FROM OUR PARTNERS
There are many liabilities running a store that can cause potential law suites, property damage, and financial losses that can hurt your bottom line. Retail store insurance can protect your business and employees against various liabilities. We’ve evaluated the best business insurance providers based on coverage, financial stability, customer satisfaction, and overall quality.
Simply Business provides insurance policies for a range of professions and small businesses.
For more than 200 years, the Hartford Insurance helped over 1 million businesses just like yours.
Coverwallet began its journey in New York City in 2015 operating under the Aon Insurance banner. At Coverwallet, you can access everything you need to keep your company well-protected at an unbeatable price.
Next Insurance leverages AI technology to streamline the process to purchase insurance, track claims, and manage policies at no additional cost.
With a 100-year history of insuring businesses, Hiscox is well-known across America and globally. With more than 500,000 small business customers, Hiscox is fully aware and trained in the unique risks a business can face.
Thimble provides business insurance that can be tailored to your business by the year, month, day, or even the job. At Thimble, the process to getting the right business insurance is simple, scalable, and flexible.
In a busy retail store, it’s almost impossible to predict when accidents or problems might arise. A customer could slip over and get hurt or an employee might make a mistake that could financially impact your business.
Retail store insurance protects business owners against several risks including legal liability, property damage, and third-party bodily injury.
Businesses that sell consumer goods and services should consider getting retail store insurance. Types of businesses that should consider retail store insurance include (but are not limited to):
When taking out retail store insurance, it’s important to consider different types of coverage and policies to adequately cover your business. The most common types of coverage for retail stores are:
The first insurance policy you’re likely to buy for your business is general liability insurance. It provides essential coverage for retailers that can protect your business against basic risk factors such as a customer getting injured on your premises, or a customer filing a lawsuit against you for wrongful conduct.
Coverage for general liability insurance can include third-party property damage, third-party claims of bodily injury, personal and advertising injury, claims of slander and copyright infringement, legal fees, and settlement costs.
Common exclusions for general liability insurance include theft of merchandise, workplace accidents and injuries for employees, professional mistakes, tools, and equipment.
Often referred to as errors and omissions insurance, if you make a professional mistake that results in a financial loss for the client, you can protect your business against legal action that might be taken against you. For instance, if your retail store provides personal styling services, a customer might claim that you did an inadequate job or didn’t provide the service within the expected timeframe, then sue you for damages.
Your professional liability insurance coverage can protect you against professional negligence, legal defense costs, legal judgments, and missed deadlines.
Exclusions can include employee workplace injuries, property damage, accidents while using a vehicle, and false advertising.
If your business hires employees, most states require you to have workers’ compensation insurance. As your business grows and you hire more employees, the risk of an employee getting hurt increases. For instance, an employee might have an accident while restocking shelves, or injure their back while picking up a heavy box that requires medical treatment and time off work to recover.
Workers’ compensation insurance can provide coverage for medical expenses incurred by your employees due to a workplace accident, lost wages while your employees recover, survivor benefits, retraining of employees, permanent injury, and financial losses resulting from a lawsuit.
Exclusions can include executive officers and owners of businesses, incidents due to natural disasters, or pre-existing conditions an employee may have.
As a retail store it’s likely that you own or rent a physical space. Commercial property insurance can help protect your business against physical assets that your business requires to do business. This can include equipment, furniture, computers, inventory, and the building you use to run your business.
Coverage can include damage that results from specific hazards such as fire, vandalism, explosions, and falling objects, in addition to equipment breakdown and structural repairs to your building.
Common exclusions include third-party property and incidents arising out of wear and tear, damage due to floods or earthquakes, and intentional damage to your property by your employees.
If your retail store carries out deliveries such as a florist delivering flowers, you’ll likely want to consider commercial auto insurance for vehicles used for business purposes. In some states, this is a legal requirement as it can protect your employees from unexpected accidents.
When taking out commercial auto insurance, coverage is likely to include expenses for emergency medical care, damage to your vehicle, property damage, personal injury, collisions, towing and labor costs, and uninsured motorists.
Exclusions can include drivers under the age of 18 years old, food trucks, and vehicles with more than two axles.
If a disaster occurs that results in temporarily closing the store this can lead to a loss of business income. Business interruption insurance can help financially protect your business and help you pay expenses such as rent for your building until your business is operational again.
Coverage for business interruption insurance includes loss of income, rent or mortgage payments, costs to relocate and payroll.
Exclusions can include floods, earthquakes, and pandemics.
When you take out a retail store insurance policy, your limits will determine the maximum amount you can claim in a given policy period. If your claims exceed your coverage limits, the extra financial burden will need to be paid out-of-pocket. Therefore, it’s important to consider the type of business you operate, the services provided, and the associated risks when taking out retail store insurance.
Depending on the type of policy you take out and the size of your business, limits can go up to $2,000,000 and coverage can be adjusted to fit your business needs.
If your policy states a per-occurrence limit, this is the maximum amount you could be covered for a claim. An aggregate limit is the maximum amount you could receive with no limit to the number of claims you make in a policy period.
The cost of retail store insurance will vary from one business to another. Businesses are exposed to a range of risk factors that will impact your policy premium.
For instance, a florist delivering flowers might need to consider risks related to auto accidents, whereas a boutique clothing store with no delivery service but several employees may need to consider more extensive workers’ compensation insurance.
Typically, as your experience as a business owner grows, you are less likely to make costly mistakes that newer business owners may encounter. With fewer mistakes, this can lower the cost of your insurance premium.
Other factors such as the location and neighborhood of your business, deductibles, and your claims history can also affect your premium.
Looking for the best retail store insurance plan for your business can be a time-consuming task as each insurer will have different levels of coverage, with different terms and conditions in place. Here are some key factors to consider when shopping for your retail store insurance policy:
