Almost a quarter of products available in the office and retailers market are now available online, according to Defaqto’s latest report into Commercial SME Insurance ‘The future is online’.

Defaqto’s research shows that there has been an increase in the availability of online SME products over the last year, with increases of 7% in the number of office products, with 24% in total available online, and 4% in the number of retailers products, with 24% again in total available online.

It also found an increase of 6% in the number of tradesmen products, with 30% in total available online.

Mike Powell, insight analyst and author of the report, said: “Many SMEs are prepared to research their business insurance needs online. Our own research shows that the industry has slowly started to take note of this and is developing products for the web.