Pet Metrics: Consumer Approaches to Pet Insurance in Selected Global Markets

Finaccord's report titled Pet Metrics: Consumer Approaches to Pet Insurance in Selected Global Markets offers detailed and up-to-date insights into the behaviour of pet owners in ten countries – Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the US – in the context of pet insurance. Based on a primary survey of over 12,500 consumers across these countries carried out in the second and third quarters of 2017 (breaking down between around 2,000 in China and the US, more than 1,500 in Brazil and 1,000 or more in each of the other seven), the research provides valuable data describing the extent to which owners of cats, dogs and other animals take out pet insurance.

In addition to calculating the percentage of pet owners that buy pet insurance, the investigation also analyses the types of policy that they buy (i.e. stand-alone policies or cover packaged within household insurance or personal liability insurance), whether they hold cover for veterinary expenses or only for less likely / costly risks such as pet liability, which distribution channel and interface they use to take out stand-alone pet insurance, whether they buy cover within a week or a month of acquiring their pet or at a later stage, and whether they acquire pet insurance as a result of any particular prompt (e.g. e-mail or mobile advertising).

Finally, the report measures the degree to which insured pet owners have used their cover to file a claim in the 12 months leading up to the survey and, if so, the reason for making the claim and whether the claim was accepted or not. Claims frequency is also analysed by type and age of pet as well as by type of cover held.

Indeed, key features of this report include:

• analyses showing the percentage of cat owners, dog owners and owners of different types of pet that acquire pet insurance in each country, how this varies by gender, age group and annual household income of respondent, and the potential for this proportion to grow further;

• data describing the percentage of pet owners covered for expenses associated with veterinary treatment (in the event or accident or illness) and other broader pet-related risks in addition to pet liability;

• statistics illustrating the extent to which alternative distribution channels, such as aggregators, banks, cashback websites, charities, pet owners' clubs, supermarkets / other retailers and vets are eroding the share of conventional insurance distributors, including direct sales by pet insurance underwriters;

• information depicting whether pet owners prefer to buy pet insurance online, by phone or by post, as opposed to in person on a face-to-face basis, and how these distribution interfaces cross-tabulate with the aforementioned distribution channels;

• insights into claims frequency and claims acceptance rates for pet insurance in each country.