What Does Bike Shop Insurance Cover?

While shop insurance is essential for any business owner who runs a shop, taking out insurance for a bike shop is a little different from what a retail shop across the road may need.

In most cases, as a bike shop owner, your stock will be of a higher value than a neighbouring shop selling groceries and daily papers or a shop selling fashion clothes and accessories. Therefore, your bike shop will be more tempting for thieves to target, which is why you need to take out bike shop insurance coverage from providers that know the risks you face.

Most retail shop owners will take out insurance that covers public liability for shop floor accidents, employer’s liability insurance, and stock insurance. However, many ready-made off-the-shelf shop insurance packages will include stock insurance vastly undervalued for a bike shop.

This is why working with a dedicated business insurance specialist, such as Brisco Business Insurance, makes so much sense. We will find you the best deals from the UK’s leading insurance providers and personally tailor a policy that meets all of your business needs.

What does bike shop insurance cover?

Bike shop business insurance goes much further than covering the costs of stolen stock or compensation claims from accidents happening on your premises. Like other brick-and-mortar retail shops, you will need to protect the building you operate from with buildings and contents insurance against emergency events such as a devastating fire, flood or storm damage.

If you employ staff in your bike shop, then it is a legal requirement for you to carry employer’s liability insurance to protect you from employee accidents, disputes and compensation claims. Employer’s liability insurance is needed even if you employ volunteers or work experience students in your shop. This coverage will protect you should a staff member fall ill or get injured while working for you.

Product liability insurance is also seen as essential coverage in the retail industry. Even if you don’t manufacture the products you sell, you can still be held responsible for selling faulty goods that cause harm or damage to your customers.

Protecting your bike shop with shop window insurance is also a good idea. In most cases of smash-and-grab theft, burglars will break the front window of a shop to make off with the most expensive products on display in the window.

If you rent your bike shop from a commercial landlord, it is worth checking with them to see if their building’s insurance covers the shop window. In some cases, a commercial landlord will expect their tenants to take out shop windows or shop front insurance, especially if they can alter the shop front to display their products better.

Depending on whether you own the building you operate from, you may need building insurance. If you rent from a commercial landlord, the building’s insurance is the responsibility of your landlord. However, it is worth checking their policy to see exactly what is covered.

Do you need specialist bike shop insurance?

Ensuring you have the right type and level of insurance for a bike shop business can make all the difference between having your insurance claim paid in full should the worst happen or having to pay out of pocket to make up for any shortfalls not covered in your policy.

The basic insurance coverage your bike shop needs include:

• Public liability insurance
• Employers’ liability insurance
• Stock insurance
• Buildings and contents insurance
• Business equipment insurance
• Legal expenses insurance

The amount of coverage you need for each of the above elements will depend on the size of your bike shop, how many staff you employ, and the amount and value of the stock you carry. You don’t want to over or under-insure yourself, so it can help to discuss your needs with our team at Brisco Business Insurance if you are unsure about how much coverage you need.

There is no average bike shop insurance to compare your needs with, but the above-listed coverage would be considered essential by most bike shop owners. However, more attention needs to be paid to the high value of your shop’s stock.

Remember that when you calculate the value of your stock for insurance purposes, your figures should be based on the cost price of your inventory rather than its retail value. You should base your stock insurance coverage on what it will cost you to replace at cost value. If your stock should be stolen and you base your claim on its retail value, your insurance provider will refuse to pay your claim.

How do you compare bike shop insurance quotes?

When comparing quotes online with Brisco Business Insurance, working out the best deal for your bike shop insurance cost is easy. While the cost of your insurance policy will be at the top of your mind, it will help you never to be tempted by a cheap quote based on the price alone.

Some insurance quotes may offer cheap premiums, but when you look deeper, a bargain quote may provide minimal coverage in an area that will leave your claim undervalued should the worst happen. This is why it pays to read the small print.

Remember that the quotes you see based around your stock insurance will be based on the estimated costs of replacing your stock following a burglary, but those estimates will be based on the figures you supply. If you under or overestimate the value of your bike shop stock, this will affect the price of your policy.

Remember that your bike shop insurance policy will be built up of many elements of coverage above and beyond simply replacing your stock following a burglary. Your quote will include coverage to protect you against compensation claims, repairs and refurbishments to your shop, replacement business equipment such as computers and office furniture following a fire or flood etc.

Taking some time to read the small print within your quote carefully is helpful because there can often be terms, conditions, and clauses that are easy to miss at first glance. There is so much to consider when taking out bike shop insurance that it can help to talk through your needs with our team of experienced business insurance brokers. We have years of experience helping thousands of UK businesses find the proper protection for their business.

Conclusion

The most efficient way of comparing bike shop insurance quotes is to do it online with Brisco Business Insurance. You can read through plenty of cost-effective quotes sourced from the UK’s leading insurance providers, but it is worth doing this when you have plenty of time to read through each quote and ensure that the coverage on offer will meet your individual needs.

If you don’t have a lot of available time to read through your quotes, or you are unsure about the elements you need to include in your bike shop insurance policy, feel free to contact us to discuss your needs.

Maria Hickey

For more than 20 years, Maria has worked in the insurance sector and has extensive underwriting and customer service expertise. Maria is an experienced Senior Underwriter with a particular specialism for shop, office and surgery related insurance.

All articles by Maria Hickey