In our last blog, How Embedded Finance is Changing Purchasing & Borrowing Behaviors, we looked at embedded payments and loans and why companies would want to offer (increased sales, lower inventory, processing costs, data gathering) these bank-like services. In this blog, we’re going to stay in the world of finance, but pivot to embedded insurance.
Embedded Insurance
Similar to how we defined embedded finance in the first blog in our series as “the placing of a financial product in a nonfinancial customer experience, journey, or platform,” we define Embedded Insurance as any insurance that can be purchased within the commercial transaction or platform of another product or service.
Just as we noted in the first blog that history doesn’t repeat but it rhymes, Embedded Insurance is not an innovation, but it is insurance being delivered through a different platform.
Recall flying back in the 1970s, when airlines began offering life insurance at the airport to folks before they boarded their flight. If they did their job poorly, dependents would get paid. Consumers often want to protect themselves on large purchases. Car rental companies offer insurance at the counter, even though the rental companies are not insurance companies themselves. Furniture sellers often offer protection for a premium on the products they sell. Apple makes significant profits selling insurance on their phones. i-Insurance anyone?
Insurance does not have to be on physical items, like furniture, iPhones, or personal well-being. Having a teenage daughter who is on the ski team, I recently learned that ski passes can have personal injury protection added to them. Having a teenage son, I also learned that ticket insurance can be added to rock concert tickets. Not sure if this means he gets paid back if he doesn’t like the concert, but I’m sure that this online feature was not offered when I used to wait in line to buy concert tickets. You know, back in the old days when we walked to school uphill, both ways in the snow.
Conclusion
While Embedded Insurance is not a new product offering, the methodology to offer the insurance is. In this blog, we reviewed how non-financial firms can offer their customers insurance protection on their purchases. If you would like to have Perficient strategize and help deliver digital dominance on your firm’s embedded finance journey, reach out to us here.
