Rebuilding ticketing for a nationwide payments network
Abitab needed to rebuild its ticketing platform and expand it beyond the web into a broader digital ecosystem. Alabama worked from discovery and product design through architecture, web, mobile and backend capabilities to create a new platform for customers, event organizers and the teams operating it behind the scenes.
01 / The challenge
The challenge
Ticketing gets difficult when everyone wants the same ticket at the same time.
Entradas Abitab sits inside one of Uruguay's largest payment and service networks. The existing platform needed a complete rethink: better customer experience, new digital channels and a stronger foundation for future growth.
The new platform had to solve several problems together:
- 01
Traffic peaks
Demand around major events can arrive suddenly and concentrate thousands of users into the same flows.
- 02
Web + Mobile
Customers needed a consistent experience across browser, iOS and Android.
- 03
Discovery
With thousands of events, artists and venues, finding the right event had to remain fast and simple.
- 04
Operations
Internal teams needed tools to manage the content and information behind the platform.
- 05
Evolution
The architecture needed to support new channels and capabilities without rebuilding the product every time.
02 / The approach
The approach
We started with discovery. That meant working with Abitab to understand the business, existing workflows, customer journeys and the operational reality behind ticket sales.
UX research and usability testing helped identify where the existing experience created friction. Before implementation, the new product was prototyped and validated so product and engineering decisions could be made around an experience everyone could see and test.
The goal was not simply to redesign the interface. It was to define the product first and then build the platform required to support it.
03 / The solution
The solution
One ticketing ecosystem across web and mobile.
Web Platform
A new customer-facing experience for discovering events, exploring venues and artists, and moving through the ticket purchase journey. The platform was designed around a broad audience and the traffic patterns of large events.
WEB · RESPONSIVE UX · TICKETINGMobile Apps
Cross-platform applications brought the same ecosystem to iOS and Android. A shared codebase helped keep capabilities and experience consistent across channels while reducing unnecessary duplication.
IONIC · iOS · ANDROIDHeadless Content Platform
Content management was separated from the customer-facing applications through a headless architecture. Drupal APIs powered event, venue, artist and related content across the different digital channels.
DRUPAL · HEADLESS CMS · APIsSearch
Event discovery required more than a basic database query. Elasticsearch was introduced to provide fast search across events, artists, venues and calendars as the content catalogue grew.
ELASTICSEARCH · SEARCH · DISCOVERYShared Engineering Foundations
Web and mobile shared components and engineering foundations through a monorepo approach. This made it easier to keep experiences consistent and evolve capabilities across channels.
MONOREPO · SHARED COMPONENTSAnalytics & Attribution
Mobile attribution and acquisition tracking were incorporated into the platform to give the business better visibility into how users reached and interacted with the apps.
APPSFLYER · MOBILE ANALYTICSTechnology
Channels
- Web
- Ionic
- iOS
- Android
Platform
- Drupal
- Elasticsearch
- Monorepo
Analytics
- AppsFlyer
- Mobile Attribution
04 / The results
The results
From a ticketing website to a multi-channel platform. The rebuild gave Abitab a digital ticketing ecosystem spanning web and mobile, supported by shared content, search and engineering foundations.
The platform brought together the customer experience and the operational capabilities required to keep thousands of events discoverable and manageable.
- 8K+ EVENTS / YEAR
- A large and constantly changing event catalogue.
- 80K+ ACTIVE USERS
- Customers using the digital ticketing experience.
- 120K+ TICKET SALES
- Transactions handled through the platform.
- WEB + MOBILE
- One ecosystem across browser, iOS and Android.
05 / The bigger story
The bigger story
Ticketing looks straightforward until demand peaks. Then search, content, mobile, performance and the purchase journey all need to work together at exactly the same moment.
Entradas Abitab brought those pieces into one platform, combining product design, architecture and engineering around a system built for real users and real-world demand.
For Alabama, it is a good example of what Product & Platform Engineering looks like when the job starts well before the first line of code.