Insurance is a tricky topic, especially when it comes to starting a business. The products are complex, and it’s easy to feel intimidated by the jargon.
On the other hand, insurance is an important way to protect your business, and if you ever end up relying on commercial insurance, it can be the difference between an unfortunate situation and a total disaster.
Getting the lay of the insurance landscape before you sit down to talk to a professional can help you understand both the process and which insurance products your business might need as it grows.
And if you’re still feeling intimidated at the thought, remember: When it’s used correctly, commercial insurance is just another product you buy, and what you need depends entirely on your business. And you already know and understand your business.
What is ecommerce business insurance?
Ecommerce business insurance is a specialized coverage that protects online retailers from financial losses and liabilities associated with their digital operations. It provides coverage for risks like cyber attacks, data breaches, product liability, and shipping mishaps, ensuring the security and stability of ecommerce businesses.
Best ecommerce insurance vendors
The Hartford
The Hartford is a reliable and trustworthy insurance vendor. It’s recognized as the best overall provider for ecommerce insurance, offering a broad range of options for stores that sell online, and even retail stores with an online presence.
You can find many different coverage options, like:
- Property damage
- Liability
- Business interruption
- Data breach
With an online portal and easy to access agents, The Hartford makes managing your policies simple.
NEXT Insurance
NEXT Insurance is a newer player in the market, but has quickly established a solid following of Amazon vendors for its policies.
Amazon mandates insurance for Amazon Pro Merchants with gross sales of $10,000 a month or more for three consecutive months. Next Insurance’s policies meet these requirements, including a general liability coverage of $1 million per occurrence and aggregate limits, along with coverage for injuries and damages.
Nationwide
Nationwide is a well-established provider with a strong financial backbone. It has highly customizable policies for all types of sellers. Because of its size, you can often bundle and tailor services for your physical and online presence.
Thimble
Thimble offers a range of insurance products suited for small, craft-based businesses. Think Etsy sellers and artisans at risk of product liability claims. Thimble offers coverage for equipment, commercial property, general liability, and more. It can also provide proof of insurance in an instant.
Types of ecommerce business insurance
Once you’ve found a broker to work with, they’ll sit down with you to look over your business and figure out where it’s exposed to potential risks, while helping you find the right amount of insurance coverage to mitigate those risks.
However, being an informed consumer of financial products is important, especially when it comes to your business.
For ecommerce businesses, especially ones that are just getting started, here are eight main types of insurance you’ll need to consider. There are others you’ll need as well, and your broker can help you determine which ones are right for you.
1. General liability
General liability insurance usually covers you in case someone gets injured while on your property, or while using your product, no matter where they are. It’s the first line of defense against damaging business exposures.
General liability insurance covers three main things:
- Any bodily injury claims made by customers or people that interact with your business, such as delivery people.
- Any property damage claims as a result of interacting with your business.
- Any claims of slander, libel, or copyright infringement made against your business.
This coverage can protect you if a third party gets injured either by interacting with people at your company or with your product. For example:
- A young child choking on a component part of a toy you sell
- An allergic reaction to a material you’re using in your clothing
- An injury from certain makeup components interacting badly with someone’s skin
Liability isn’t limited by product category. Even if you think there’s no basis for someone claiming they were harmed by your product, that’s not a good reason to skip liability insurance.
And remember, even if a legal claim isn’t well-founded, you still have to pay for legal fees for the claimant to go away.
Price: Varies depending on risk profile and sales. Insureon estimates this to be around $42 per month. NEXT Insurance customers, for example, typically pay $25 to $75 monthly.
Liability insurance is usually priced based on your volume of sales and the products you’re selling. Higher risk products like fireworks are probably going to come with a higher liability insurance price tag, as will a higher volume of sales.
2. Product liability
Product liability insurance will cover any compensation you have to pay if someone gets injured by a faulty product your business designs or manufactures. It’s similar to general liability, but more focused on design and manufacturing flaws.
If you sell any products to customers, you risk causing injury or damage to someone else’s property. For example, say a customer gets sick from eating food processed at your commercial kitchen—they can sue your business.
Product liability insurance covers:
- A customer’s medical bills to treat the injury
- Legal fees and costs related to trial
- Settlements paid out
Without product liability insurance, you’d need to pay for these costs out of pocket. This type of insurance also covers claims related to:
- Defective design, like missing safeguards or accidentally designing a dangerous product
- Hidden defects like toxic chemicals or food
- Failure to warn, which means not giving enough instruction or warning for product use
Insurance companies offer it as a standalone policy and as an add-on to your general liability insurance.
Price: Between $300 and $600 annually.
3. Business property insurance
If you sell physical products, you also need to insure those physical products in case something goes wrong. Business property insurance covers theft, loss, or partial or complete damage or destruction of your business inventory and business property.
For example, if your house burns down and all of your inventory is in it, that’s a devastating loss. That’s where property insurance kicks in. In that case, property insurance would also cover any equipment that was damaged, and cover the full cost of replacing those items.
It’s important to note your existing homeowners policy would cover your personal items, but likely wouldn’t cover anything related to your business. If you run your business from home, it’s important to have both aspects covered, unless you could replace all of the inventory and equipment out of pocket.
Price: $67 per month, on average.
When you buy property insurance, your broker will work with you to tally up the total value of the property you’re insuring. That number is the primary variable that will impact your insurance premiums, so you’ll pay less to insure $5,000 worth of inventory and equipment than you would to insure $50,000.
4. Workers’ compensation
Workers’ compensation insurance provides wage and medical benefits to people who get injured on the job. It also pays death benefits to the family of someone who dies on the job. Workers’ comp benefits aren’t available to people who get hurt off the job.
Almost every state requires a business to have workers’ compensation insurance. If you don’t have it in a required state, you could face a hefty fine. Your state government also determines how much coverage, wage, and medical benefits a worker receives.
Workers’ comp insurance often covers:
- Medical expenses
- Lost wages
- Ongoing care
- Funeral costs
- Repetitive injuries
- Disability
Let’s say, for example, a warehouse employee strains their back while lifting a heavy box—your workers’ comp policy would cover related medical costs.
Price: $45 per month, on average.
5. Transit insurance (or inland marine insurance)
Transit insurance, or inland marine insurance, is a type of insurance you’d need only in a fairly specific business context. However, it’s a type of insurance that can become highly relevant to ecommerce and physical product businesses as they grow.
Inland marine coverage protects your inventory when it’s being shipped in large batches and is of high value. It helps replace covered property if damage is caused by theft, fire, water, wind, or hail. Some policies also cover loss due to accidents or mishandling.
Inland marine insurance covers:
- Goods and property in transit
- Electronics
- Computer, video, sound, or radio equipment
- Fine art and collectibles
- Medical diagnostic equipment
- Trade show exhibits
Let’s say you’ve got a big batch of inventory and you’re sending it to a fulfillment warehouse to streamline your shipping process. You send it out and you’re happy to have checked that item off of your to-do list, but the next day you get word that there was an accident en route, and 75% of the inventory you shipped is damaged beyond repair.
When you’re working with suppliers, warehouses, or distributors, as basic as it sounds, you need to read and understand your contracts to figure out where you’re covered by their insurance and where you aren’t.
An insurance broker can help you find coverage to manage that risk, if you need it. They’ll also be able to work with you to determine other coverage you need as an ecommerce business.
6. Cybersecurity insurance
Digital security is a challenge every ecommerce store faces. Hackers can steal customer information or credit card information, or install malicious software on someone’s computer.
As an online business, you’re responsible for safeguarding customers’ sensitive data. In fact, small businesses find themselves more susceptible to these threats than large businesses, according to research.
That’s where cyber liability insurance comes in. This type of insurance covers you from any lawsuits, legal penalties, customer settlements, and fines related to a data breach or cyberattack. It also covers expenses to investigate the issue and restore lost data and funds related to the attack.
Cybersecurity insurance varies depending on the policy you choose, but typical covers:
- Loss of revenue due to a breach
- Loss of transferred funds
- Cyber extortion
- Data loss and recovery costs
- PR management after breach
- Investigating and notifying customers of breach
- Forensic consulting costs to prevent future breaches
Price: $140 per month, on average. Varies depending on risk profile and coverage.
7. Business interruption insurance
Business interruption insurance replaces income lost if your business stops operating due to direct physical loss or damage. This type of insurance would reimburse policy holders for any costs related to natural disasters or fires, and also cover the rebuilding of any lost facilities. It’s often sold as an extension of an existing policy.
Business interruption coverage includes, but is not limited to:
- Loss profits
- Fixed costs
- Training costs
- Employee wages
- Taxes
- Loan payments
Price: Between $40 and $130 per month, but costs more for high-value, high-risk businesses.
8. Professional liability insurance
Professional liability insurance, or errors and omissions (E&O) insurance, protects your business against work performance, negligence, or misconduct claims. This type of business insurance especially applies to people who sell professional services online.
If you make a mistake, or someone thinks you made a mistake, and your client suffers a loss as a result, they may sue you for it. Your professional liability insurance policy will protect you from those costs. For example, a realtor who fails to notice mold can be liable for damages.
Each state has its own requirements regarding which businesses need professional liability insurance—some states require real estate agents to carry E&O insurance, while others don’t, for example—so check with a broker in your area.
Price: From about $56 to $117 per month.
Learn more: Business Renters Insurance: A Guide for Business Owners
Why do online retailers need small business insurance?
If you sell products online, you need business insurance to protect yourself financially and legally. Insuring your business lowers your risk and protects your inventory and employees against worst-case scenarios, like supply chain issues or on-site injuries.
Revenue is a good way to evaluate if you’re ready to think about commercial insurance, but there are other factors to consider as well.
Insurance, at its core, is a way to minimize risks in your business, and there are some risks that wouldn’t be covered through your existing personal insurance policies—like protecting your inventory.
If your inventory is in your garage or office at home, your homeowner’s policy doesn’t cover it. Business insurance is also a small business tax deduction you can take to lower your tax liability.
Other reasons you need business insurance are:
- To protect your customers and employees if a product injures them
- To protect against cyberattacks and data breaches that expose customers’ sensitive data
- To protect against lawsuits from breach of contract with clients or vendors
- To protect your business in the face of supply chain issues
- To protect your business against broken or stolen inventory at your warehouse or in transit
At certain stages of your business, you’ll without a doubt need commercial insurance because you’ll be faced with contractual obligations to buy it.
If you’re working with a fulfillment center or selling to a major retailer, like Amazon, they might specify you need a certain amount of liability insurance, property insurance, or other types of commercial insurance.
Whether it’s a clear-cut choice or not, if you decide you need ecommerce business insurance, your next step is figuring out where and how to buy it.
Insurance cost for online businesses
The average cost of business insurance is between $600 to $1,200 per month. NerdWallet curated rates from three major commercial insurance providers, breaking down as follows:
It’s hard to pin down an exact number, however, because your business insurance costs depends on various factors, like:
- Potential risk
- Business location
- Claim history
- What you sell
- Number of employees
- Annual business income
- Business assets
Your total cost also depends on how many policies you need. For example, if you’re a new ecommerce business, you may not invest in business interruption insurance until you have more cash flow. Whereas a mid- to large size business with a fully operating warehouse and multiple employees will definitely want to cover their facilities.
The greater your risk, the more insurance coverage you’ll need, resulting in a higher cost. If you’re a small ecommerce business that makes and sells products from home, your insurance costs will be much lower than a massive online business with employees and warehouses.
Learn more: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Small Business Finance
To understand the cost of ecommerce business insurance, contact potential providers to get a personalized quote for your business. If you’re looking for simple insurance coverage or have an insurance provider in mind, it’s fine to contact them directly to learn what they offer, get a quote, and decide if it’s right for your business. But there are also other options to get the best deal.
Work with a broker
There are some places where brokers can add additional charges on top of the products they sell, called “broker fees,” so it’s important to do your research and understand how insurance sales are regulated in your area. However, even if additional fees are legal in your area, your broker has to clearly disclose their commission structure and fees in writing.
To find the right insurance broker for you:
- Ask small business owners and mentors in your field for recommendations. When you’re asking for recommendations, your best sources will be people who have been through a similar stage of business and in a similar line of business. If you can’t find anyone who fits the bill, you can expand to your broader network of business owners for recommendations.
- Find companies that specialize in commercial insurance. Ideally, you want someone who really understands the products and the scope of what you need, so the person who sold you personal insurance, like your car insurance, likely isn’t the best fit.
- Ask key questions as you interview potential brokers. You’ll want to find out if they’ve worked with and understand the needs of ecommerce businesses, and whether they can only sell products from certain companies. You’ll be able to find the best options if your broker can provide quotes from multiple companies, not just one or two.
Search on a marketplace
A broker may not be right for your business. Using an online marketplace for business insurance might help in this case. It’s a more hands-on approach, but may be faster if you need coverage quickly.
Online insurance exchanges partner with top companies and provide quotes from many providers so you don’t have to contact them individually. The marketplace just requires information about your business and the insurance you need, and multiple quotes will be generated from their partners.
Two top online insurance marketplaces include CoverWallet and Simply Business.
Compare policies
Always compare the quotes and choose which policy and provider works best for your business. Review each quote carefully, ask questions, and perhaps even consult with your advisers.
Consider the following when comparing quotes:
- Policy coverage
- Limits of liability
- Premium and deductibles
- Payment terms
- Provider rating and reviews
- Customer service
Finding a business insurance policy that fits your needs from a reputable carrier, with the coverage you need, at a reasonable price, should be your goal.
Buy and review annually
The last step is to purchase your policy or policies. Once you’ve done this, learn when payments are due, how to claim a refund from your provider, and how to contact customer service, if necessary. Most insurance companies let you pay, file claims, contact support, add additional insureds, or request a certificate of insurance online.
Make sure to review your policy and decide if it needs to be adjusted or changed periodically.
Finding the best ecommerce insurance for your online store
There are always going to be some risks involved in running a business, but identifying and mitigating them is something you do on a daily basis as an entrepreneur. Working through the process of buying commercial insurance with an informed broker can help you find and manage risks you might not have planned for in the first place, and take those worries off your plate.
After all, there’s a big difference between putting your all into a business and realizing it won’t work out, and shutting your doors because of a preventable issue with damaged inventory.
This post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice.
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Ecommerce business insurance FAQ
What kind of insurance do I need for an ecommerce business?
Product liability insurance is, arguably, the best insurance for ecommerce businesses. Products are the core of your operation. No matter what products you sell, something can go wrong with them, which makes product liability insurance a smart move for ecommerce businesses.
How much is ecommerce insurance?
There are a lot of factors that go into the cost of ecommerce insurance, like the size of your business, your products, your sales volume, and your business’ risks. Ecommerce companies typically pay between a few hundred and a few thousand dollars for insurance per year.
Do you need business insurance for a Shopify store?
Shopify store owners don’t have to have business insurance, but it’s a good idea. Business insurance covers a lot of risks, like product liability, cyber threats, and business interruptions. Buying insurance is based on how much your store costs and what kind of store it is.
How much is Amazon business insurance?
When sellers reach a certain sales threshold ($10,000 for three consecutive months), Amazon requires them to obtain commercial insurance. Products sold, sales volume, and specific risks determine the cost of this insurance. Depending on your needs and risk profile, the cost can range from a few hundred to several thousand dollars per year.