The last decade has seen a significant impact of
digital transformation on the insurance industry as regards the creation of
value for customers and sustaining superior performance and competitive
advantage. Substantial future influences of e-commerce are also anticipated on
product design, product delivery and
coverage packaging. In advanced markets, insurance companies are starting to
provide a broad range of online services through novel technologies such
as Insurtech. In Zambia, insurance firms are augmenting their delivery channels
with e-commerce by increasing their web presence.In this study, we investigate the current status of e-commerce adoption
and usage by Zambian insurers. The study sphere and test sample are the existing
websites of the life and general insurance companies. The methodology consists
of analyzing the presence of selected website features by indexing them based
on their role as service provision channels. The second part of the assessment
evaluates the true usage of these features by the insurers through feedback
questionnaires. Using the UN-ASPA e-adoption framework our findings show that
the Zambian insurers are still largely in the early e-adoption and usage stages
and have not yet developed a completely integrated web presence. This study is
of present-day importance especially now that e-insurance is being explored as
one of the solutions to insurance wider availability, transparency, financial
inclusion and multi-channel marketing in Zambia.
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