A ticket type classifies a ticket — General Admission, VIP, Press, Season Pass. Each ticket you add to an event becomes a variant on the event’s Shopify product, and its ticket type controls how that ticket behaves at check-in.
Ticket types are shared across events
A ticket type is a reusable object, not specific to one event. Renaming a ticket type changes its name on every event that uses it. To name something differently per event, create a separate ticket type for each.
Split into separate Shopify products
By default, an event is one Shopify product with a variant per ticket type. To make each ticket type its own product — with its own product page and embed code — check Split into separate products? on the event form.
This option is only available when:
- The event is new and unsaved. It cannot be changed after the event is saved.
- You have at least two tickets, each assigned a different ticket type.
If the checkbox is disabled, confirm both conditions.
Per-ticket-type settings
Open a ticket’s Edit ticket type panel to configure how the ticket behaves at check-in:
| Setting | What it controls |
|---|---|
| When can an attendee be checked in? | Scan timing. Defaults to Anytime (no requirement). Other options restrict scanning to the event window, the same day, or a set time before the event starts. |
| Transferable? | Lets a customer transfer the ticket to a different name and email. |
| Customer can edit ticket after download? | When you collect attendee info (name, email, photo), uncheck this to lock the info once the ticket is downloaded. |
Each ticket carries a unique QR code, generated automatically.
Season passes
A pass is a ticket type with extra scan controls. These appear on the Edit ticket type panel for a pass:
- Restrict total uses? — sets Total Uses, the number of scans allowed across all dates.
- Restrict uses per date? — sets Uses Per Date. Use this for a once-per-day pass; the limit is per event date, so the event needs a date for each day you are open.
- Restrict validity period? — expires the pass a set time after issue or first scan.
- Restrict days of week? — limits scanning to chosen days.
There is no fixed calendar end-date field. For a pass that should stop working at year end, archive the event — archived events make every pass on them unusable. A pass also cannot be scanned past the event’s last date.
Tickets and passes that aren’t for sale
You can keep a ticket or pass off your store while still issuing it yourself, for comps, staff, sponsors, or free passes. You don’t need a separate event. Either way, you issue it with a Shopify draft order: add the ticket or pass, set its price to $0, and mark it paid.
There are two ways to hide it.
Remove a variant from your sales channels
In Shopify admin, open the event’s product and find the Publishing column in the Variants table. Click it on the variant you want to hide, turn off the channels you don’t want it sold on (for example Online Store), and click Done. Each ticket on each date is its own variant, so repeat this for every date you want hidden.
This works on any product, including an event’s main ticket product, and you can change it at any time. Event Ticketing doesn’t change a variant’s channels when the event syncs. Dates added later, such as new dates on a recurring event, are new variants and start on all the product’s channels, so hide those as they appear, or use the next option instead.
If your event form shows a Publishing option on each ticket, setting it there does the same thing and also covers dates added later. A ticket set to anything other than Same as product is managed by Event Ticketing, which reapplies that setting on every sync and overrides changes made in Shopify admin.
Put it on its own product and set it to Unlisted
Shopify product status applies to the whole product, so what you hide this way has to be on its own product:
- Passes are already their own product, separate from the event’s tickets.
- Tickets share one product by default. To give a ticket its own product, assign it its own ticket type and check Split into separate products? when you create the event. The split can’t be turned on after the event is saved.
In Shopify admin, open that product and set its status to Unlisted. Event Ticketing doesn’t change a product’s status after creating it, so this setting stays in place when the event syncs, and it covers every date, including ones added later.
An Unlisted product doesn’t appear in your store’s search, collections, or recommendations, but anyone with the product’s direct link can still buy it. If that matters, don’t share the link.
Comp, VIP, and sponsor tickets
To issue individual free tickets to staff, press, or sponsors without a public $0 variant, create a Shopify draft order, add the ticket variant, set its price to $0, and send an invoice or mark it paid. The order stays in Shopify admin and never appears on the storefront. See Create an order.
For an event that is free for everyone, set the ticket price to 0 instead.
Related articles
- Adjusting inventory and prices — add a ticket type, change a price, run early-bird tiers.
- Purchase limits — minimum and maximum quantities per order.
- Ticket delivery setup — fulfillment preference and getting tickets to customers.
- Storefront visibility — publishing the event product to your store.
- POS setup — selling and checking in tickets in person.
- Booking fees — adding a per-ticket fee at checkout.
- Transferring tickets — moving a ticket to a new attendee.
- Add-ons and bundling — combining tickets and extras.
FAQ
Should I delete an unused ticket type or archive it?
Archive it. Deleting a ticket type can remove tickets associated with it. Archiving keeps the records and hides the type from new events.
Can I run early-bird pricing that switches automatically on a date?
No. There is no scheduled on-sale or end-sale date for a price tier. Add the currently-selling tier as a ticket, then swap it for the next tier when the price changes. Because each tier is its own variant with its own SKU, this also tracks sales per tier. If buyers of an early tier get something extra at the door, give that tier its own ticket type so staff can identify it on the scanner.
Can I stop the purchase-confirmation email for one ticket type?
Yes — a per-ticket-type setting suppresses the confirmation email sent from noreply@guestmanager.com for that type. Customers can still download from the order status page.
Can I hide one ticket type from the storefront?
Yes. Remove its variants from your sales channels in Shopify admin, or put it on its own product and set that product to Unlisted. See Tickets and passes that aren’t for sale.
Why does the Shopify order show a different name than my ticket type?
The order shows the variant name as it existed when the order was placed. Renaming a ticket type later does not rewrite past orders, so the two can differ.
A ticket type is missing from the attendee filter dropdown — where is it?
The dropdown is truncated for performance. Start typing the name to surface it.
How do I apply QR-coded tickets to orders placed before installing Event Ticketing?
Use Shopify’s order editing to swap the old product variant for the Event Ticketing ticket variant on the existing order.
Can I put a Zoom link or virtual-event details on a ticket?
There is no built-in field for this.
How do I stop a specific customer from buying?
Block the customer in Shopify admin. That is the only available control.
