TOKYO — Convenience store chain Seven-Eleven Japan is partnering with insurance company MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings to sell life insurance, allowing the insurance company to avoid face-to-face sales amid fear of coronavirus.
Customers will be able to register the necessary information through multi-function machines in Seven-Eleven’s 20,000 stores. The application process is complete once they pay the insurance fee at the cashier. Customers will also be able to do part of the process through their smartphones or PCs.
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Life insurance is normally sold by MS&AD’s staff face-to-face with customers, and Seven-Eleven will be the first convenience store chain in Japan to sell life insurance. The partnership comes as insurance companies search for new sales approaches since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.
Seven-Eleven and MS&AD are planning to set up call centers where licensed insurance sales staff can talk to customers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to ensure the same quality of services offered by insurance shops.
As the first step of the partnership, Seven-Eleven and MS&AD’s affiliate Mitsui Sumitomo Aioi Life Insurance will start selling cancer insurance starting June 16. The monthly insurance fee will be set at several thousand yen.
Mitsui Sumitomo Aioi Life Insurance signs about 300,000 new personal insurance contracts per year. With its tie-up with Seven-Eleven Japan, the company targets 60,000 contracts per year, mainly for elderly people.