the online purchase there is no assignment of where the pitch is going to be in this model, that would be a decision you would make as the traders arrive.

Alternatively, if you want something like a measured pitch but you only want vendors to choose from a fixed selection of pitch widths then you could use a Front Category pitch. In this case a pitch category is defined for each pitch width required, then the vendor chooses the category he requires.

Area pitches allow the vendor to request the size of pitch required in width and depth. This is useful if you have a wide area in which to set up pitches and you can accommodate pitches of varying areas.

An alternative to Area pitches is a Fixed Size pitch. Instead of allowing vendors to choose the any width or depth they require for their pitch, with a Fixed Size pitch they can only choose from the pitch sizes that you have already created in advance.

In most cases the price of the pitch can be defined in advance. Although in some cases you may want vendors to propose how much they are prepared to pay for a pitch. Coconut Tickets also supports pitch bidding. The bids are private, like a blind auction, therefore other vendor’s don’t know what has been bid. The event manager can then review the bids received by Coconut Tickets and then award pitches to the vendors he chooses. Only when the vendor bid has been chosen can the vendor then pay for the pitch.

Regardless of pitch type the organizer can request the vendor to pay online for enhanced electrical power for an additional cost (a ladder of additional costs) or let traders continue with the default amount that is included in their pitch price.

After the trader has made his pitch choice he will need to fill in an online booking form that the event manager has designed. We have an easy tool to do this within Coconut Tickets. The minimum booking form has name/email/phone fields and you can add to that any fields you need (e.g. food standards ratings for food sellers).

During the online sales process the vendor can be offered the opportunity to upload any publicity photos he has of the merchandise he is selling. This can help qualify vendors before awarding them a pitch, or it can be used to collect their photos for your event publicity.

These event pitch sales are delivered online through Coconut Tickets with the same simplicity as public tickets sales. For example, the vendor clicks on a link on your website/social media after which they are taken to your own branded sales landing page (hosted on Coconut tickets) from which they select their pitch, fill in the form and make their payment.