Southeast Asia’s insurance penetration is approximately 1.2-3.4 per cent of the GDP across the different countries (barring Singapore). Low insurance literacy level is one reason for this sluggish growth. 

“Many people in the region aren’t aware of the importance of insurance and may have misconceptions about the industry,” said Cleosent Randing, Founder and CEO of PasarPolis, a leading insurtech startup in Indonesia. “Another challenge is the cost and complexity of traditional insurance products, which can deter potential customers.”

“PasarPolis is working to address these challenges by educating consumers about insurance benefits, simplicity and affordability. Through this education, we hope to increase insurance penetration in the region and make it more accessible to a broader audience,” he added.

Founded in 2015, PasarPolis aims to provide easy and affordable access to insurance products using innovative technology and provide a smooth user experience from purchase to claims. 

The company has over 60,000 registered agents and works with over 50 insurance partners and 40 leading ecosystem partners to serve over 80 million customers and issue over one billion policies between 2019 to 2021.

Also Read: PasarPolis secures US$54M in oversubscribed Series B to scale its online insurance biz in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam

According to the firm, it allows people to purchase micro-insurance products with a tap. They can add insurance to their purchases from the ecosystem partners like Shopee, Tokopedia, Gojek, and Xiaomi. 

The cost of these micro-insurance products is often less than a cup of coffee (at around 5,000 to 20,000 Indonesian rupiah). Filing claims is also easy, as consumers can fill out a simple form via SMS/Whatsapp to process their claims.

About 40 per cent of PasarPolis customers are workers in the informal sector, including taxi drivers, couriers, and online MSMEs. 

Besides Indonesia, the insurtech firm also has a presence in Vietnam and Thailand. 

To date, the company has raised over US$59 million in investments from Gojek, Tokopedia, and Traveloka. 

PasarPolis has just announced that it has become a full-stack insurtech ecosystem. This development comes after Tap Insurance, a company with shared shareholders as PasarPolis, received a full license from the Financial Services Authority of Indonesia (OJK) to operate as an insurance underwriter. This license allows it to distribute and underwrite its own digital insurance products, freeing it from traditional underwriting processes. 

“This development will allow us to offer its customers more tailored and customised insurance options and streamline the underwriting process, potentially leading to more efficient and cost-effective insurance products,” according to the CEO.

Randing pointed out that Indonesia’s insurance market is facing several challenges. One, it is costly to develop and sell insurance products. “Underwriters often take high margins when creating insurance products, and there are layers of brokers and agents who also take a cut when distributing the products. This makes insurance products expensive for consumers.”

Additionally, it is hard for consumers to access insurance products, as they often have to communicate with agents to purchase them. There was previously no way to buy micro-insurance products online 24/7 in Indonesia. 

Another issue is that the insurance industry has a negative reputation when it comes to processing claims, as it can be a bureaucratic and lengthy process with a lot of paperwork involved.

“We allow consumers to easily purchase micro-insurance products with a tap as they can add insurance to their purchases from the ecosystem partners like Shopee, Tokopedia, Gojek, and Xiaomi. The cost of these micro-insurance products is often less than a cup of coffee (at around 5,000 to 20,000 Indonesian rupiah). Filing claims is also easy, as consumers can fill out a simple form via SMS/Whatsapp to process their claims,” he said.

Insurance penetration in emerging economies in SEA

Indonesia: The gross written premium for the general insurance industry was IDR71.36 trillion (US$4.9 billion) in 2021. The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 7 per cent during 2020-25 (GlobalData). The insurance penetration rate is 3.18 per cent as of 2022.

Vietnam: The general insurance industry is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.5 per cent from VND60.15 trillion (US$2.6 billion) in 2021 to VND90.24 trillion (US$3.5 billion) in 2026 (GlobalData). The penetration rate is less than 3 per cent.

Thailand: The insurance industry is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.7 per cent from THB890.4 billion (US$27.8 billion) in 2021 to THB1,1129.3 billion (US$36.1 billion) in 2026. The insurance penetration rate is 5.5 per cent (GlobalData).

In comparison, markets like Hong Kong (20.8 per cent), Taiwan (17.4 per cent), and South Korea (11.6 per cent) have a 3-6x higher penetration (Swiss Re). 

Also Read: PasarPolis raises US$5M from World Bank’s International Finance Corporation to democratise insurance

“A low insurance penetration rate means big market growth potential,” he shared. “But two things are crucial to boosting the growth to double digits. One, focus on new and innovative products delivered at speed through cutting-edge technology and a deep focus on building customers’ trust to give them a more seamless insurance journey. Two, a 10x better insurance purchase and claims experience by helping customers achieve financial security at every life stage and market,” he maintained.

“We have identified that the greatest opportunities lie in new insurable risks or utilising technology to insure previously uninsurable risks where incumbents do not have a strong foothold,” Randing remarked. “For example, we offer affordable but highly profitable gadget insurance for crack screen and accidental damage, which had seen exponential uptake of more than 20x in the last year, with 175,000 device protections sold in December 2021.”

The insurtech company says consumers can expect many more offerings in 2023, primarily affordable, sensible products and premiums through PasarPolis. 

“It’s not just a matter of cost, but whether underwriter firms are willing to launch affordable products for Indonesians. PasarPolis is determined to answer the main challenges posed and serve the vast underinsured so that all levels of society in Indonesia can be insured. We want to make the entire process of buying and claiming insurance delightful, with everything just a tap away,” said Randing.

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‘Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.’

This quote by Benjamin Franklin continues to be strikingly relevant. The learning and development (L&D) landscape has never been this complex, and as it continues to evolve into a new chapter, it is demanding out-of-the-box approaches from industry professionals.

As we welcome the new year, it is clear that megatrends and the pandemic have changed the way we work and what we expect from a workplace. 

While digital transformation is fuelling business growth, it is also creating a need for talents with technical knowledge, specialised expertise as well as power skills such as empathy, self-awareness, and a growth mindset. The talent crunch and fight for talents in a limited pool are becoming more pressing with every passing day.

Meanwhile, the emergence of Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting has spotlighted the dissatisfaction and lack of happiness among employees. All these factors are driving organisations to think of ways to revitalise their workforce with renewed passion, shared purpose and a greater work-life balance. Amid an economic downturn, the era of loud layoffs is another management challenge for HR professionals as companies rejig and trim their workforce to maximise return on investment. 

Moving forward, all indications are that the economy will slow, inflation will rise, and in such an environment, organisations will seek transformational change as they implement the lessons of digital and hybrid working.

According to LinkedIn’s 2022 Workplace Learning Report Southeast Asia, 91 per cent of L&D leaders in the region have helped their organisation adapt to change. As part of Singapore’s Budget in 2022, the government set aside US$100 million to scale up efforts to help companies implement concrete training and transformation programmes, ensuring they re-skill and upskill workers effectively.

Digital coaching will gather steam as a tool to deliver change

Tools like digital mentoring and coaching have assumed a key role in enabling employees to deal with such a transformative change. The perception that it is merely ant for a handful of elite executives and massively expensive is changing with the advent of digital coaching, which has made it affordable and scalable for companies.

Also Read: How Noodle Factory addresses educator burnout with its AI-powered teaching assistants

For many companies in Southeast Asia like Sodexo, it is now a key strategy that many organisations are leveraging to execute against business priorities which include digital transformation. Because it is an impactful intervention for driving change and building new capabilities, companies will boost their investments in these learning and development solutions.

The top areas where coaching will help drive transformation apart from leadership development, which is a key priority, include – employee well-being, women in leadership & inclusive leadership. It can play a pivotal role in offering employees a well-being and support framework to replace traditional, in-office support and classroom learning.

The gift of lifelong learning

Learning is becoming increasingly personalised and highly experiential. People will forget 70 per cent of the information they learn within a week of training, and 87 per cent will forget it within a month.

HR practitioners recognise that just because people can now access a lot of learning, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are converting the knowledge into real-life skills. Moreover, society is witnessing an increasing volume of information on the back of technology.

A global survey by OpenText in 2022 showed that 76 per cent of participants felt that information overload contributes to their daily stress. When we feel overloaded, though, the downside is that we find it hard and really difficult to do deep and quality learning. 

High-performing organisations foster a culture of continuous learning and take a much more holistic approach to training and developing their most strategic asset: their people, which is why L&D programmes should measure both an employee’s performance and improvement in their personal lives. The new year can be an opportune time to hand over to the employees the gift of lifelong learning. 

In 2023, the business world will continue to move away from multi-day training workshops toward shorter webinars and on-demand content. This “nugget learning” fits more naturally into hybrid work and the gig economy, though it increases the mental pressure for employees to squeeze more out of each day.

The underlying tension due to a multigenerational workforce

For the first time ever in human history, there are now five generations working together in the same workplace, like the Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials and Generation Z.

Gen Z workers, owing to their global exposure, are the most racially and ethnically diverse and most educated workforce in history. Highly values-driven, this generation will push for changes in the workplace and in society. This means that they will be more likely to challenge stereotypes and demand more inclusive policies and practices.

Gen Zs also value transparency and collaboration, which can help create a more open workplace culture. As digital natives, they are more likely to use technology in the workplace and bring innovative solutions to companies.

Middle management is at the frontlines in an office setting

Given all the shifts, interestingly, the talent segment most at risk is middle management. Middle managers are required to work virtually with all levels of an organisation, from upper management to frontline workers, and typically form the bulk of the workforce.

They’re usually a key source of future senior executive talent pipelines that should be developed as they are valuable assets in critical times to managing change and operating through continual uncertainty.

What’s next for learning and development

On the back of the challenges and priorities I outlined for learning and development teams, we will expect to see more digitisation. They will increasingly rely on organisational data. L&D strategies and programmes will benefit from insights around work patterns, communications tool usage and productivity.

Also Read: How the metaverse opens new opportunities for education

Meanwhile, on top of the increased focus on data and analytics in learning programmes, L&D strategies will be leveraging other emerging technologies. The rise of virtual and augmented reality technologies, as well as advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), is now used to provide more personalised learning experiences. Gamification and microlearning are also predicted to be major trends, as they enable users to learn more in shorter amounts of time.

Additionally, companies are progressively turning to technology such as mobile apps and cloud-based services to provide more efficient and cost-effective learning experiences. This places digital coaching at the forefront of business transformation and development, helping businesses stay resilient and up-to-date in an ever-changing digital landscape.

Immersive technologies will become more commonplace in organisational learning environments. Virtual reality (VR) will be particularly popular in sectors where traditional training requires expensive equipment, such as healthcare, defence and construction. Other industries will begin to use more VR experiences for soft skills training, and early adopter organisations will use VR and AR (augmented reality) for some team events and conferences, reducing the environmental impacts of international travel.

Broadly, a one size fits all approach to learning and development is no longer relevant or impactful, and a personalised approach has taken over. This is where the role of organisational data and emerging technologies will become more prominent as the industry moves forth. 

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Making more money than last year is a worthwhile new year’s goal for online sellers, but allow me to suggest an even better goal – to make real money.

This goal is in keeping with the explosion of sellers on marketplaces like Shopee, Lazada and DTC brand stores built on platforms like Shopify in Asia Pacific. In the last three years, the pandemic has created a whole class of online business owners who are trying to escape the fixed income trap and trying their hand at e-commerce.

Many online sellers in the Asia Pacific are new to e-commerce, transitioning from brick-and-mortar stores or starting from scratch. This often leads to a “shotgun, revenue at any cost” approach, where sellers throw anything at the wall to see what sticks.

This should not be celebrated, as it discourages proper research into what works. In reality, there are many best practices that can help fast-track the success of e-commerce entrepreneurs in the Asia Pacific. Online sellers should work smarter, not just harder.

As the Co-Founder and CEO of Konigle, a software that helps online stores implement profitable growth tactics automatically, I’ve been privy to see what works and, just as importantly, what doesn’t work with online selling across the world.

In the spirit of helping more online entrepreneurs hit their financial goals for the new year, I’d like to share some of these profitable growth tactics, which are often overlooked by online sellers.

Go with the tailwinds

I have often seen online sellers search high and low for a unique growth hack that will lead to exponential growth for their store. There is nothing wrong with searching for these creative strategies, but it can get counterproductive when entrepreneurs spend all their time canvassing for this silver bullet.

Also Read: How e-commerce brands can tap into the US$600 billion social commerce market potential

The simplest alternative to such tactics is to go with the industry tailwinds simply. In the world of e-commerce, the most common tailwinds are the events and occasions when people are ready and willing to shop more.

An example of this would be any seasonal sale, such as 11-11 or Cyber Monday. Most online sellers would get more out of planning an aggressive campaign for such seasonal sales than devising a stand-alone, one-off strategy.

Prepare for the worst

This is the worst-case scenario that can happen to any e-commerce entrepreneur: An online shopper learns about your brand, goes to your site in search of a particular product, navigates his way to the relevant listing, and then finds that the product is out-of-stock.

For the vast majority of online stores, this event will represent a two-fold loss: They will not sell that particular product, and the customer will likely never return, feeling that the brand is unreliable.

Though entrepreneurs don’t like when their products are out of stock, they need to prepare for this eventuality. It can and will happen. The best way to prepare for this scenario is to implement an out-of-stock alert, where sellers can submit their contact information in order to be notified when the item returns on your virtual shelves. Implementing this kind of alert will make customers more understanding of any inventory issues and more likely to patronise the brand again in the future.

Optimise your pricing

When viewing late-night informercials or navigating a department store, you may have noticed that prices tend to cluster around certain numbers. This is no accident. Numerous studies have shown a psychological benefit to pricing that ends in particular figures, such as 9, .99, .95, 0, and 5. This is known as charm pricing, for it may charm customers into purchasing who may have otherwise been on the fence about buying.

Also Read: How to start and scale an e-commerce business in 2023

This is a much better strategy than what I commonly see in the region: Sellers will just blindly follow the recommended sales price of the brand or manufacturer, even though that figure will likely not be optimised.

Charm pricing strategies differ by industry and product. They also vary by country. Online sellers can use this comprehensive study to identify the best strategy for their store and implement it store-wide. We did a study of over 1.5 million DTC online stores worldwide and found that stores using charm pricing made an estimated four per cent more in revenue, in addition to having a better brand recall.

Final thoughts 

These are just three simple tactics that would serve online sellers in the Asia Pacific well. There are other tactics I could have added, but the bigger takeaway should be about our orientation as sellers. Rather than buy into the hustle-culture of relentless working, we should prioritise spending more time working on the business rather than just in the business in the new year.

Central to this goal is examining what others have already done and applying their learnings to our own store. This way, we can realise the full potential of e-commerce, allowing us to make real money, aka profitable revenue.

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Jumppoint, a Hong Kong-based digital integrated logistics startup, has completed its US$6.5 million Series A funding round led by MindWorks Capital.

Headline Asia, Chinachem Group, Philip Kuai (Founder of Dada Nexus), and the Innovation and Technology Venture Fund of the Hong Kong SAR Government participated.

The funding will be used to expand Jumppoint’s team and enhance the capabilities of its platform, besides strengthening local operations and further expanding its services in Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia through a roll-up strategy.

“This funding will allow us to further invest in our technology and bring even more value to our customers,” said Founder and CEO Samson Ho.

Also Read: The first-mile container logistics is ripe for digital disruption. Here’s how Haulio is doing it

Founded in 2020, Jumppoint offers a one-stop platform covering express, warehousing, fulfilment, and cross-border logistics services. It aggregates long-tailed logistics service providers and optimises its partners’ operational efficiency by offering a standardised operating system.

It has also expanded into the cross-border e-commerce logistics market with proprietary international freight forwarding and CBEC logistics network capability.

The company has built a proprietary dynamic route optimisation engine and demand prediction engine, which have increased logistics efficiency and reduced cost by up to 40 per cent.

The firm currently handles over 200,000 orders per month and manages approximately 400,000 sq ft of warehouse space. With year-over-year growth of over 300 per cent, Jumppoint claims it is on track to reach profitability by Q3 2023.

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