How Much Does a Shop Need to be Insured For?

It is standard practice for homeowners to take out building and contents insurance to protect their home, but when it comes to ensuring your shop, you need to handle things a little differently. Firstly, your shop is your business, and it will have a set of very different risks than you face at home.

You can search for cheap shop insurance quotes with Brisco Business Insurance, but it will help keep the cost of your policy down if you only pay for the insurance your shop needs.

Depending on whether or not you own the building or rent your shop space from a commercial landlord, your building’s insurance will cover risks such as damage to the property’s structure. If you rent your shop space from a commercial landlord, it is usually the responsibility of your landlord to take out this insurance. However, it is worth checking to see what building insurance they have in place and what it covers.

In some cases, a commercial landlord may insure the building but will give the option of changing the shop front to the tenant to make it fit with their shop style and theme. In this case, you may need to take out extra cover in the form of a shop front or shop window glass insurance.

What’s a typical retail shop insurance quote?

Shop insurance offers excellent peace of mind for protecting your livelihood, but you want to ensure you pay the appropriate amount for your policy. While shop insurance is a generic term for this type of protection, you can add many different insurance elements to your policy, which means your retail shop insurance quote can look very different to your neighbours.

Each policy will be built around the business’s individual needs, so your shop may need a higher level of coverage in one type of insurance compared to a shop next door that sells completely different products. For example, a jewellery shop selling expensive pieces will need more stock insurance included on its policy than a shop that sells t-shirts.

While you are not legally required to take out buildings and contents insurance for your shop, if you employ staff in your shop, then you need to have employer’s liability insurance by law. This means that your business will be fully insured should a staff member claim compensation for an illness or injury sustained while working for you – even if a former employee claims after they have left your business, this insurance will protect you.

A typical shop insurance quote may include the following elements:

• Building insurance: To cover the costs of repairs and rebuilds to the physical structure of your shop should it be damaged or destroyed by fire or another seriously damaging event.
• Business interruption insurance: Should you ever need to close your shop for any length of time, this insurance will help cover any necessary expenses, such as shop rent and utility bills etc.
• Contents insurance: To cover the contents of your shop premises, such as furniture and equipment you use. This doesn’t generally include your shop stock or inventory, which you will need to insure separately.
• Employers’ liability: As already mentioned above, this insurance is required by law if you employ staff in your shop. This includes part-time, seasonal, voluntary or work-experience staff.
• Product liability: Even if you don’t manufacture the products you sell, a customer can claim compensation for harm done by a product you sell.
• Public liability: This is invaluable insurance for retail shops with customers entering their premises to buy products and services. Should a customer or member of the public slip and fall on your premises and get injured, this insurance will give you financial protection from compensation claims.
• Stock insurance: To cover loss or damage to the stock you store on your shop premises. This will protect you if your inventory is stolen, destroyed in a fire or damaged through vandalism.

Apart from employer’s liability insurance, most shop owners find that including a shop liability insurance quote in their retail shop insurance search essential. Public liability insurance is one of the most valuable insurances to take out simply because of the increased risks that shop owners face. Customer compensation claims can run into tens of thousands of pounds, which most shop owners can’t afford to pay out of their own pockets.

What happens if my shop insurance doesn’t cover the entire cost?

Cheap shop insurance quotes may look appealing on the surface, but it always pays to take a closer look at the small print. Being underinsured is a risk when you choose your shop insurance by price alone.

If you need to claim your insurance, your costs won’t be met if you are underinsured. This means that your insurance company may only pay out part of your costs following a devastating fire, flood or theft from your shop, leaving you to make up the difference out of your own pocket.

Depending on your savings level, covering the remaining costs could bankrupt your business. This is why it helps to know precisely how much insurance you need to take out to protect your shop business.

Retail shop insurance includes a range of coverage, but it can be helpful to get help building your policy from experienced business insurance brokers, such as Brisco Business Insurance. We can help ensure that you don’t go under or overinsure your business and never be left with out-of-pocket expenses should you need to make a claim.

How can I maximise my shop insurance cover?

The cost of your retail shop insurance will depend on the amount of coverage you need. While a bargain off-the-shelf shop insurance policy may tempt you, you may need more coverage in certain areas, such as stock insurance or contents insurance.

Accepting the first cheap shop insurance quote you find based on price alone can be risky, especially if you need more time to check the coverage and read the small print. Many policies can include hidden clauses that you may not find acceptable when you take the time to read all the quotes’ details.

This is why it makes so much sense to work with our team of experienced business insurance brokers at Brisco Business Insurance to find the most appropriate insurance to cover your needs. We will also help you find the best deals on the market from the UK’s leading insurance providers.

Conclusion

Cheap shop insurance quotes will always be tempting because they will help to keep your business overheads down. However, it would help if you were careful that by accepting a cheap quote, you don’t end up underinsuring yourself.

Should you ever need to make a claim on your shop insurance, it will be devastating to discover that your bargain insurance doesn’t cover your needs and will cost you far more in out-of-pocket expenses than choosing more appropriate shop insurance that has been carefully built around the individual needs of your shop.

At Brisco Business, we simplify the process of obtaining business insurance, allowing you to focus on growing your business.

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