Gurugram (Haryana) [India], Oct 29 (ANI/NewsVoir): Policybazaar's continued investment in driving awareness on the need for term insurance and the on-going COVID-19 pandemic has helped narrowed the world's largest protection gap, which is in India.
Nearly 44 per cent of customers pan-India are currently covered by a term life insurance plan revealed an online survey conducted on Policybazaar's app visitors. The findings are part of a survey conducted by Policybazaar.com India's largest online insurance marketplace, to understand consumer perception and gauge their ownership level for the term insurance category.
Policybazaar.com surveyed more than 22,726 insurance buyers who used the company's mobile application between September 10 and 25, 2020.
Unlike in the past, insurance has now become a product that consumers are more likely to buy without the need for a big sales push. The survey findings revealed that 50 per cent of the customers have bought term policies with a cover of 1 crore and above to financially protect their loved ones.
This indicates how individuals are aware of their protection needs & is investing in higher cover policies that are available online at affordable prices i.e. at a monthly premium as low as Rs 1000-1200.
"It is heartening to see consumers' greater acceptance of Term Life insurance policies. In tough times like these, it is even more important for consumers to compare different brand propositions before buying an insurance product as important as term life insurance. Investing in a term life plan needs significant research as one has to pay for 30-40 years so any price differences can add up to meaningful savings over the policy term," said Sarbvir Singh, CEO, Policybazaar.com, while commenting on the survey.
"The findings reflect that most customers, while buying term insurance usually compare amongst two or three national brands before making a choice that combines pricing superiority, issuance ease and claims assistance," said Sarbvir Singh.
The survey also dives deep into understanding the customers' preferred channel of purchase and the brand/website they trust most for information on Term insurance policies. The respondents who owned term insurance, when asked about their choice of channel to buy term plan, as per the survey data 57 per cent bought their existing term life insurance policy from an online insurance marketplace, 93 per cent of whom bought their term plans from Policybazaar.
This clearly shows that customers always prefer purchasing from a source that offers the best proposition to the customers irrespective of the insurance company.
In addition, 6 in 10 of all term insurance owners visited the PB website at least once for information on term plans and comparison of various policy options and 45 per cent of the respondents chose Policybazaar as their first preference for relevant information on term insurance.
These findings were also substantiated by a separate Nielsen study. Policybazaar had commissioned Nielsen to conduct a brand track survey that covered a sample of 782 owners of term insurance, across metropolitan cities in the month of June-July 2020 and help understand awareness and brand recognition.
As per their survey conducted amongst both online and offline customers of term insurance, nearly 5 in 10 term plan owners visited aggregator website(s) for comparison on their most recent term policy purchase. The findings are a clear indication of the fact that one in every 2nd person who buys term plans prefers visiting online insurance platforms to compare several plans on some important aspects like features, prices, claim settlement ratio and extent of coverage.
Interestingly, 67 per cent of these online aggregator website visitors were aware of Policybazaar, with the brand receiving highest awareness among all insurance aggregator websites. Among the online aggregator website visitors, Policybazaar was seen as the most trusted brand with 34 per cent respondent agreeing to it.
It is also seen as a brand acting as the most relevant source of information on term insurance with the 37 per cent respondents agreeing on the same, beating the insurance brand with the second highest association by 15 percentage points.
The findings from the above studies clearly point towards Policybazaar being the most sought after name amongst people looking for term plans and other insurance products. Customers surely believe that Policybazaar offers the lowest term insurance prices i.e. up to 10 per cent cheaper than the offline prices. This is the reason why the brand sells one in four of every term policy sold in the country.
Policybzaar.com is India's largest insurance marketplace and a leading insurtech brand globally. It is the flagship brand of Policybazaar.com Group of companies, that owns fintech brand, Paisabazaar.com, b2b venture, ZPhin.com, and lending and insurance marketplace in UAE region, Policybazaar.ae.
The Policybazaar.com Group has backing from a host of investors including the likes of Soft Bank, InfoEdge (Naukri.com), Temasek, Tiger Global Management, True North, Premji Invest, besides investments from other PE funds and family offices.
Policybazaar.com started with a purpose to educate people on insurance products and has had a significant influence on how insurance is bought in India. It has helped in driving penetration of pure life insurance, health insurance, and such products which were barely bought earlier.
From receiving traffic of 180,000 visitors in 2008, Policybazaar.com has come a long way and today hosts over 120 million visitors yearly and records sales of nearly 10 lac transactions a month. Currently, Policybazaar.com accounts for nearly 25 per cent of India's life cover, and over 7 per cent of India's retail health business. It accounts for roughly half of all internet-based insurance purchase in the country and is more than doubling annually.
The company has received several accolades in India and globally. The most noteworthy being recognized as India's top and world's leading "Fin Tech Innovator" by the Global consultancy firm, KPMG and venture capital fund, H2 Ventures for 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019.
It has won a range of awards in the last couple of years, many of them consecutively. These include The Financial Express "Best Fintech Marketplace", Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) Digital India Award for "Best Financial Website" and "Most Innovating Insurance Service", IDC Iconic Award for "Tech Implementation leading to Operational Excellence", Asia Insurance Review Award for "Insurtech of the Year", to name a few.
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