Home improvement stores carry everything someone would need to make home repairs or even commercial property repairs. This includes plumbing supplies, electrical supplies, appliances, hand and power tools, supplies for yard work and gardening, flooring, doors, windows, toilets and sinks, fixtures, paint, and many more supplies and accessories. While you can have a lucrative business selling home improvement supplies, you are also at risk for shoplifting, theft and a number of liabilities. Protect your business from these and other risks with home improvement store insurance.
Types of Home Improvement Store Insurance
Due to the different risks you may be exposed to, you should choose different home improvement store insurance policies. Consider one of the following insurance policies:
Home Improvement Store General Liability Insurance
General liability is the most basic of business insurance policies. It includes three types of coverage: premises liability, products liability and completed operations. Premises liability is for any injuries received on your premises, while products liability is for damage from the products you sold. Completed operations includes coverage for services you provide, such as installing countertops or tile flooring. General liability is an imperative home improvement store insurance to have in your arsenal.
Home Improvement Store Product Liability Insurance
Product liability is also included in general liability. Product liability protects you from legal or medical costs as a result of the products you sell causing damage or loss. For example, a customer might purchase a tub of paint from your store that includes chemicals that made someone in their home ill. Those medical costs and any lawsuit costs are your responsibility. Product liability covers these types of costs.
Home Improvement Store Commercial Auto Insurance
If you or any of your employees use a personal vehicle for business errands, consider getting a business auto insurance. This is a commercial auto policy that covers vehicle damage, property damage and bodily injury for anyone in your vehicle and other cars involved in the accident. You can also request to have vandalism and theft covered. So if you’re visiting a vendor and while parked in the driveway, someone walks up and steals goods from your van, the loss is covered by business auto if you had theft coverage.
Home Improvement Store Business Property Insurance
Business property insurance is important because a number of natural events or accidents could occur with little to no warning. Things like fire, flood, extreme weather conditions or natural disasters cause severe damage to your building structure and contents. If this happens, there is little you can do but wait until you get repairs done, and even then your business income is taking a big hit. With business property insurance, you at least get help replacing any merchandise that was destroyed and having help making the repairs you need.
Home Improvement Store Cyber Liability Insurance
If you run an online home improvement store, you should also have cyber liability insurance. This policy is going to protect you from cyber crimes, like getting a virus on your website, hackers stealing business or customer financial information, or someone paying for goods with stolen credit cards. All of these crimes and others are covered by cyber liability insurance and is an essential e-commerce home improvement store insurance policy.
Home Improvement Store Workers’ Compensation
Employees of home improvement stores are putting themselves at risk, such as from box cutters, lifting heavy merchandise or getting injured stocking shelves with the tools you sell. Work-related injuries can’t always be avoided; therefore you should have workers’ compensation insurance. This policy will help pay for medical costs for your employees if they do suffer a work-related injury. So if an employee is stocking shelves with gardening supplies and a rake falls down, causing a gash in their arm, worker’s comp pays for any medical care they might need. If they are unable to work, it also covers loss wages.
Home Improvement Store Crime Insurance
Crimes like theft, shoplifting and vandalism cause considerable risk and may affect your business assets and income. While you can’t avoid them from occurring, you can protect your business from the consequences with a crime insurance policy. Crime insurance helps replace money or merchandise that was stolen or damaged during the crime, which includes dishonest employee acts.
To fully protect your home improvement store, you need a variety of different insurance policies. These types of home improvement store insurance policies offer adequate coverage by protecting each of your different risks.
