Gift shops, also called souvenir shops, sell a myriad of gifts for consumers. General items include coffee mugs, postcards, t-shirts, figurines, and stuffed animals. Some gift shops sell specialty items such as local gift shops selling souvenirs and tourist items, while others carry one-of-a-kind handmade art and gifts. Gift shops can be located in an airport, national park, zoo, museum, amusement park, or local shopping malls. As the owner of a gift shop, you have more to worry about than running a successful business. You should also keep your different risks in mind such as damage from natural disasters, fire or flood, liabilities relating to customers getting an injury or experiencing loss from products you sell, and other general risks. You can protect your business from these risks by getting gift shop insurance.
Types of Gift Shop Insurance
A variety of types of gift shop insurance policies exist that you can purchase for covering various risks of doing business. These are the most important and popular ones you should consider.
Gift Shop General Liability Insurance
A general liability insurance policy is essential for any type of business, including gift shops. A small slip or fall in your store could cause significant legal or medical costs which you would be liable for. Protect your business assets by covering most types of liability, including premises liability, products liability, and completed operations.
Property insurance is in place to cover repairs or replacements in the case of an unexpected event. These events include fire, flood, extreme weather like snow or hail, and natural disasters like tornadoes or earthquakes. Most of these can’t be avoided, but protecting your business assets is still possible with property insurance. So if there is a nearby earthquake that destroys some of the items in your gift shop, you can replace them with the help of your property insurance policy.
Gift Shop Business Owners Insurance
Business owners insurance, also called BOPs, are package policies that combine different coverages in one single policy. Your BOP can include a wide range of coverages based on your gift shop’s probably risks. These include your building and contents, dishonest employee acts, electronic data coverage, equipment breakdown, and other types of coverages.
Gift Shop Commercial Auto Insurance
If you have a company vehicle used for errands, bank deposits, deliveries, or other business trips, it should be covered by business auto insurance. If a worker is picking up supplies to stock your gift shop and gets into a motor vehicle accident, any bodily injury or property damage will be covered by the business auto policy. Many of these policies also cover theft or vandalism.
Gift Shop Workers’ Compensation
Most states require all employees to have worker’s compensation insurance, as provided by the employer. Your gift shop poses a variety of risks to employees ranging from back or neck injuries when lifting heavy boxes to tripping over spills in the back warehouse. Worker’s comp will offer income protection while they recover from illness or injury as well as paying for medical cost relating to the injury.
Any number of crimes could be committed in your gift shop including vandalism, shoplifting, theft, and embezzlement by employees and passersby. Shoplifting is a big risk with any gift shop due to the small size of your items. Protect shoplifting and other crimes by getting crime insurance. It will cover any loss or damage done as a result of the crime.
You have worked hard making your gift shop a successful business, so protect it by purchasing business insurance meant to cover unexpected risks. Gift shop insurance will be varied and cover a multitude of risks.
