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A new report from analyst firm Datamonitor, "Online customer management and cross-selling in Europe and the US", outlines a future where on-line financial institutions become strongly diversified.
Datamonitor said its research showed one in four UK consumers would consider buying an automobile from a financial services provider. Those numbers rise to more than 30 percent in some parts of continental Europe, and the researchers said consumers are also open to the idea of getting travel services from financial service companies.
"In the future it is likely that financial services companies will become highly diversified as they strive to provide the right product at the right time through the most advantageous channel," the report said. "Consumers value the idea of a 'one stop shop' and are open to the concept of buying a variety of products from the one supplier. Financial service providers should trade-off this knowledge and highlight to customers the overall benefits associated with grouping their purchases."
The researchers argue that buying more than one product from a financial portal would help encourage the customer's loyalty to the institution. But they also warned that cross-selling comes at a price, since the financial services companies will also have to provide better service to customers, which will drive up costs. "It is vital that financial service institutions ensure that these costs do not outweigh the revenue gained as a result of cross-selling," the report said.
The opportunities for cross-selling could go much wider than cars and automobiles, according to the research. Consumers surveyed also said they would consider purchasing electronic products, telephone services and utilities from financial service institutions.
The report also outlined the market financial service companies should target for their services. Although most surfers who use the Internet and use financial products tend to be male, the researchers recommend that financial services companies turn their focus to women instead, since more female surfers are now starting to go on-line.
But the greatest growth opportunity lies with younger surfers, Datamonitor said, and financial companies are advised to advertise on and forge stronger links with Web sites that 16 to 24 year olds are already using on-line. "By appealing to them as leisure users, efforts can then be made to move them towards carrying out life administration tasks, such as banking on-line," the researchers said."This could be a good way to plant the seeds for account aggregation development."
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