The collapse of many of the first wave of pure play dot.com retailers may have given the impression that the Internet was dead as a sales channel. Not so - all that has happened is that the business model has changed.

While pure Internet retailers, or e-tailers, have had a rough ride with even the most successful, Amazon.com, yet to deliver profits, traditional bricks and mortar companies have been quietly adding Internet sales channels to their offerings - and the insurance industry is no different.

Irish people can now get quotations for household, motor, travel and a range of other insurances on the Internet. And most sites are simple and easy to use.

One of the best around is the Hibernian Direct site - www.hiberniandirect.ie. A user can get quotations and buy from the range of Hibernian insurance products. They can also request a call from a Hibernian representative to discuss particular issues.

The Quinn Direct site - www.quinn-direct.ie - also allows people to get quotes for a range of insurance products.

Another excellent site is the Allianz subsidiary First Call Direct - www.firstcalldirect.ie. This allows people to get quotes and buy a range of household and motor insurance products. A key features is that it does not deliver just one quote but up to 12 based on a number of options.

"This is serving a growing constituency," says Damian O'Neill of Allianz. "It opens up the 24x7 facility for insurance and allows people to buy insurance from work or home at a time of their own choosing. Our customers can also use the site to renew policies, request claim forms and so on. The response has been very good and we are seeing customers moving over in increasing numbers."

However, many people are not entirely comfortable with buying insurance over the Internet. This is why sites such as www.axa.ie are more informational than sales oriented and do not have a quotation engine included.

FBD doesn't include the Internet in its plans at present. "We have always prided ourselves on keeping in touch with our customers," says Anthony Cullen of FBD. "This is one of the differentiators between ourselves and our competitors. While our competitors have been centralising, we have concentrated on developing our network of 48 branch offices around the country and this brings us closer to our customers.

"Many people are hesitant about using the Internet. They will always like to have the personal touch on matters such as insurance. As a consequence, we don't have any plans to introduce online quotation facilities at present."

In an industry where customer loyalty is becoming increasingly important there may be merit to this approach. The Internet is already allowing people the facility to shop around for quotes from the comfort of their homes or offices thus commoditising products such as home and motor insurance - and this is the antithesis of loyalty building.

However, the fact remains that companies which do not give online quotations will find themselves losing out on the growing share of the market which does want to buy insurance on the Internet.