We are still in the early days of digital personal investing. The last few years have seen some interesting developments around guidance, select lists and investment solutions (whether that means funds or robo portfolios). However, we’re lagging behind on getting customers to engage in the first place. Over the last year we’ve seen a number innovations looking to address the gap.
Some obvious developments are still in their infancy, such as the integration of online investing and online saving. Barclays and Hargreaves Lansdown are beginning to deliver on that, and Goldman Sachs’ investment in Nutmeg may be associated with its ambitions for its Marcus savings brand.
Barclays lost assets following its launch of Smart Investor, but has gained many new customers, demonstrating how its ability to cross-sell to millions of banking customers could be a serious competitive advantage.
Meanwhile, Legal and General also has big brand stature with powerful access to consumers through the workplace; what’s been missing so far is the engagement. L&G are smart enough to know that building an app isn’t enough in itself to get that engagement. So they’ve hired people with ‘innovation’, ‘digital strategy’, ‘emerging technologies’ and ‘data scientists’ in their job titles to think laterally around that challenge.
L&G says that corporates resemble powerful navies, while disruptive start-ups are more like pirates. The pirates don’t have a monopoly on innovation and are struggling to get a foothold in the D2C market.
For more information about out UK D2C research, please contact jeanluc.dejonge@platforum.co.uk