Online comparison sites are the fastest-growing distribution channel for insurance in Europe, with online purchases growing rapidly, says new research from Finaccord.
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The research was based on data from six European countries; France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK. In these countries, online channels accounted for 42% of transactions in 2012, compared to 35% in 2008.
The UK claimed the largest share of online purchases, with 69% of new and switched policies acquired in 2012 via online.
“All of the countries demonstrated robust growth in the use of online methods to purchase insurance,” says Edward Wilford, consultant at Finaccord. It finds this is equally true whether or not the country previously had a strong preference for online channels.
Across the six countries, 23% of people never research insurance online, which is just above the proportion that always so (19%).
As an average across all six countries, consumers buying new coverage or switching providers used these websites 20% of the time in 2012, compared to only 6% in all previous years combined.
And though France had the lowest rate of online use in 2012 at 11%, this was more than three times higher than the average it posted in all previous years combined (3%).
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