There are lots of responsibilities that comes with running a retail shop beside the standard business license.
Your work, stocks, employee’s equipment, and every new hire need to be protected by an insurance policy. With everything going on in your business, you might be asking yourself if you need legal protection for your store.
To answer this question, you have to understand what having the right coverage will do for your retail shop.
What Will an Insurance Cover in a Retail Shop?
The risks you need to be protected from as a retail shop owner includes
- Employee injury
- Customer injury
- Property damages
- Stocks and equipment’ damages
- Reputational damages
- Losses as a result of burglaries and vandalism
- The cost associated with lawsuits
- Fees associated with replacing and removing false advertising
The idea is for an insurance company or broker to help cover all these risks that are associated with a retail shop. An indemnity broker would be able to provide you with coverages that work best for your specific retail shop. You can find more here on the benefits of an insurance broker for your small company.
Types of Insurance that can be Provided to a Retail Shop
General Liability
The primary coverage of any retail outlet is general liability coverage. This helps to protect you from any liability claim brought to your firm as a result of bodily harm, property damage, reputation mismanagement, or breaches of contract. For example, if a customer gets injured in your shop, your protection will handle their medical bills, and if they choose to sue, your legal expenses would be covered.
Workers Compensation
A lot of people have heard of worker’s compensation, and the stories are true! Workers comp covers medical costs, and a portion of the wages if an employee suffers an injury at work. Most states legally require you to have worker’s compensation for your shop, so everyone must check with their state laws.
The cost of worker’s compensation varies from carrier to carrier, so ensure to find out how much if one of your employees were to get injured. You can check the link below for more on worker’s compensation.
Business Property Coverage
Business property coverage or commercial property indemnification will help to handle any damage done to your properties, or the building as a whole, due to fire or flood.
A few examples of losses that can be covered by business property coverage include:
- Fire
- Lightning
- Windstorm damage
- Natural causes like a hurricane
- Flood
- Vandalism
Business Interruption Coverage
A business interruption coverage will help to handle the expenses and help recover a portion of the amount lost if your store shuts down as a result of a covered loss, such as a fire or flood. To be fully oriented about what’s been covered by business income insurance policy, ask the assurance broker to break down parts of your plan.
Business Vehicle Insurance
If you have business vehicles for your work operations, then a vehicle or commercial auto coverage is essential for protecting your company automobiles. In some cases, vehicle drivers are also insured, especially if they are driving a non-company car for work operations.
Signs and Advertising Insurance
Depending on the policy, this kind of indemnity will help to cover the cost of a lot of things like taking out stickers and rebranding logos, fixing a sign attached to business property, paying out fees brought upon by false and misleading adverts. However, this type of coverage can go by different names but mostly perform the same functions.
Business Crime Insurance
In truth, there are lots of ways a firm can lose money. With business crime indemnity, your significant losses can be turned into a minor one. Depending on your policy, this type of coverage can help to cover losses incurred by
- Theft; this has to be done with the corporate funds
- Employee dishonesty; when an employee’s steals from the company
- Fraud and forgery
- Damages to essential documents- including the replacements and photocopies of those documents
- Hacking and cybersecurity; whether there is a breach or hack in your company’s system
There is a lot to consider when finding the right retail insurance. Honestly, you would be missing out on a lot of coverages and help your company if you wish to run your store without the aid of an insurance company or broker.
An indemnity company would help provide you with the best policies that are suited for your retail store, and as discussed above, they would give you a lot of protection so as your retail store can remain viable.
