Overview
At Eurostar, every high-speed train runs on innovation and customer service, and every journey begins with a booking. Shouldn’t the online booking process be just as smooth and friendly?
Eurostar partnered with Conductrics Experimentation to innovate their booking and check-in process with advanced A/B testing and adaptive learning. Conductrics tech + team approach means that Eurostar could robustly test and dynamically deliver personalized and optimized booking experiences—all while receiving hightouch customer service from the Conductrics experts.
Problem
Eurostar wanted to make intentional, data-informed decisions about improving their booking service in ways that would:
- Boost bookings – Conductrics would determine what digital experiences would boost bookings for both train travel alone and travel packages (trains + hotels
- Create loyalty – Conductrics would uncover the customer preferences that, when catered to, created loyalty as a result of using the online platform
- Serve better digital experiences – Conductrics would use customer behavior data to continuously improve the digital customer experience
Solution
During implementation, it was critical to balance innovation with UX—the booking process needed to advance and improve without alienating less tech-savvy customers. Implementation involved two phases:
- Integration – Conductrics was integrated with Eurostar’s existing digital infrastructure (initially Google Analytics, then Adobe) on both the client and server sides, ensuring seamless data flow and analytics. This required attention to privacy and security and careful handling of data.
- Experimentation – Conductrics was used to run multiple AB and mutually exclusive tests to evaluate various aspects of the website, including layout, navigation, and promotional offers. Conductrics executed these tests across the homepage and different parts of the booking flow, such as the package offering section.
Outcomes
- Increased conversion rates: Due to optimized user experience flows,
- Booking rate increased by 5%, with the introduction of the Lowest Fare Finder component on certain content pages, which allowed users to search for the best result.
- Search rate increased by 2%, and the exit rate decreased by 19% by introducing a Booking Magnet on error pages in the conversion funnel, which encouraged users to start a new search instead of leaving the site.
- Packages revenue per visitor increased by 11%, and bundled bookings increased by 12% – with the introduction of AI-generated keywords on the Hotels Search Page, which helped users make quicker decisions with fewer clicks.
- Agile product development: The ability to test and iterate on new ideas significantly reduced the time to market for new site offers and packages.
- Flexible testing approach: Conductrics provided Eurostar with the flexibility to choose between a client-side or server-side testing implementation, both of which co-exist in the same platform/dashboard, adding ease and flexibility to the A/B testing program.
Conclusion
Conductrics’ robust testing and personalization capabilities have transformed how Eurostar approaches operational efficiency and innovating digital experiences. Eurostar plans to expand the use of Conductrics to further automate decision-making processes and explore new areas for enhancing passenger experiences, such as personalized travel recommendations and predictive analytics.
