As Hurricane Willa rapidly moves closer to the US border, how are insurance companies preparing for this next calamity? The rise in natural catastrophes puts mounting pressure on insurance margins. While there’s no resisting Mother Nature, insurance companies need to prepare themselves for the nearly $90 billion in new insurance sales in 2019.

The challenge insurers face is to reach customers at the right moment. Our forecast shows that in the US much of these sales are digitally influenced. This means that the transactions occur offline but are enabled by online research. While online insurance sales are rapidly growing, the greater opportunity for insurers is finding customers when they search for a new insurance and drive them to skilled offline agents expeditiously. With natural disasters, this is harder to plan for. But other insurances are better to predict: Americans spend the most on their auto insurance, for example. Insurance companies that understand what customers are looking for in an insurance, and service to their needs, are more likely to win and retain them. This offers excellent opportunities for upsell and cross-sell — in case that disaster does hit.

For more information on the online- or digital-influenced insurance market opportunity by various products, please see our “Forrester Data: Online Insurance Forecast, 2017 To 2022 (US)” report.