Comparison Between Offline and Online Distribution Practices for the Insurance Industry in India

Insurance has been the back bone of Indian society and economy. For India, a developing country, insurance does serve the need to a limited extent as social security practices are absent in India compared to foreign nations. Insurance has been sold mainly through traditional channels with Agency garnering major share of the pie. The study started with robust literature review, formulating the objectives to examine existing offline distribution channels for insurance and the relative significance of emerging online distribution channel for insurance. Accordingly hypothesis were promulgated for understanding difference between online and offline insurance in terms of cost and convenience, difference between economies of scale and accuracy, beneficial to customer and/or company and on the growing trend of young internet users being a high potential target market for insurance business suitable to online channel. The study further gives suggestions and recommendations for promotion of online channels and highlights its relative significance to various stakeholders.