Why Pre-Orders Make Sense for Touring Artists and Venues

Pre-ordering has already proven its value at large music festivals, where it helps reduce queues, increase revenue, and improve the guest experience.

But the same concept works just as well for touring artists and venues.

Every concert already has something most retailers don’t: a known audience arriving at a specific time with strong intent to spend. The opportunity is simply to capture some of that demand before fans even arrive at the venue.

Turning Ticket Holders Into Early Customers

Once a fan has bought a ticket, you already have a direct connection to a highly engaged audience. By sending event-specific micro-shops to ticket holders in the days or hours before the show, artists and venues can allow fans to reserve items in advance.

These shops can be distributed through email campaigns, ticket confirmations, or CRM integrations, giving fans an easy way to pre-order merchandise, drinks, or special items tied to the event.

Better Inventory Planning

Pre-orders give promoters, venues, and touring teams early demand insights.

Instead of guessing how many hoodies, posters, or drinks to stock, teams can see what fans are actually buying before doors open. This helps reduce overstock, avoid running out of popular items, and optimize merchandise and F&B planning across multiple shows on a tour.

Skip the Line with Dedicated Pickup

At the venue, pre-orders can be collected at a dedicated pickup point, allowing fans to skip traditional queues.

Fans simply scan their code and collect their items in seconds. This improves the fan experience while also reducing pressure on merchandise and bar lines.

Revenue Before Doors Open

Pre-orders also allow artists and venues to start generating revenue days before the event takes place.

This provides better forecasting, earlier cash flow, and clearer insights into which products are most popular with fans.

The Future of Event Commerce

As the live entertainment industry evolves, commerce is moving earlier in the fan journey. Instead of waiting until fans arrive at the venue, organizers can engage ticket holders before the event and offer them a faster, more convenient experience.

For fans, it means less waiting and more time enjoying the show.

For artists and venues, it means better planning, higher revenue, and valuable insights into fan demand.

Festivals Are Missing a Major Revenue Opportunity in Pre-Sales with their ticketing platforms



Ticket conversion rates are dropping while production costs continue to rise. That makes pre-event revenue streams more important than ever for festivals and live events.

Based on what we’ve seen working with festivals across Europe, a few simple principles can make a big difference.

1. Sell add-ons when guests are ready to buy

Many festivals try to sell add-ons at the same time as the ticket purchase, sometimes months before the event. At that point most fans are only focused on securing their ticket.

The real buying window often happens closer to the event, when guests start planning their stay. Making offers available through your app, website, and social channels allows guests to easily purchase add-ons when they are actually ready.

2. Keep pre-sales open as long as possible

At several festivals we worked with last summer, up to 60% of all pre-sales happened in the final 48 hours before the event.

Despite this, many events close pre-sales weeks in advance because it’s difficult to transfer orders from the ticketing system to suppliers operating onsite. Keeping pre-sales open longer captures demand when it is at its highest.

3. Work with suppliers to create strong offers

Successful pre-sales are built around services that make the guest experience easier — things like equipment rentals, lockers, charging solutions, or other convenience services.

When the offers are relevant and easy to buy from a mobile phone, guests are much more likely to purchase before the event.

New in Preo: Campaign tools, API access and smarter guest communication

Event commerce does not stop when a guest places an order.

For many events, the most important moments happen later: in the days before the event, when guests are planning what to bring; on arrival day, when thousands of people need to pick up products; during the event, when weather changes, rental equipment needs to be returned, or a relevant offer can still improve the guest experience.

That is why we have released a new set of campaign tools in Preo.

Communicate with guests when it actually matters

With our new campaign tool, event organisers and suppliers can now communicate with guests based on what they have purchased, rented or still need to do.

This makes it possible to send more relevant messages at the right time, instead of relying on broad announcements or manual follow-ups.

You can use campaigns to:

• Remind guests to pick up their orders
• Notify renters who have not returned equipment
• Alert tent renters in case of weather changes
• Trigger upsell opportunities at the right moment
• Send practical information to specific guest segments

For guests, this means better information and fewer missed details. For organisers and suppliers, it means fewer support questions, smoother operations and more opportunities to drive additional revenue before and during the event.

More than marketing

The campaign tool is not only built for sales.

A big part of event commerce is operational communication. A guest who has rented a tent, reserved a locker or bought a product for pickup needs clear information at the right moment. If they miss that information, it often creates extra pressure on onsite teams.

With campaigns, Preo helps teams stay proactive instead of reactive.

A reminder before pickup can reduce queues. A return notification can improve rental handling. A weather alert to tent renters can create a better guest experience. And a targeted upsell can be sent when it is actually useful, not weeks before the guest is thinking about the event.

Opening up Preo as an API

Another important update is that we are now opening up our developer documentation, making it easier for other teams to build on top of Preo.

This is an important step in making Preo more flexible and integrated with the wider event-tech ecosystem.

Developers can now explore how to work with Preo data and functionality, including:

• Retrieving transactions
• Connecting Preo with external systems
• Working with wallet functionality
• Building custom integrations into festival apps
• Creating more tailored guest experiences around orders, pickup and fulfilment

You can find the developer documentation here:

https://docs.preo.live/integration/intro

How to integrate pre-ordering into your festival app

Most festivals already have a powerful sales channel in their guests’ pockets: the official event app.
Whether the app is built by Appmiral, Leap Event Technology, WMT digital (Aloompa) FestApp or another supplier, it is often where guests return in the final weeks before the event to check the programme, maps, practical information and arrival details.

That makes it a natural place for pre-ordering.

Here's a few tips and tricks to enhance your experience.

1. Add product cards to the home screen

The app home screen is valuable space.

In the weeks leading up to the festival, guests are opening the app more often. They are checking schedules, planning arrival and thinking about what they need to bring.

This is the right moment to show products such as lockers, mobile charging, camping equipment, cold drinks, parking, merchandise or rentals.

Many event apps already support home screen banners, cards or promoted content blocks. These can link directly to a Preo shop or a specific product category, so guests can move from interest to checkout in just a few taps.

The important thing is visibility. A clear product card on the home screen will usually perform better than a shop link hidden in a menu.

Example: Down The Rabbit Hole App made with Appmiral

2. Make mobile payment fast

Once guests click through, the checkout needs to be quick.

Most pre-orders happen on mobile, close to the event, so payment friction matters. Guests should be able to use the payment methods they already trust, such as iDEAL, MobilePay, Apple Pay, Google Pay or card payments.

With Preo, festivals can enable local and mobile-first payment methods, making it easier for guests to complete the purchase without unnecessary steps.

A smooth payment flow is one of the simplest ways to increase conversion.


3. Add a wallet inside the app

The best mobile experience does not stop after checkout.

With Preo’s API, festivals and app suppliers can show a wallet directly inside the event app. Guests can see their purchased products, view order details, display a QR code and check whether products are ready for pickup or already collected.

This removes the need for guests to search through emails, PDFs or printed confirmations.

At the festival, they simply open the app, show the QR code and staff can scan it using the Preo scanner app. For rentals, deposits, lockers, drinks or campsite services, this creates a cleaner flow for both guests and onsite teams.

Example: Smukfest App with wallet integration

A natural extension of the festival app

By combining home screen promotion, fast mobile payments and an in-app wallet, festivals can create a much smoother pre-ordering experience.

Guests discover products where they already spend attention, pay with the methods they prefer and access everything in one place during the event.

Most festivals already invest in an official app.

Preo helps turn that app into a stronger sales channel before the event — and a better operational tool onsite.