A year after moving from Voyages-sncf.com to YES.sncfFrance's number one e-commerce site presents a successful balance sheet of this name change. Its brand awareness is up 14 points, while transactions have increased by 12.5% in France and Europe compared with 2017. And this despite the fact that 2018 was disrupted by numerous strike days. "With 15 million more passengers, better-filled trains with an 18% increase in the occupancy rate, and lower maintenance costs thanks to predictive analysis, the margin has doubled. This has given the TGV model a new lease of life, while allowing us to invest in the future, both in equipment and digital technology."Rachel Picard, CEO of Voyages SNCF.
In this context, OUI.sncf is spearheading the e-voyageurs project, the in-depth digital transformation that the SNCF is in the process of carrying out, in keeping with its pioneering role. "OUI.sncf has made new digital uses in France"It was the first e-commerce site to sell train tickets in France in 2000, the first to offer print-at-home tickets in 2003, the first to launch on mobile phones in 2007, with orders on the app (57%) now exceeding those on the website, and the first paperless ticket in 2009. One of the first French companies to use Facebook Messenger, SNCF also recorded 400,000 ticket orders via this medium in 2016.
To pursue this strategy of innovation, the site intends to move from "from a transactional site to a relationship sitesays Alexandre Viros, CEO of OUI.sncf. It would be a major mistake to ignore conversational marketing today."Since last November, the site has offered users the chance to book their tickets directly by chatting with the OUIbot relational agentwhich now has 5,000 users a day. Voice is also a key area of development, with the brand continuing to expand on all the platforms and interfaces used by travellers, including the Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Apple's Siri.
Another development underway is the formatting of the site and its transition to multimodality. "SNCF is no longer just a transport producer, but an integrator"explains Rachel Picard. While the SNCF is preparing for next spring a personal assistant which will transform its application into a travel tool integrating self-service bicycle, VTC and taxi and bus journeys, OUI.sncf is also moving in this direction. "Customers are multimodal, so we need to be multimodal"says Alexandre Viros.
In November, car-sharing specialist Blablacar announced the acquisition of OUIBus, an SNCF subsidiary and France's leading coach operator, and the two companies will be working closely together as a result. "Four years ago car sharing as our main competitorsays Rachel Picard. This is no longer the case, partly because we have launched OUIGo which caters for long-distance travel at low prices. The partnership with Blablacar and OUIbus will enable us to extend our offer from 300 TGV stations to 3,000 OUIbus stops."
OUI.sncf will be building on this partnership with the introduction of car-sharing as an alternative to train travel on the site by the end of the month. In June, OUI.sncf will be offering train and bus combinations before combining train, bus and carpooling, probably at the end of 2019. "We are opening up the choice of complementary modes of transport to the train, building attractive multimodal combinations to better meet different mobility needs."says Rachel Picard, CEO of Voyages SNCF.
