Stubhub

Overview of Company

Stubhub is the largest ticket marketplace in the world form the sales point of view. Basically stubhub is the place where fans buy and sell tickets of sporting, concert, live entertainment events including the one which are sold out. Stubhub reinvented the market of reselling tickets in 2000. It provides a joint for buyer and seller like flea market but over the internet. Stubhub was founded by two MBA students from Stanford University. Stubhub is now acquired by EBay which was one of the competitors previously. Before stubhub was found, there were ticket scalpers who use to buy extra tickets from Fans or ticketholders, ticket brokers. They usually show up at event in last hours to sell tickets at higher price to fans looking for last minute deals. Eric Baker and Jeff Fluhr noticed this market was growing and decided to provide a marketplace for the fans to buy and sell tickets same ways. Over the time stubhub has grown very big and earning profits every year. Stubhub even has contract with NHL, NFL, NBA, MLB, and NCAA teams to sell their tickets through Stubhub.

Business Model

Stubhub was found to provide better option to buyer and seller. Its business model is very simple. People who have extra tickets or cannot go to events list their tickets on stubhub for selling. Stubhub doesn’t charge any service fee for listing tickets like its competitors. If a ticket is sold then Stubhub will send seller information about transaction. Seller will send tickets through mail to buyer. As soon as buyer confirms the delivery, Stubhub will charge the buyer’s account for the price of tickets and then will pay seller’s account as per terms. Stubhub charges commission of 15% from seller and 10% service charge from buyer and shipping excluded. Service charge and commission is same for every transaction, never changes and if tickets are not sold, seller will just remove the listing. There is not any charge for listing which make it so easy for seller to list their tickets. They don’t have to worry about ticket not being sold. Stubhub uses FedEx as their standard shipping service provider so that it can track the shipments of ticket. That ensure the delivery of product and stubhub also has the track of tickets which make sure that buyer get the tickets. They also have Fan Protect Guarantee which makes sure that buyer gets ticket on time, get refund on cancelled shows including service charge, get product as described. Seller also has great benefits. Seller chooses their own price. Sellers get free delivery of ticket or free pick up of ticket for fans, guaranteed payment for completes order, national marketing by Stubhub, privacy protection and 7 day customer service.

Stubhub has unique features like Fan protect Guarantee, state of the art Fan Network service and 7 day customer service which helps both buyer and seller and create value for buyers and sellers

пÑ"? Stubhub guarantees the delivery of ticket by express shipping or last hours pick up counters near event.

пÑ"? Refunds on cancelled shows including shipping and handling fees.

пÑ"? No listing charges for Sellers so they can list their product easily and openly.

пÑ"? Complete privacy for seller and buyers so there is no personal contact between each other.

пÑ"? Seller can change the price of listing as per market rates and even cancel the listing if no one has bought the tickets. There is no cancellation charge either.

пÑ"? For seller shipping is always free because buyer pays the shipping.

пÑ"? Stubhub’s fan protect guarantee is always ready to solve question with quick answers helping buyers and seller creating the smooth transaction.

Entering the market

When stubhub entered the market there were few competitors but none of them were similar to one another. They all had their unique features. Ticketmaster was biggest seller of the fresh tickets and seller use to sell their tickets on EBay. EBay was treating ticket selling same as other products being sold on its website. Amazon started allowing people to sell their books and also selling the books by itself without intermediary like distributers and showroom cost. EBay also succeeded by providing small businesses a large marketplace. Stubhub also provided large marketplace to seller who has extra tickets, tickets they cannot use or part of a season ticket which they cannot use. Ticketmaster was selling ticket at retail price through phone, internet and over the counter at service centers. Customer were already complaining about the Ticketmaster’s transaction fee, convenience fee which change with the events. Online selling of tickets from EBay was not customer service oriented. Stubhub entered the market with keeping seller and buyer both in mind. Stubhub had features which were missing in their competitors. Ticket market was so depended on few retailers like Ticketmaster and ticket.com and on eBay and local scalpers for reselling. Stubhub entered in market of reselling and that was only tickets. Main focus of stubhub was to provide market for reselling the tickets. EBay buyers were having problem in ticket’s genuineness and fraud in transaction. EBay was not having control on delivery of ticket and customer’s payment so there were more chances of fraud. Soon stubhub become famous selling the tickets and then it also started having contract with teams to sell unsold tickets at sporting events. In 2007 Stubhub’s total sales was higherits total sales from 2001 to 2006. Stubhub benefited by studying customers of other business and creating whole new market for reselling.

Value Proposition

The ideal value proposition is concise and appeals to the customer's strongest decision-making drivers. Companies pay a high price when customers lose sight of the company's value proposition. Value proposition says why a consumer should buy a product or use a service. Value proposition should convince a potential consumer that one particular product or service will add more value or better solve a problem than other similar offerings. Stubhub has excelled in creating value for their business. It has earned profit in every year of its business. Profit doesn’t states the value proposition but shows customer’s dependence on company. Stubhub has unique features which increase its value. Details given in tickets up for sell, after sell service to buyer, assistance in event cancellation create good customer