AXA, IFC, Accenture Study: Rapid Growth of Women’s Insurance Market in Emerging Economies is Good News

The women’s market for insurance worldwide is growing rapidly, and is projected to attract $1.45 to $1.7 trillion through 2030, well up from the $800 million the insurance industry realized in 2013. Most significantly, over half of those trillions will come from emerging economies in Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Thailand, and Turkey.

Recognizing the potential of these untapped markets, AXA, IFC, and Accenture collaborated to release a study in September 2015, after conducting research and interviews with industry representatives, brokers, agents, customers, and regulators in 10 emerging markets. The study, titled SheforShield: Insure Women to Better Protect All ^[1], analyzes the opportunities presented by the long-overlooked women’s market, investigates factors driving the increase in insured women, and makes recommendations for how to proceed to court that market.

The study identified three factors driving the strong upsurge the numbers of insured women:

• Increased levels of education.
• Increased levels of employment.
• Improved socioeconomic status.

The study also recognizes the potential of women within the industry who are uniquely qualified ambassadors to the burgeoning women’s market. The aggregate data suggests that a female salesforce within the insurance sector will only enhance the quality of products and services as well as provide solutions specifically targeted toward the women’s market in these emerging economies.

An overview of the recommendations were as follows:

1. Build intelligence on women’s insurance needs
   1. Gather gender-disaggregated data across insurance value chain to further analyze and build the strategy for the women’s market opportunity.
   2. Monitor that data to track performance and refine strategy.
   3. Analyze existing data and collect new information on demographics, socioeconomic trends, needs, and behaviors.
2. Develop targeted value propositions for women segments
   1. Conduct more in-depth focus groups for each segment to further understand needs and cultural nuances.
   2. Develop targeted products.
   3. Provide wrap-around services to enhance product value while helping women address everyday needs.
3. Improve distribution and proximity to women clients:
   1. Use a digital approach to increase proximity with clients and sell insurance through the online marketplace.
   2. Build on women’s specific networking and advocacy habits to increase proximity to women clients and increase their trust in insurance companies.
   3. Provide clear, relevant coverage information and targeted risk management advice to reduce the time and cost for women to research products.
   4. Engage and empower more women in the insurance salesforce.
   5. Provide gender-sensitive training to that salesforce.
   6. Engage in partnerships to expand women’s access to and use of insurance and enhance product and service value.

As a comment, such gender-oriented approaches are generally prohibited in the E.U., where products differentiated by gender are not permitted, even when this would be favorable t0 women.