Clothing stores sell apparel items for kids, teens, and adults, along with a variety of other accessories. If you’re a fashionista or style guru, turn your life’s passion into a lucrative business by opening your own clothing store. But keep in mind the risks you may have and protect them with proper business insurance when starting a apparel shop business. Risks and liabilities, such as damage to your property from fire or extreme weather events, accidents when walking through the store, or crimes like theft or shoplifting are all common in clothing stores. Clothing store insurance should be top priority.
Types of Clothing Store Insurance
The following types of clothing store insurance will provide you with a multitude of options for insuring your business and covering a variety of risks.
Clothing Store General Liability Insurance
Your clothing store is also at risk for a potpourri of liabilities, including a customer sustaining a bodily injury from falling on the sidewalk at your storefront, a garment having a pin stuck in it that harms the customer, or a customer’s property being damaged due to a falling display in the store. In all of these cases and others that are similar, your business can be sued for damages. General liability covers these types of risks and more in relation to product liability, completed operations, and bodily injury.
Clothing Store Property Insurance
Any store is vulnerable to property damage, whether it is from fire, extreme weather conditions, or natural disasters. If a severe rainstorm were to flood your store, your clothing and other merchandise would be destroyed. As a result, you can be in for a huge burden to your business finances. However, if you had property insurance, the cost of replacing these items and repairing your store’s foundation would be covered.
Clothing Store Crime Insurance
Losses caused by theft of merchandise or money stolen from employees right out of the cash register can cause severe financial restraints. Help your business cover these types of losses, in addition to shoplifting losses, by obtaining crime insurance.
Clothing Store Commercial Auto Insurance
One type of insurance for clothing stores policy you might not have considered is commercial auto. While your business may not make deliveries, keep in mind picking up apparel items or supplies for your store counts as business operations — and the vehicle used should be covered by business auto insurance. This auto insurance policy provides coverage against accidents, theft, or vandalism while using your vehicle for business purposes.
Clothing Store Equipment Breakdown Insurance
Clothing stores, hopefully, use one type of equipment more than any other in the store: the cash register. You must have a working register to process transactions and when it isn’t working, you’re quickly losing business. To avoid this from happening, obtain equipment breakdown insurance. Equipment breakdown offers you financial protection and assistance with repairing or replacing equipment that has broken down, such as your cash register. The next time a register breaks down and needs repairs, you’ll also have insurance for any business lost during this time.
Clothing Store Umbrella Insurance
While business insurance is essential to protecting potential loss and risks associated with a clothing store, it isn’t always enough to cover damages. The liability policies for your Clothing Store (General Liability, Commercial Auto, and Employers Liability) all have coverage limits. Umbrella liability insurance is a great way to increase your liability limits for all of these risks under one policy which will protect your business for claims that exceed your primary policy limits.
Clothing Store Workers Compensation
Worker’s compensation insurance is required by law in most states of the US, and should be mandatory for all businesses. In a clothing store, an employee can trick over a clothes rack which may cause a significant injury in the process. With worker’s comp, their medical care is covered along with any physical therapy and income assistance needed. Your business will also not be responsible for the damages or sued by your employee.
If it has been your passion to run a store that sells apparel, don’t put it at risk by not choosing the right types of business insurance. Protect your hard earned business with clothing store insurance that will cover the risks you’re exposed to.