ISORG Mini-Research Project

Link:Manchester United - TICKETS AND TRAVEL

Introduction

Manchester United Football Club ( MUFC ) is an English football club, based at the Old Trafford stadium in Trafford, Greater Manchester, and is arguably the most popular football club in the world, with over 330 million supporters worldwide. As a member of the premier league, the club will play against 19 different clubs for each season. All clubs have different ticketing platform for football fans to obtain ticket information and to purchase match tickets from the club’s official websites.



Tickets & Travel

The tickets & travel section has various online services which include ticket application, ticket price,ticket news,seating plan,hospitality,hotel and ticket packages,ticket exchange and mobile travel information for their fans. It is every MUFC fan’s dream to support their heroes at the Old Trafford stadium. The manutd.com system will cater to the needs of the worldwide football fans. The club introduced different hotel & ticket packages for the fans to select according to their preferences. As it helps the customers to save the trouble of booking the air ticket, accommodation as well as the match ticket from various sources. This system also allows the customers to purchase tickets for different matches on different match day.



Payment scheme

Customers can only make payments via credit cards like Visa, MasterCard and American Express.





Advantages of paying with Credit card:
- Payment is traceable.
- It is immediate and convenient.
- It provides limited liability coverage. Credit card companies typically provide some level of identity and purchase protection.

The website requires fans to register for membership and login to purchase the tickets.
The transaction between the system is private and protected where our personal information will be kept confidential within the 128 bit secure socket layer encryption. It will convert the information like credit card numbers, name and address into bits of code then transmitted over the Internet in a secure way. They used verisign for digital certificate solutions for transmitting the information over Internet. A small padlock will normally appears right at the bottom of the screen shows that the connection is secure. A secure website URL will begins with 'https://' where a secure server is used for the transaction of data.

Design

This site is mainly for individual fans from worldwide. Thus, it adopts a Business to Consumer (B2C) model where it provides one stop service from travel to accommodation and most importantly the tickets for the football match.

There are 4 main sections under ticket enquiry to show ticket applications, ticket prices, ticket news, and seats views. The ticket news will indicate the ticket sales information, as some tickets are sold on balloting basis or only available to certain club members. The seat views show the seating plan as the following.

It will show the real time view of pitch when you click on the seat.

View from North East Quadrant

There is a Ticket Exchange section for Manchester United ticket holders and members to buy and sell match ticket under a safe online platform. This considered as a consumer to consumer (C2C) design model as consumers can perform transactions in a transparent and efficient system. Buyer can search and select the ticket that he or she would like to buy. Buyer will need to place the order after logining into the website, the system will send the confirmation email to the buyer. Buyer can collect the ticket by mail or pick up at the stadium.


There is online mega store where consumers can purchase the latest season club products like the football kits. Consumers can browse through the products by filtering according types, price and descriptions. Simply add the desired product into the basket after checking the size. New customers have to enter the information and payment details in the order form. Confirmation email will be sent to the purchaser after e-payment.



Strength


-The website collaborated with the airlines, hotels and even restaurants for the travel package. Choices of budget to 5 star luxury hotels in and around Manchester and Hard Rock Cafe meal vouchers are provided. The collaborations will ensure better service quality assurance and competitive price for the consumers. Discounted Manchester United house mega store shopping voucher are given to the customer. This will definitely enhance the sales of club products. ManUtd.com is able to cater for international consumer with the currency converter.

-The objective of the online mega store is to offer the customers a wide variety of Manchester united licensed merchandise over the Internet at competitive prices. Worldwide delivery is available with full track and trace availability.

-The site is available in four languages (English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages) as a result it is accessible to a huge fan base out there.


Weakness

-Payment options were limited to credit card holders. Users without it will not be able to purchase tickets online and this may draw them away from future online transactions in manutd.com.

- There is a 2% charge applies on all credit card transactions.


- In the payment screen, one must enter the entire credit card number for payment .As a result, the card number maybe capture by hackers, who are intruding into the site.

-One must be a member of One United to purchase the match tickets

- Customers will be allocated seats in the home fans area and if you are deemed to be a fan of the opposing team, you maybe ejected from the ground.