A physical location adds real-world risk.
Here’s how bricks and mortar insurance typically works for retail businesses.
If customers, clients, or vendors walk through your door, your insurance needs change. A physical location creates certain risks—slips, falls, damaged inventory, and property losses—that an online-only business doesn’t deal with in the same way.
In this guide, we’ll break down what people usually mean by bricks and mortar insurance, why a Florida storefront often needs stronger coverage, and how to think about the right mix of coverage for your specific business.
What Is Bricks and Mortar Insurance?
Bricks and mortar insurance usually isn’t one special policy with a single name on it. It’s a practical way of describing the insurance a business needs when it operates out of a physical location—like a retail store, office, warehouse, or storefront.
Once you have a location, you’re not just protecting your business idea. You’re protecting the building (or your portion of it), the things inside it, and the risk that comes with people being on-site.
Why Brick and Mortar Businesses Need Different Coverage
A physical location makes you vulnerable to certain types of risk, and therefore in need of specialized coverage. Two pressure points show up again and again for brick and mortar businesses:
Property Insurance
In Florida, the biggest expense you are likely to see in your brick and mortar insurance is commercial property insurance.
If you previously worked out of your home and are now opening up a storefront, you may have to increase your coverage (and therefore your premiums) to include the storefront and/or any additional buildings, inventory, or equipment you take on.
General Liability
When customers enter your store, you have to think about physical risks on-site. It’s impossible to slip and fall when visiting a website. But it is possible to trip on a wrinkled floor mat, slip on a rainy-day entryway, or bump into a display that isn’t as stable as you thought.
Every business needs general liability insurance, but your coverage may need to increase if you are suddenly responsible for a brick and mortar location.
What Type of Bricks and Mortar Insurance Do I Need?
The answer is not as straightforward as it seems.
The types of insurance you will need can vary based on a lot of different factors. But when you operate out of a physical location, it helps to think in two buckets:
- New policies you might need to add as your business changes
- Higher limits you might need on the policies you already have
For example, moving into a storefront often means you’ve taken on more value (inventory, equipment, build-out) and more foot traffic (customers walking in and out). That can be a sign you need to increase coverage on existing policies—especially property insurance and general liability—because the stakes are higher than they were before.
At the same time, the move to brick and mortar can come with changes that trigger entirely new coverage needs. If growth leads to hiring employees, you may need workers’ compensation insurance. And if you accept credit cards or store customer information, cyber risk insurance becomes worth a serious look.
Quick Checklist
If you’re opening a storefront or changing locations, here are a few practical things to review with your agent:
- The building question: Are you responsible for insuring the building, or just your improvements and contents?
- Inventory and equipment: Are your inventory levels or equipment values higher than they used to be?
- Customer traffic: Are more people walking in than before (and does that change your liability exposure)?
- Operations: Are you doing anything new on-site (classes, events, installations) that changes risk?
- “More coverage” vs “new policies”: Do you need additional policies, or do you simply need higher limits on what you already have?
Unsure? A good independent insurance agency will be able to review your risk exposure, budget, and goals and recommend coverage that fits.
Open For Business
If your business is facing any changes in the near future (or if it’s simply been a while since you looked at it), now is a great time to review your existing coverage and see if there are any gaps.
At Harry Levine Insurance, we take the time to learn about you and your business to tailor a policy that fits your business structure. It’s imperative to be protected when you own a business that puts food on the table.
If you’re opening a storefront, changing locations, or expanding what you sell, we can help you figure out whether you simply need higher limits, additional policies, or both.
