5 essential areas your retail insurance should cover

A must have for any retail business, retail insurance can keep your business protected against the common risks and exposures it may face, from property damage, to theft, to loss of stock. However, it can be tricky to find the right policy which covers everything you need. Here, we look at five essential things that your retail insurance should cover.

Contents

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1. Insurance liability cover
2. Commercial property insurance
3. Stock, contents & equipment
4. Business interruption
5. Legal protection

1. Insurance Liability Cover

As a business owner, you’ve got to assume responsibility for a lot of different areas, some of which may be out of your direct control. As such, it’s important to make sure that your retail insurance covers you in any and all situations where a claim may be made against you or your business.

Employers’ Liability Insurance

As an employer, your staff’s health and wellbeing in the workplace is your responsibility. It’s down to you to ensure that your workplace is safe and clean, and that you’ve taken all reasonable precautions to prevent any injuries from occurring or any illnesses from developing. However, despite all our best efforts, accidents happen and they can lead to you owing compensation.

Why should I have employers’ liability cover for my retail business?

Employer’s liability insurance is a legal requirement that covers you in the event that one of your employees is injured or develops an illness in the workplace. The policy ensures that you’ll always be able to afford to pay out any compensation that you owe, whether it’s medical bills or loss of earnings.

Public Liability Insurance

Just as you’re responsible for your employees, as a business owner you’re also responsible for the safety of any members of the public who visit your establishment. Again, you’ll be expected to take all reasonable precautions to prevent any injuries from occurring on your premises, but accidents can happen. If any member of the public is injured on your property, you’ll be held responsible and may be liable to pay compensation.

Why should I have public liability cover for my retail business?

Similarly to employers’ liability insurance, public liability insurance covers you in the event that a member of the public is injured in your premises. While it’s technically not a legal requirement, it’s essential for all businesses, as it ensures that you as a business owner will always be able to afford to pay out any compensation that you owe, which can become staggeringly expensive.

It’s not just a necessity for property owners either. If you lease a premises for your business, you’ll still need public liability insurance in case an injury is caused by a piece of your equipment, a wet floor or a stray box of stock.

Product Liability Insurance

It’s not just accidents or injuries on your premises that you’ve got to worry about. If an injury occurs or an illness develops as a result of one of your products, you may be held accountable. This is where product liability insurance comes in handy.

Why should I have product liability cover for my retail business?

Whether it’s illness caused by food sold by your business or injury caused by a faulty product, accidents can happen. While you may not have produced the faulty product yourself, you’ll be an angry customer’s first port of call should anything go wrong, and they may claim compensation against your company. Product liability insurance ensures that you’ll always be able to afford to pay any compensation, and as such it’s a must have for any business.

2. Commercial Property Cover

Your commercial premises is the heart of your business. It’s where the magic happens and the money is made, so you’ll want to make sure that it’s covered should anything happen to it. Buildings insurance is there to protect you and your business should anything happen to your premises which causes interruption to your day-to-day dealings or loss of income.

As a retail business owner, without a commercial premises it’s all but impossible to run your business to its full potential and make a living. Therefore, it’s essential that your retail insurance policy includes cover for your premises.

Fire, floods, storms or other extreme weather can inflict a huge amount of damage to a building, but with a good buildings insurance policy you’ll be covered for all repairs, even to the point of a complete rebuild.

3. Stock, Contents & Equipment

Your business is more than just the building. Within your premises sit thousands of pounds worth of assets which, if damaged or lost, could mean huge financial losses. Luckily, there are insurance covers to protect you should this happen.

In the retail game, your stock is everything. As many measures as you put in place to protect it, accidents can still happen and damage or loss of stock can be very costly for any business. With stock insurance, any financial losses caused by loss of stock will be covered.

But what about everything else on your premises? From computer equipment and expensive specialist equipment, to anything and everything that your business needs to run efficiently, the contents of your business’ premises are almost invaluable. So, it could be an incredibly expensive setback if you were to lose your building’s contents through damage or theft. This is where contents insurance comes in. With a good policy, you’ll be able to sleep easy knowing that you’re fully covered, with your financial exposure minimised and your lost contents repaired or replaced at no cost to you or your business.

4. Business Interruption Cover

If the last eighteen months have proven anything, it’s that however prepared you are as a business owner, it’s impossible to predict when disaster will strike and your business will have to close. For many businesses, any closure, even a short one, can mean financial instability and the potential of permanent closure.

With this in mind, business interruption insurance is an indispensable element of any good retail insurance policy. It covers any lost revenue accrued when your business is closed, keeping you going until you’re ready to open the doors again.

A typical business interruption policy will keep you covered if your business has to close after something like a fire, flood or explosion. However, it’s important to keep in mind that there’ll be no cover for forced closure because of something like a pandemic or lockdown.

5. Legal protection

As a business owner, you’ll be all too aware that there’ll be times where you may need legal protection. Employment issues, contracts with third parties, VAT investigations, there are a number of challenges you and your business may face. But there’s no need to worry if you’re covered by a comprehensive legal protection insurance policy.

As with all legal proceedings, costs can skyrocket, leaving many businesses out to dry as they’re unable to meet the financial demand. Legal protection insurance ensures that these costs are covered, giving you the peace of mind that, should your business come up against a claim, you’re safe. Safeguard your assets and ensure continuity with our reliable business insurance policies at Brisco 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