Perch App for Surf Lesson Sales

Josh at Whitby Surf School contacted me in 2018 when he took over the business. He wanted a website through which he could advertise is surf equipment hire and surf school business. As part of the project he wanted to be able to sell tickets for lessons online and have an easy way for visitors to the website to see what events and activities were coming up.

I built Josh a bespoke Perch app - similar to the Perch app I built for Whitby Brewery. The app allows Josh to add events to a calendar, which is then displayed on the website. Visitors can navigate through the months, find an activity or event they want to buy tickets for and then complete the process using their credit or debit card via Stripe payments.

Watch a Video

Watch this quick video to find out more about the project:

Perch App Interface

The Perch app interface allows Josh to view his events in date order, see how many tickets for each activity he has sold, enter manual ticket sales and edit or cancel events if required:

Front-End Interface

Visitors to the website can easily navigate the calendar of events on the website. Available events are shown in blue on the calendar and clicking on any event will open the ticket sales pop-up window allowing the visitor to choose how many tickets they want to buy and completing the purchase with their card.

A confirmation message is shown to the customer after a successful payment and emails are sent to both the customer and the owner to confirm the ticket sale. Josh can easily see who has purchased tickets to each event via Perch.

The Benefits of Bespoke Apps

There are lots of benefits to building bespoke apps like this. There are many online ticket sales apps and websites - but developing something bespoke ensures you remain in control over the process. The customer journey is under our control, from beginning to end, and there's no need for a customer to leave your website in order to make a purchase.

Also, most event management systems charge a commission on each ticket purchased. This is often quite a large percentage of the ticket value - or a lower percentage along with a regular fee for using the service. When you build something bespoke there is an up-front cost, but the running costs are greatly reduced, meaning bespoke software often works out more cost effective in the long run.

Finally, the app can be further developed to add extra functionality which means you're not dependant on a third-party provider offering the functionality you require.