Internet Influence on Insurance Sales To Grow By 2020:Impact Estimated To Be INR 300-400k Crores:-BCG-Google study

 

By 121 News Reporter

Chandigarh 19^th March:-- The exploding popularity of smart phones and Internet has become a core part of life for many consumers across the globe and in India. This megatrend, which has already disrupted several sectors, is set to have a huge impact on Insurance sector in India. It is estimated that three in every four insurance policies sold by 2020 would be influenced by digital channels during either the pre-purchase stage, purchase or renewal stages, according to a new report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Google India. This report, titled Digital@Insurance-20X By 2020, asserts that not only will insurance sales from online channels grow 20x from today by 2020, but overall Internet influenced sales would be INR 300-400k crore. Digital disruption is expected to impact insurance significantly and, whether considered an opportunity or a threat, insurers need to be creative to leverage this opportunity immediately.

 

Alpesh Shah, a BCG Senior Partner and Director also the author of the report said that the old ways of selling insurance are, over time becoming less sustainable. Traditional business models are being challenged by the emergence of trends such as lesser relevance of physical footprint, mobile internet, analytics, social platforms and disruptive players. "As insurers seek new avenues to grow profitably, they have a unique opportunity to embrace and benefit from the digital wave, which also addresses many key issues that plague the offline world today. We estimate that digital adoption could result in potential savings of 15-20% of total costs in the case of life insurance and 20-30% in the case of non life, thereby showing the path towards profitability for the industry.

 

Vikas Agnihotri, Industry Director, BFSI, Travel Google India said that while online purchases represent a small component of Insurance activity in India today, the overall influence of Internet on Insurance product purchase in India is already 6x and growing rapidly. Insurance companies in India are still lagging behind the consumers and have not invested enough to create digital assets to engage the mature consumers online. Our studies have shown that 2 out of 3 users researching for a financial product ended up changing their mind about the brand or the product during their pre-purchase period. Internet allows companies to leverage the pull-based proposition around Insurance products, because customers are looking for the products online as suggested by the exponential growth in Insurance related search queries on Google.