Consumers are increasingly purchasing insurance via the direct channel. The channel held a 48.1% share of the personal lines distribution market in 2018, up four percentage points a year prior. The direct channel has become particularly prevalent in private motor insurance, which is the largest personal line by gross written premiums. The shares of the broker, affinity, and bank channels saw declines. Customers show a preference for online channels when buying insurance. Customer engagement remains challenging, with a significant proportion of costumers indicating they switch at renewal.

This report explores customer purchasing behavior and how consumer preferences are changing over time. It uncovers the differences, expected market share, key insurance brands, and footprint by product that each key distribution channel accounts for. The report also provides a forecast on how the personal lines distribution split will evolve over the next few years and looks into the key trends and new propositions that may drive this.

Scope:

#. The direct channel has grown over the recent years to account for almost half of the distribution of personal lines. This has been at the expense of the bank and affinity channels, which have seen a gradual fall in their market shares.
#. Aviva stands out as a personal lines provider, ranking in the top three in all lines examined - motor, home, pet, and travel insurance. However, Petplan has the largest share of respondents in any one product line, with roughly a fifth of the pet insurance market.
#. Compare the Market attracts the largest number of sales through price comparison sites, enjoying a healthy lead in all four lines in terms of use by survey respondents. Admiral is often chosen as the insurer of choice by customers using price comparison sites.

Reasons to Buy

#. Understand how consumers purchase motor, home, travel, and pet insurance across all channels - direct, broker, bank, affinity, and price comparison sites - and how this is likely to change in the near future.
#. Discover how each of the channels have grown over the recent years and which are the most selected providers by product line.
#. Improve the customer journey and brand loyalty by understanding what influences purchasing decisions and how to meet customer needs.
#. Explore the level of customer satisfaction in each of the channels by getting to know the switching behavior at renewal.
#. Have a view on which insurance providers have the largest spend in advertising and understand which advertising product attracts the largest spend.
#. Get to know about the key emerging players, as well as how existing brands are reinventing their value propositions.