Since the start of the COVID-19 health crisis (mid-March 2020), the Economic Affairs Department team has been working to support entrepreneurs, large companies, SMEs, the self-employed, and startups. The department’s structure and the team’s responsibilities have been adapted to enable the agile implementation of the various measures rolled out by the Canton of Neuchâtel.
The cantonal support programs “interest-free loans” and “rental assistance” were set up and managed via the website www.neuchateleconomie.ch.
The challenge for the Department of Economic Affairs was to establish digital operational processes that were robust and reliable for receiving applications and efficient and fast for processing them.
As a reminder, two types of support have been established: interest-free loans of up to 15,000 CHF, repayable over two years, and non-repayable grants for commercial rent.
Key Figures
Recorded Events
The Department of Economic Affairs has created and made available documents (agreements for the various forms of support; a calculator; summary charts for each type of aid, etc.) and download links to streamline the process and save entrepreneurs time when putting together their applications.
Over the course of these three months, the website recorded:
- +17,000 events (clicks on a provided link, document downloads, etc.);
- +2,000 clicks on the link to the IDE (Business Identification) registry website;
- Over 3,300 downloads of the various agreements offered;
- Over 1,000 downloads of the online calculator.
Page Views
More than 34,000 pages were viewed, representing a 585.52% increase.
The most viewed pages over the past three months are those related to the COVID-19 crisis and support measures.
There were two major peaks: the first, at the start of the crisis, when support was launched for interest-free loans for small businesses and the self-employed; and the second on June 4, before the deadline for non-repayable grants to cover commercial rent was extended.
Sessions
The total number of sessions over the period surged by 505.24%. A session is defined as the period during which a user is active on the website. The number of sessions per user rose from 1.34 during the three months prior to the health crisis to 1.86 during the COVID-19 crisis, an increase of 39.10%.
The average session duration increased from 1 min 25 to 4 min 36, representing a 226.06% increase.
The bounce rate—which represents the percentage of visitors who viewed only one page—decreased by 29.54%.
Users
In three months, the website was visited by more than 9,500 users, a 332.70% increase compared to the number of users in the three months prior to the COVID-19 crisis.
Of these users, 69.5% accessed the website from their computers, while 28.3% accessed it from their cell phones.
