The Hindu Business Line : Optima Insurance sees potential in online sales

Coimbatore, June 8 Since the launch of its Internet retail venture ‘click2insure’ last month, Optima Insurance Brokers has effected online sale of over a dozen policies, registered over 150 enquiries and about 1,000 hits so far.

The broking firm is confident of deeper penetration through its online route

Its CEO, Mr Rahul Aggarwal, told Business Line “the response quite unexpectedly was from smaller towns such as Patiala, Agra and Ludhiana. We now propose to explore the potential in tier- II and -III towns’.

The company is targeting to achieve a 10-per cent market share through its Internet retail venture. (The Internet sale of insurance products is estimated at Rs 5,000 crore per annum.)

To enhance presence

Optima has expanded its presence across 17 locations. “We plan to have a pan-India presence soon by setting up offices across 250 locations to service our clients better. We are targeting a turnover of Rs 500 crore and customer base of one million within the next 3 to 5 years,” he said.

According to Mr Aggarwal, the company has invested about Rs 2 crore in the Internet retail venture and plans to infuse another Rs 25 crore soon.

“We are in talks with a funding agency,’ he said, refusing to divulge more details.

The funds would be used for strengthening the IT infrastructure, office expansion and creating an offline presence to support the online initiative, he said.

On the need for creating an online service, he said “each insurance company evolves a bouquet of products causing a near explosion in insurance product offerings. We launched this service to enable the customer understand the product better and make informed buying decision, without being influenced by the broker or agent.”

“The site would offer insurance product information in five areas such as travel, auto, health, home and term life. The buyer would be able to compare the products of the different companies and price information before taking a decision,” he continued.

The company’s turnover is over Rs 40 crore at present.

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