How digital experience analytics helped Thalys boost conversion rates by 499%
Source: Thalys
The Company
Thalys is a leading railway operator offering direct international rail connections across central Europe. Christophe Durot is the Digital Performance Officer, in charge of ensuring an efficient and smooth experience for Thalys’ customers across their digital channels.
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."
Christophe Durot
Digital Performance Officer
Thalys
Source: Thalys
The Challenge
Christophe and his team used Contentsquare Zone-Based Heatmaps to analyze performance on the homepage. Immediately, they uncovered two 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,” clarifies Christophe, “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.
“A/B testing was key to inform our approach to fixing both issues. And the end goal was to improve conversions on both pages."
‐ Christophe Durot, Digital Performance Officer
The Solution
Armed with Contentsquare insights, the team was able to make a data-driven decision about redesigning their digital experience.
Firstly, they moved the promotional banner higher up the page to improve its exposure rate. Then they removed the confusing messaging about payment methods on the payment page.
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."
Christophe Durot
Digital Performance Officer
Thalys
A data-driven approach helped us gain access to page performance and UX insights, allowing us to vastly improve the user experience,” smiles Christophe. “Contentsquare helped us fine-tune how information is displayed on our website to make the customer journey as smooth as possible.” ‐ Christophe Durot, Digital Performance Officer
The Results
- A 500% increase in conversion rate, going from 2.9% to 17.4%.
- A 265% increase in exposure rate on the promotional banner, going from 10.6% to 38.7%.
- A 49% decrease in click recurrence, going from 18.5% to 9.38%.