PolicyBazaar.com is confident of maintaining close to 100 per cent growth in motor insurance business, supported by its key differentiators from the offline mode.

The largest online insurance aggregator in India, which has more than 50 per cent share in online motor insurance segment, said factors such as options to compare multiple types of products, availability of certain ‘not-feasible-in-offline-mode products’, and shorter turnaround time have been driving growth and market share for the company.

This fiscal, it expects a sale of 11 lakh motor policies, up from close to six lakh policies last year.

“This fiscal, we expect 25-30 lakh new cars getting added, while 5-10 lakh old cars may move out insurance. So, overall, we expect 220 lakh cars to be insured. We expect about 20 lakh cars to be insured via online mode and we hope to do about 11 lakh policies,” Sajja Praveen Chowdary, Head of Motor Insurance, PolicyBazaar.com, told BusinessLine .

In 2017-18, about 200 lakh private cars were covered by insurance players, of which 12 lakh policies were sold online. PolicyBazaar.com garnered about 50 per cent of the online share.

“The single point platform for any insurance company’s products is a key USP. Also, availability of the products such as third-party only, which is not feasible in the offline market, attracts a lot of customers into our fold,” he explained.

For the average ₹3,000 third-party only policy, the earning an insurer could make is just ₹75, which is definitely not viable for an agent. “This we offered online two years ago and is doing well,” he said.

Self-video inspection

He also explained that the online aggregator’s launch of the self-video inspection process for policies that had a break in renewals, proved to be very effective.

“It used to be a three-day affair earlier for the break in policies due to mandatory inspection process. We have now reduced the process and one can renew the policy in 30 minutes to two hours. We are doing about 10,000 video inspections a month now,” he said.

In claims, too, the company’s video process has helped cut down the non-repair process of damaged car’s claim to 2-3 hours from 2-3 days earlier.

“Several such initiatives help customer handle insurance with ease and at their convenience. Hence, we see good traction and strong growth,” said Chowdary.

PolicyBazaar.com presently sells about 65,000-70,000 car policies a month, with the average age of a car about 4.5 years. In two-wheelers, it sells about 180,000 policies a month.

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