60 Orders per second: How Ultra Events scaled their business with Woo

Have you ever wanted to challenge yourself to learn a new scary skill? Ultra Events offers everyday people the opportunity to sign up for eight weeks of free training to learn boxing, MMA fighting, or stand-up comedy — and then perform their new skill on a big stage, at a glamorous event, in front of as many as 1,000 people. 

Ultra Events has a unique user journey: Participants sign on for eight weeks of free training to prepare them for their final event, whether that’s a boxing match, an MMA fight, or a stand-up comedy performance. After that eight weeks is up, participants are asked to commit to selling at least 10 tickets to friends and family to come out and watch their event live. 

The UK-based company launched in 2009 with Ultra White Collar Boxing in Derby, UK as their first event. Fast-forward a decade, and Ultra Events entered the ecommerce world, selling tickets online via their website for the first time in October 2019. Ashley Gordon, Technical Operations Manager at Ultra Events, helped them set up a Woo store. As a self-taught developer who learned WooCommerce for fun a few years before, he chose Woo for its simplicity, and his own familiarity with it. 

Initially, about six months prior to that first sale on their website, Ultra Events began their foray into online sales using Eventbrite. However, their service was inadequate and cost-prohibitive. Switching to Woo allowed them to significantly enhance and tailor their site. “With the help of various plugins like Tickera, we were able to get up and running fairly quickly,” Ashley says. “It was a sliding scale move, starting with our smaller events and testing the setup, before moving everything over.”

Today, their business has seen tremendous year-over-year growth in sales, including tripling their sales after COVID-19, and seeing up to 60 orders per second during peak selling periods. One hundred percent of tickets are sold through their Woo store.

Industries: Events, Sports

Key products:  WooCommerce

Key results:

• Consistently sees double-digit YoY growth in sales.
• Increased sales by 500% in four years.
• Processes up to 60 orders per second during peak event periods.
• Has raised more than £37 million for charity.

Other products used:

• WooCommerce Subscriptions
• Tickera
• WP Rocket
• UpdraftPlus
• AutomateWoo
• Object Cache Pro
• WooCommerce Smart Coupons
• Wordfence Security
• Yoast SEO
• Custom plugins

Ultra Events’ sales have grown considerably since they launched their online store in 2019. After the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the in-person-events industry, causing their sales to dip, Ultra Events bounced back — with flying colors. Their sales nearly tripled between 2020 and 2023, and then doubled again the following year. In 2024, their sales jumped up again, marking an impressive 500% leap from their pre-pandemic beginnings. 

Though tickets to their events sell themselves in a sense, as the participants are responsible for getting tickets sold, Ashley says Ultra’s marketing efforts focus on increasing sign ups for the program itself, and supporting participants through those eight weeks with top-tier customer service. They promote the program across their social-media channels and use Google Ads to grow awareness. Additionally, they have prioritized the user experience by ensuring visitors to their website can easily find event tickets and make a purchase without friction. 

According to Ashley, the reason for Ultra’s growth is largely thanks to this emphasis on the customer experience. He also credits their increase in events across their three brands. They have added more than 350 additional events since 2022 alone. They also upped their ante by becoming ISO certified to ensure they adhere to a set of strict standards across all of their events. Ultra Events is one of few events companies in the UK to hold this certification.

Today, during peak event periods, Ultra’s website will see as many as 60 orders per second. This is a huge feat, but increased traffic doesn’t come without its own challenges. To mitigate some of the strain on their website during these high-traffic times, they recently introduced a virtual waiting room system that allows up to 20 users a minute onto the site for a maximum of 250 sessions. Introducing this limit is win-win: It keeps costs low for Ultra, and ensures the user experience doesn’t have to suffer. Rather than being met with a slow site or server errors when trying to make a purchase, customers enter a queue with a position number and an estimated wait time. Bonus: It gives Ultra the opportunity to market to a captive audience while they wait.

“The size of the user base and community mean that no matter what project you are working on, chances are there is someone else that has done the same. Should you need any help along the build of your projects, it makes it very easy to find.” — Ashley Gordon

Ashley describes himself as firmly “Team Woo.” Ever since learning WooCommerce, Ashley doesn’t consider using any other ecommerce platform. “Any new project I work on, my first thought is, ‘Can I achieve this using WordPress and WooCommerce?’”

One of the biggest positives to developing with Woo is the built-in community, ready to step in and support each other.

“The size of the user base and community mean that no matter what project you are working on, chances are there is someone else that has done the same. Should you need any help along the build of your projects, it makes it very easy to find,” Ashley says.

For them, success looks like continuing to grow their business and increase sign-ups to their programs. It also means their customers are given a smooth journey through the program, and their friends and family can buy tickets with ease. “All of this is made possible due to WordPress and WooCommerce making life as a developer so much easier, and the great support on offer,” he says.

To date, since Ultra Events began in 2009, they have raised more than £37 million for charity.

Ultra Events prioritizes charitable donations and uses them as a pillar in their business model. In fact, they use their donations as a key indicator for their success and growth. 

Charitable fundraising is part of the agreement participants commit to when signing up for the program. In addition to promoting ticket sales throughout their eight-week journey, participants are also asked to fundraise for a charity of their choice. 

Ultra Events is currently operating events in the UK and, as of 2023, Canada — but they have big plans to launch into new markets and more cities in the future. Their current expansion plans include the US and Australia. “We’re taking those steps to sort of really spread out internationally,” Ashley says.

They have just started selling tickets for their new events in Canada, currently in English, but looking at offering the option for Canadian French as a translation. In 2023, they hosted their first Canadian event in Calgary and grew to 15 Canadian cities running more than 30 events a year.

As they continue to develop their Woo store, they have plans to launch a multisite solution customized for their international audiences. This plan would mean individual sites for each currency on offer: GBP, CAD, USD, and EUR.

They have been developing a second release of their ticketing platform. According to Ashley, the main difference is reducing their reliance on third-party plugins and doing a lot of custom development work. For example, they have handled all of the custom ticketing, vendors, fees, and stats using custom-built solutions. 

For Ultra Events and Woo, the future is custom. 

“I love Woo and WordPress. I think it’s great and I’ve really enjoyed developing in it.” — Ashley Gordon

About

Sydney Hamilton

Sydney is a social media manager (her colleagues might even say a social media sorceress) and esteemed gif curator at Woo. When not crafting joyful content, she enjoys spending time with her rescue pups and moonlighting as a keyboardist and vocalist in a rock band.