Amazon has expanded its reach into another consumer market with the launch of a home insurance comparison portal in the UK.
The initial list of participating insurers will include Ageas UK, Co-op, and LV= General Insurance, with more to be added in the next few months.
As well as like-for-like quote comparisons, Amazon said the portal would include customer reviews and ratings on insurance companies. The service will start rolling out to select customers from today, and it will be available fully on its website and app by the end of the year.
“Shopping online for home insurance is a well-established experience, and our goal is to exceed customers’ expectations when it comes to the Amazon Insurance Store,” said Jonathan Feifs, general manager of Amazon’s European Payment Products.
“This initial launch is just the beginning – we’ll continue to innovate and make refinements, all with the aim of delighting customers and providing the most convenient shopping experience possible.”
Moneysupermarket.com’s shares slumped over 10% this morning following the news of Amazon’s foray into the insurance price comparison market.
Commenting on the move, Martin Heubel, an Amazon Strategy Consultant at Consulterce, said: “It’s another step for Amazon to expand its business model into more profitable areas.
“But it also makes sense from a wider business perspective. After all, we know that Amazon wants to increase its footprint in the healthcare industry.
“Its acquisition of One Medical and expected push to expand the Amazon Pharmacy offering to new markets are just missing one thing: A consumer-facing insurance offering.
“Home insurance is likely the first step in collecting data on consumer needs before the online retailer expands its offering to health insurance. And it seems like we don’t have to wait much longer for this to happen.”
NAM Implications:
- Think what Amazon can bring to the healthcare party by adding insurance data to their Amazon consumer data.
- In our opinion, the really big contribution Amazon can make to insurance optimisation/effectiveness…
- …will be via combining insurance data with their consumer database and compiling a consumer database that contains a register of insurance claims by individual consumers to help identify ‘excessive’ use of insurance by opportunists…
