Policybazaar.com launches offline business, opens 15 retail stores across India

India’s leading online insurance marketplace with over 10 million customers,  announced that it has operationalized the broker license that it received from IRDAI. The company is rolling out comprehensive plans to serve customers better by having an offline presence. The company will also address the fast-growing SME and SOHO opportunities with particular focus on serving the needs of professionals like Doctors and Lawyers.

As a first step, the company is launching offline retail stores across India. The brand has set up 15 stores and will eventually expand to 100 locations. The brick-and-mortar stores will serve as experience centres for customers and provide them with the comfort of a local physical presence to help resolve any queries or service requests. The physical stores will deliver a seamless shopping experience to both new and existing customers that will be at par with the services offered by the brand online. Through the stores, customers will have access to Policybazaar’s proprietary comparison engines that will help them choose the right insurance product, enhance their ability to compare multiple products, all underpinned by a seamless end-to-end technology in the insurance journey.

The brand has also launched its B2B2C, Point of Sales Person (PoSP) business in order to help increase insurance penetration in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, which account for 50% of consumer demand. The company has allocated $100 Mn to build this business.

Expanding the senior leadership team, Mr. Rajiv Gupta, formerly Executive Director, SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd, joins Policybazaar.com to lead its expansion plans in the offline space. Mr. Gupta, an insurance veteran, comes with a rich experience of over 30 years and is well equipped to successfully lead Policybazaar’s offline plans.

Commenting on the expansion, Mr. Yashish Dahiya, Co-founder & Group CEO, Policybazaar.com said, "For a country like India that displays varied hues of culture every 300 km, the need for Insurance is huge especially outside metro cities and our glass offices. We could not have done justice to our objective of increasing India's insurance penetration levels with online channels alone. We are glad to be able to offer more products and our services with diversified insurance solutions to those more comfortable with physical meetings and offline stores. I welcome Rajeev, who comes with a rich experience in building insurance offline and also has a profound understanding of the regulatory and quality dynamics of the industry,"

Policybazaar as a broker will now also be able to provide its existing and new customers on-ground claims support. The claim assistance initiative will boost the ‘AapKiSideHai’ promise that seeks to reassure its customers on being a dependable insurance partner for them, every step of the way. The company is launching this capability with employees stationed in 30 cities.

Policybazaar has comprehensive plans to leverage offline and thereby serve customers better. In India, the offline insurance market is very significant as over 90% of the insurance products are sold through offline channels. Policybazaar through its offline presence aims to cater to this market by offering customers affordable, reliable, and sustainable insurance products. The brand is committed to guiding the customer throughout the insurance journey and policy lifecycle – purchase, claim, and renewal.