The Niesen – A Mountain for All Occasions
The Niesen is an unmistakable tourist mountain in the Bernese Oberland. In two sections, the longest funicular in the world goes from Mülenen, 693 m up to 2,336 m above sea level. In addition to the historic railway, Berghaus Niesen Kulm is the figurehead. Event and seminar offerings are also important business areas: In addition to sports and cultural activities, the Niesen is a mountain for parties and special occasions.
With the Pricenow web store The entire value chain of the Niesenbahn is covered: Guests of the Niesenbahn can buy their train ticket as well as mountain experiences, accommodation or restaurant reservations book online. As a result, the comprehensive and diverse range of services offered by the Niesenbahn for guests is fully combined in one booking platform — an absolute added value for guests and companies. A modern design and a high level of user-friendliness significantly improve the online booking experience for guests. Thanks to the responsive design of the web shop, you can book the mountain experience at any time — whether on a computer, with a smartphone or a tablet.
Smart Ticketing and Flexible Capacity Planning
“When developing the web shop, the focus was always on usability for customers: With the help of a clever shopping cart function, guests can always edit their selected products. The most important interfaces, such as the SwissPass, are also integrated into the web shop — this allows guests to load their ticket directly onto the SwissPass with a discount.” Jonas Meuli, co-founder of Pricenow
With the Pricenow web shop, it is also possible for the SwissPass to be validated so that Niesenbahn guests can buy discounted tickets directly online using the GA or Halbtax. In addition, other relevant systems are directly connected: With E-GUMA, an important voucher system in the tourism industry is integrated and guests can easily redeem their vouchers in the web shop. The valuable customer data generated in the web shop is imported directly and fully automatically into the “Wilken” CRM system. The collected data offers Niesenbahn considerable benefits: Based on guest behavior, the Wilken system individualizes the content to be communicated for each recipient. As a result, the guest only receives relevant information and feels addressed directly.
The web shop was already ready to go online for the summer season in April 2020; however, due to the COVID19 pandemic, it was further developed in the short term.
Dynamic Pricing and Innovative Solutions for the Future
“We are delighted to welcome guests back! Fortunately, with Pricenow's innovative capacity management system, this is easily possible despite restrictions.” Urs Wohler, managing director of Niesenbahn AG
In future, the web shop will give guests the opportunity to reserve their trip at specific times. This is with the aim that as few guests as possible arrive without a reservation and have to leave disappointed because there is no more space. This also makes it possible to avoid crowds at the valley station. The capacities can be flexibly adjusted at any time by the management of the Niesenbahn and are automatically adjusted in the web shop. This ensures easy and flexible revision in the current dynamic environment. But it is not only train journeys that can be offered with limited seats: Events, offers and table reservations can be limited with capacities in the web shop. Current reports provide an overview of current workloads and reservations for the Niesenbahn management or Berghaus team.
Various pricing strategies are implemented in the web shop for the various Niesenbahn products. While fixed prices are offered for Niesenbahn rail journeys, overnight stays in the Berghaus are based on a rule-based and therefore more dynamic pricing strategy. The Pricenow web shop is specifically designed to optimally implement various pricing strategies. By connecting to the Pricenow pricing engine A wide variety of pricing forms can be implemented, from fixed prices to simple pricing rules (rule-based pricing) to fully automated and daily adjusted prices (dynamic pricing). This gives Niesenbahn maximum flexibility to optimally price its products and offers.
The modern web shop for the Niesenbahn, which covers the entire value chain and the innovative capacity management system, is new in the mountain railway and tourism industry. Not only can the current situation and restrictions caused by COVID-19 be overcome as a result, but also the need for digital customer solutions for the successful sale of tourism services.
