Malmö
A new and accessible digital ticketing experience
Malmö Opera and Malmö Live are two prominent, large-scale cultural venues in Sweden, jointly owned by the City of Malmö and the State of Skåne. In 2021, we partnered with both organisations to address critical challenges in their online ticketing experience – including usability issues, high box office load and an urgent need for mobile and multilingual functionality.
As early collaborators on Viadukt, Substrakt’s online purchase pathway product, Malmö’s insight helped shape a user-first ecommerce experience that dramatically reduced customer friction and delivered a record-breaking on sale.
Four years on, Malmö continues to see strong online sales and fewer support calls. With bilingual features, mobile optimisation and bespoke tools for packages, add-ons and seating, Viadukt is enabling Malmö to meet the needs of local and international audiences.
The challenge
Malmö Opera and Malmö Live were experiencing widespread friction in their old custom-built sales flow. The user experience was confusing, mobile usability was poor and the solution lacked flexibility – causing large volumes of customer complaints and placing unsustainable pressure on box office teams.
- Difficult to use on mobile (90% of users began their journey there)
- Unclear and unintuitive, leading to frequent over-purchasing and login issues
- Unsupported by robust analytics, making user journey optimisation guesswork
- Built without Tessitura expertise, limiting flexibility and creating a backlog of unresolved bugs
- Limited language options, making international access to events almost impossible
Malmö needed more than just a technical fix. They needed a digital partner with cultural sector knowledge, Tessitura experience and a user-first approach.
“With Substrakt, we felt we had an opportunity to build a great sales flow from the very beginning.”
Maria Girke-Magnusson, Head of Sales and CRM, Malmö Live
The solution
We worked closely with Malmö as founding R&D partners to shape Viadukt. It now powers Malmö’s entire purchase pathway, with a range of smart features designed around user needs and operational efficiency. These have been added and optimised over the last four years.
Multilingual interface (Swedish & English)
Audiences can now switch seamlessly between languages without compromising usability – essential for reaching and engaging with international audiences.
Mobile-first, responsive design
Optimised for seat selection and check-out across devices. Over 60% of purchases are now completed on mobile, including via Swish.
Intuitive seat maps with Select Your Own Seat (SYOS) tool
Viadukt’s accessible SYOS tool improved visibility, context and user control – reducing confusion and eliminating seat selection complaints.
Flexible, user-friendly packages
Subscription-style packages are a key part of Malmö’s ticketing strategy – allowing customers to book bundles of five or more discounted performances during priority on-sales.
With Viadukt, we introduced two streamlined package types that make use of the SYOS tool:
- Fixed packages – where customers select a specific seat and keep that same seat across all performances in the bundle.
- Flex packages – where customers can pick different seats for each event as they build their package.
Viadukt’s admin panel also makes it simple for staff to configure package rules, assign eligible event and manage availability, all without technical intervention.
Smart add-ons to boost revenue
Viadukt offers a customisable add-on features, allowing Malmö to offer:
- Pre-show food and drink: customers can pre-order and know exactly where to go to collect items on the night.
- Contextual add-ons: add-ons that show only when basket contents match defined criteria, streamlining the journey.
“You redesigned the food and drink upsell with the user in mind. The feedback was so good, we rolled those changes out across the website and emails too, and saw increased restaurant bookings as a result.”
– Josefin Carlsson, former Sale Manager at Malmö Opera
Memberships made simple
Malmö Opera recently began selling memberships when they moved to v16 of Tessitura. These are fully integrated and supported in Viadukt – users can buy them directly or as an add-on at checkout (unless they’re already logged in with an active membership).
It’s a smooth, bilingual experience that supports both customer needs and Malmö’s wider revenue goals.
An ongoing partnership
Four years on, our partnership with Malmö continues to grow. Viadukt evolves with their needs while consistently delivering a seamless, accessible and multilingual online purchase experience.
“We had audiences streaming from 16 different countries and all of them bought tickets via Viadukt. If this had been a year earlier, with a Swedish-only sales flow, those audiences would have dropped off or phoned the box office – or just never booked at all.”
– Josefin, former Sale Manager at Malmö Opera