Studio Raconteur recently built a custom WordPress ticketing solution for The Style Social fashion show in Hickory, North Carolina. The new system allowed the organizer to cut ticket transaction fees by 65 percent and maximize every dollar in revenue.
How I Reduced a Fashion Show’s Transaction Costs by 65%
The Challenge: Expensive Transaction Fees
Ticketing platforms like Eventbrite are the default choice for many event organizers. Eventbrite processes more than 90 million tickets per year and has strong brand recognition and consumer trust. For a new event like The Style Social, relying on that trust could have been the safer option.
Yet here’s the problem:
Eventbrite charges significant fees on every ticket sold. Those fees either drive up the cost for guests or reduce the organizer’s revenue, and when your goal is to generate as much revenue as possible, neither of those outcomes is acceptable.
Eventbrite Costs
Eventbrite advertises itself as free, but for paid tickets the platform charges fees:
- 3.7% + $1.79 service fee per ticket
- 2.9% payment processing fee per order.
Organizers can pass these fees onto buyers, but our ticket prices were already at the upper limit for a community-focused event with only a 10-week build. Passing on the fees would have increased ticket costs noticeably, potentially limiting sales.
Alternatively, absorbing the fees ourselves would have cut into revenue on every ticket sold. Even small amounts per ticket add up quickly across the full event.
That’s why I opted for a custom, Stripe-powered ticketing solution, which reduced fees dramatically while keeping ticket prices affordable and maximizing revenue.
The Stripe Solution
Stripe charges a much simpler 2.9% + 30c per transaction. By paying those fees, we were able to avoid raising ticket costs for buyers and still generate more revenue.
The Technical Details
The challenge was simple to state but tricky to solve: how could I integrate Stripe into the WordPress site I built for the event without relying on expensive third-party tools?
The solution was to use Forminator, a flexible form builder with built-in conditional logic and Stripe integration.
I created a main ticketing form and placed it directly beneath the pricing table. That way, visitors scrolling down the page could immediately purchase tickets without navigating to a separate checkout page. Fewer clicks meant fewer opportunities to lose a customer.
The form allowed guests to select from three ticket types and choose their quantity. To handle the math, I used Forminator’s Custom Calculations field, which multiplied the ticket price by the selected quantity to generate a running total. Payments were then processed securely through Stripe.
To simplify the process for customers, I also created three additional pages – one per ticket type – where the type was pre-selected and buyers only needed to choose a quantity; the form handled the calculations automatically.
All forms were, of course, styled and formatted in keeping with the colors, typography, and overall branding of the event website.
Security and Data Privacy
All transactions on the site were handled through Stripe, a PCI-compliant payment processor trusted worldwide. No sensitive card information was stored on the WordPress server, and all form submissions were transmitted over secure HTTPS connections.
Using Forminator with Stripe meant the site itself never touched raw credit card data, reducing the risk of breaches while providing a smooth, secure checkout experience for customers.
The only customer information retained – name and email address – was stored in a secure third-party platform, separate from the website. This allowed the client to follow up with ticket buyers after the event and keep them informed about future initiatives on the North Carolina Fashion website, without compromising security or privacy.
By avoiding local storage of sensitive data and relying on secure platforms, we delivered a safe, compliant, and customer-friendly ticketing experience while still enabling meaningful post-event engagement.
The Result: 65% Saving on Ticket Transaction Costs
Forgoing the brand recognition and in-built consumer trust of a platform like Eventbrite in favor of a custom solution on a brand new site nobody had heard of was always going to be risk.
Still, I had enough faith in our event organizer -and in my own ability to successfully promote a fashion show– that I knew it would pay off.
And it did.
The Style Social fashion show was a success, with 75 tickets sold, strong attendance, and positive feedback. What’s more, by avoiding third-party ticketing platforms, I reduced our transaction costs by a total 65%, meaning significantly more revenue than we would have earned with Eventbrite.
Want to reduce transaction fees and streamline ticket sales for your next event? Let’s talk about creating a solution tailored to your needs.