How Can Insurance Providers in the U.S. Tap into the Black Friday Consumer Culture?
Black Friday used to be associated with viral online videos of crazed bargain hunters elbowing their way through crowds and grappling over 55-inch TVs and the latest tech products.
Black Friday 2021 – which took place the day after Thanksgiving in the United States on November 26 – was a mixed bag, depending on local pandemic limitations.
One thing was obvious. The days of stores reaching full capacity and frantic shoppers pushing and shoving each other to obtain items are (at least temporarily) over. While the complete picture of Black Friday 2021 won’t be known until early next year, Bloomberg reported that crowds were lighter than pre-pandemic Black Fridays, demand was strong, and shopping was spread out more than in the past.
Perhaps this is a lasting effect of COVID’s social isolation. If that’s the case, I wouldn’t mind staying for a long time.
Because in-store crowds are expected to be lighter than usual, expect an influx of internet consumers, similar to Black Friday 2020, when most physical stores were closed or only open to a restricted capacity due to the pandemic. However, according to cnet.com, there have been complaints of the day “losing its online mojo” as a result of shops giving offers earlier in the Christmas season.
I believe it’s also a matter of online weariness, given that consumers have been forced to do everything digitally for nearly two years.
Because in-store crowds are expected to be lighter than usual, expect an influx of internet consumers, similar to Black Friday 2020, when most physical stores were closed or only open to a restricted capacity due to the pandemic. However, as reported by cnet.com, there have been complaints of the day “losing its online mojo” as a result of shops giving offers earlier in the Christmas season.
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I believe it’s also a matter of online weariness, given that consumers have been forced to do everything digitally for nearly two years.
Black Friday is a good example of customers receiving exactly what they want, when they want it, in the way they want it, and for the lowest price possible. Insurance professionals, does this ring a bell? Surprisingly, this is also what insurance customers want from their insurers, and it’s something the industry is attempting to address as part of its common objective of “enhancing the customer experience.”
The difficulty is that, unlike other industries, the insurance industry is heavily regulated, and insurers are unable to provide “snap” prices on special days such as Black Friday. In addition, insurance products are designed by underwriters and priced by actuaries based on the risks they cover, making them largely impervious to consumer whims.
What can insurers do to capitalize on the consumer culture that Black Friday epitomizes?
To begin with, insurers must simply engage with technology. Artificial intelligence (AI), advanced analytics, smart devices, and other technologies are providing new consumer-friendly capabilities for insurers to contact and service clients as needed.
Consumers prefer simple shopping experiences, which are made possible by technological solutions. That’s why online retail sales have soared in recent years, and why Cyber Monday – a marketing term for e-commerce transactions in the United States on the Monday after Thanksgiving – was born.
Consumers do not want to go through a lengthy procedure in which they must jump through hoops to get an insurance policy that they do not fully understand and often do not believe they require. They want to make product judgments based on their own internet research (as I can attest), and they want to be able to make a quick and simple online purchase if their demands are met.
The insurance industry’s year-round Black Friday or Cyber Monday must focus on reaching clients where they are and offering competitively priced solutions for near-real-time events or key milestones, such as buying a home or getting married. This is something that insurers are starting to do. Many organizations are already assessing risks and determining policy pricing using advanced data analytics, AI, and machine learning. Some are even teaming with Big Tech corporations to sell insurance as an add-on to retail transactions, allowing insurance to be embedded into the “moments that count.”
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Finally, most insurers now provide a user-friendly mobile application and data verification system to assist customers quickly and efficiently obtain coverage, manage their policies, file claims and receive reimbursement for losses.
While the insurance industry is unlikely to see the crazed bargain hunters that characterize traditional Black Friday, insurers can gain an advantage over their competitors by standing out online and providing the same tech-driven, seamless customer experience that consumers expect from the retail giants.
