Ticketing — online vs. counter

We sell the same ticket through two channels: the guest either buys ahead from home on their phone, or walks up to the counter. Technically the two channels are the same SKU, the same stock counter, the same VAT rate — but experientially they are two different worlds.

Online channel — pre-purchased QR voucher

By 2026 most guests expect to be able to book ahead. At a downtown thermal bath the Saturday queue at the counter runs 25–40 minutes — online tickets eliminate that entirely. The guest:

1. Picks the ticket on the venue's site (type + date + optionally a time slot).
2. Pays by card (Barion / SimplePay / Stripe — adapted to the market).
3. Receives a QR voucher by email as a PDF and as Apple Wallet / Google Wallet.
4. On arrival walks straight to the gate, scans the QR, walks in. Never queues at the counter.

The voucher is single-use; the gate consumes it. If it has expired (e.g. date-bound and the guest came another day), the gate fail-secure window rejects it and displays: "Expired: 2026-05-04 — please see reception."

Counter channel — cash, card, NAV-compliant invoice

Not everyone buys ahead. Older guests, spontaneous visitors and groups still pay at the counter. The Lunda POS module:

• Cash — drawer open, change-fund logging, end-of-day close.
• Card — touchscreen integration with Worldline / OTP terminal, 1–2s response.
• NAV-compliant invoice — issued in 30s, email or printed. NTAK reporting automatic.
• Split payment — cash + card mix, common for group purchases.

The counter transaction uses exactly the same SKU as the online purchase. One shared stock counter: if there are 200 day-tickets for today and 180 have sold online, the cashier can still sell 20. Overbooking only happens when the two channels don't write to the same counter — exactly the bug the integrated system avoids.

The 60/40 split

Our 2022 customer average: 30% online, 70% counter. Our 2026 average: 60% online, 40% counter. Three drivers:

1. Queue avoidance — 30-minute Saturday peak queue. Once a guest tries pre-purchase, they never queue again.
2. Wallet integration — Apple Wallet / Google Wallet from 2024 made it trivial to get the QR onto a phone screen.
3. Marketing-driven push — many venues give 5–10% off online tickets, which guests value.

When should the counter stay?

We don't want to retire the counter. It persists for several reasons:

• Spontaneous visitor — not everyone plans ahead. Tourists, families, groups typically decide on site.
• Group discount — 20+ person groups get bespoke pricing, not worth putting online.
• Cash-paying guests — small town, older demographic, where card usage is also low.
• Vouchers, coupons — paper promotional coupons only the counter can accept.

A healthy split between the two channels is 60/40 or 70/30. Push for 90/10 and you risk losing spontaneous guests to a competitor. Stay at 30/70 and you make your own guests queue unnecessarily.

Lesson

Ticketing is not an online-vs-counter question, but a question of how to integrate the two. Lunda builds on a shared SKU, shared stock counter, shared price list — the two channels are the same system, just with a different physical surface.