Online ticket marketplace StubHub, which has been pursuing many a partnership this year, is collaborating with online payments Visa Checkout as the holidays come to a close.

News of the partnership comes during what is predicted to be the busiest online shopping season ever, with 47 percent of shoppers planning to complete their shopping online, according to a report from Visa. Its Visa Checkout service, which touts a quick, convenience transaction experience, will help StubHub achieve cleaner transactions during the final days of the holiday season, when last-minute gifts in crunch time will make a smooth retail offering of paramount importance.

“Fans can now spend more time picking great seats for a show or game and less time filling out payment information—giving them a fast, easy and secure way to pay online,” said Lara Balazs, senior vice president and head of North America marketing at Visa. “Also, to celebrate this new partnership, fans can receive $20 off one order of $100 or more when they pay using Visa Checkout on StubHub.com and enter the discount code VISACHECKOUT, until December 31, and while supplies last.”

Visa Checkout
Stubhub is the latest to join the payment platform’s merchant partners, which number well above 300,000 retailers and online merchants.

Earlier this year, cross-platform measurement company ComScore undertook research on Visa Checkout, and found that the platform is more effective than other checkout options at driving conversion, which means that shoppers who start a checkout process are more likely to complete it.

Visa’s own research found that Visa Checkout customers are increasingly making purchases with mobile devices, with 45 percent of Visa Checkout shoppers using a smartphone, tablet, or other mobile device in making an online purchase during last year’s holiday period.

The time constraints of the holiday season’s late period were more than likely a contributor to StubHub’s motivations in partnering with Visa checkout. On the other end, Visa is probably reacting to research from its new partner, which found that giving experience gifts— tickets to sporting events, concerts, theater shows and other live entertainment—is on the rise.

“Recent data from StubHub show that millennials value experience over material goods, so as millennials are becoming come of age and gaining more purchasing power, we’re seeing the idea of ‘experience giving’ grow,” Ms. Balazs said. “In the new ad we debuted announcing StubHub as a Visa Checkout merchant, we allude to this idea of experience giving, as a son uses Visa Checkout to quickly purchase tickets to a game as a present to his dad.”

Holiday partnership
StubHub has been participating in a variety of maneuvers in order to bolster its position as one of the top online ticket sellers and retailers. It recently collaborated with the National Basketball Association’s Philadelphia 76ers, integrating primary and secondary ticket sales into a mobile hub for all Sixers ticket transactions including personalization and bundled services unavailable in traditional grey market arenas (see story).

And Ticketmaster is looking to a mobile solution to alleviate widespread concerns about fraud in both primary and tertiary markets, aggressively driving for mobile ticket adoption to hedge against it (see story).

“Ticketmaster and Fandango are also Visa Checkout retail merchants, offering their customers a fast and secure way to pay online,” Ms. Balazs said. “These merchants are great partners for Visa Checkout, and we’re constantly striving to add the more online retailers to our group of merchants, giving fans more places to shop using Visa Checkout.”