The last two years have been very difficult for the entire world. An ongoing pandemic, social unrest, and rampant unemployment are just some of the reasons why everybody is looking for certainty during uncertain times.
Insurance provides a level of security and safety that very few things can. Having life insurance means having something to rely on during the darkest of times. It’s no wonder why life insurance is seeing a rise in popularity this past year. During the first half of 2020, applications for life insurance rose 1.5% from the previous year. This is worth noting especially because a majority of new insurance purchasers are young people. But why is that?
Growing Market Need
In the Philippines, a majority of the public see life insurance as more of a luxury than a necessity in case of unfortunate events. However, because of the current state of the world, many Filipinos have begun purchasing life insurance, and many of these new clients have or live with people who have pre-existing needs or a grave medical condition. This steady increase in life insurance sales and the arrival of the global pandemic have caused a paradigm shift in both insurance purchasing and customer attitudes. This means that more people, especially young people, see insurance as a non-negotiable now.
Because of life insurance’s increase in popularity, many insurance providers have redesigned their products towards the portion of the market that lives beneath the poverty line. Insurance companies recognize this need and continue to cater to the section of the market that does not have a current policy or finds life insurance expensive. This has resulted in modified life insurance policies and microinsurance that provides a valuable insurance product at an affordable price. Microinsurance covers basic insurance benefits like furnishing assistance to policyholders who belong to low income households.
Access to insurance is also a key determinant when it comes to the rise in popularity. Because more and more companies have decided to designate the youth as their preferred target market, they understand that this demographic does things digitally. As a result, a lot of insurance companies have made the shift to digital sales and transactions. This has ultimately changed the traditional insurance landscape as people see it.
Maya has sought to simplify the way insurance firms sell their packages digitally. One easy way to implement digital sales is by engaging our Digital Invoice service, which allows prospective clients to purchase policies and pay for their premiums even if their firm of choice does not have an ecommerce-enabled website. Invoices can be sent via chat, email, or SMS, and clients can pay via most forms of payment card, as well as most e-wallets.
Firms who do have their own websites or are looking to build them should definitely look into integrating Maya’s Checkout Plugin into their payment processing system. Our checkout plugin works perfectly with the most popular e-commerce platforms, Magento, Shopify, and WooCommerce, and accepts payments from major credit card companies including Visa, Mastercard, and JCB.
Keeping Up with the Times
But while all this popularity may seem like a good thing for the insurance industry, a lot of experts predict negative fallout, especially for smaller insurance firms. Insurance companies who are not able to cater to the younger market or to low-income customers will encounter difficulty in this new age. This means having to adopt a totally new outlook towards the market and enacting changes like digitizations and improving analytical data to keep up with the times.
Furthermore, insurance companies also need to change not only how they treat their customers but also companies they are partnered with. Customers need to feel valued and cared for and experts have predicted that simply commodifying them will cause many clients to disengage. This is where analytics comes in. Better data allows insurance providers to serve fast, reliable, and personalized products for every customer. This also means fine tuning the data gathered in order to really understand consumer behavior.
What’s on the Horizon
As the global battle with COVID-19 rages on, the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries are making headway to get past this pandemic. This will have a significant effect on the insurance industry. Vaccines, medicines, and therapies are quickly being developed to battle this disease, thus forcing insurance companies to adapt to the changes. Insurance companies began offering additional benefits and bundles with their products and this trend will likely continue beyond 2021. Insurance companies will look to bolster their life insurance product with additional features to keep the market interested even when the demand dips.
Because of the lasting effects of the previous year, many people feel it is necessary to have life insurance. This has allowed insurance companies to thrive during a time where very little industries have. As a result, people are now seeing the value of purchasing a life insurance policy.
