The company
Thalys, now called Eurostar, is a leading railway operator offering direct international rail connections across central Europe. Christophe Durot, former Digital Performance Officer at Thalys (Eurostar), was in charge of ensuring an efficient and smooth experience for their customers across their digital channels.
A Thalys train
Our mission is to promote mobility across 27 European cities and destinations. We also offer seasonal destinations under Thalys Snow & Thalys Sun. We’re known for ensuring a positive customer experience and memorable journey by rail, but we knew we needed to make the online customer journey even smoother."
The challenge
Christophe and his team used Contentsquare's Heatmaps capability to analyze performance on the company's site. Immediately, they uncovered 2 major insights:
The exposure rate of a commercial banner was low, at just 10.6%, whilst the click rate was even lower at 1.10%.
During the checkout funnel, those who clicked on payment methods were less likely to convert, according to Contentsquare’s click recurrence analysis. “There was a misunderstanding about payment methods,” Christophe says. “Customers thought they had to pick one, which wasn’t necessary; it was simply an informative feature.” However, multiple clicks on the page highlighted that users were frustrated with the confusing messaging.
Optimizing customer experience and improving conversion was the first stop on our Contentsquare adventure. We were seeing confusing patterns of customer behavior and we knew we needed to reduce frustration and improve communication across the site."
The solution
Armed with insights, the team was able to make a data-driven decision about redesigning their site and optimizing their digital experience.
Firstly, they moved the promotional banner higher up the homepage to improve its exposure rate. Then, they removed the confusing messaging about payment methods on the payment page.
A data-driven approach helped us gain access to page performance and UX insights, allowing us to vastly improve the user experience. Contentsquare helped us fine-tune how information was displayed on our website to make the customer journey as smooth as possible.”
— Christophe Durot, former Digital Performance Officer at Thalys (Eurostar)
The Results
+500% increase in conversion rate, from 2.9% to 17.4%.
+265% increase in exposure rate on the promotional banner, from 10.6% to 38.7%.
-49% decrease in click recurrence, from 18.5% to 9.38%.
