RETAIL & WHOLESALE INSURANCE
Storefronts, distributors, and e-commerce sellers differ in inventory values, premises exposure, sourcing, delivery, and product responsibility. BLIS reviews the sales model, products, locations, contracts, vehicles, and loss history before preparing the account.
Guided intake
One question to start
Send the basics on your store or warehouse and a licensed advisor reviews the coverage that fits.
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Complete the required contact fields and a few business details. A licensed BLIS representative will review the request.
We only use this information to review your insurance request. BLIS is licensed in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Florida. CA License 0M74955.
Submitting this form does not bind coverage and does not promise a specific quote, price, or coverage outcome. BLIS reviews submitted details and may follow up for information needed to evaluate the account.
Sector overview
Three things run a retail or wholesale account: the space, the inventory, and the people moving through both. A boutique, a beer-and-wine grocery, a plumbing distributor, a gas station — same three things, four different risk pictures. The exposures, the appetite, and the coverage that answers all split apart from there.
Property and business income anchor most accounts. Property carries the building if you own it, plus tenant improvements, fixtures, and stock. Business income answers the revenue that stops when a covered loss closes the doors. Inventory value, location, construction, and fire protection all drive the underwriting. Pile inventory deep in a warehouse and carriers want the storage and sprinkler detail a storefront never gets asked for.
GL answers third-party bodily injury and property damage — in retail, that usually means a customer going down on your floor or your walkway. Product liability rides inside the standard GL form. For distributors and online sellers it is often the sharper exposure. Something in your supply chain hurts a downstream buyer, and your name lands on the claim next to the manufacturer's. Marketplace platform agreements commonly ask sellers for $1M commercial GL. Read your platform agreement for the exact terms.
Gas stations with convenience stores add a wrinkle. Underground storage tanks (USTs) open a pollution and environmental exposure that standard property and GL forms leave out. Owners and operators are often required to carry separate pollution coverage; some join a state UST assurance fund instead. The rules shift by state.
Theft and shrinkage — shoplifting one way, employee dishonesty the other — run through retail constantly. Crime coverage and dishonesty endorsements answer losses the property form may skip. Handle real cash or high-value stock, and crime coverage belongs in the review, not on the maybe list.
Trades we cover
Choose the operation closest to yours for the exposures, underwriting details, and documents that usually matter at quote time.
Product liability and commercial general liability for third-party marketplace sellers. Coverage addresses the platform requirements and product exposure common to e-commerce operations.
Property, general liability, and product liability for wholesale distributors. Coverage addresses inventory exposure, third-party product claims, and the premises liability of warehouse and distribution operations.
Property, GL, UST pollution liability, and crime coverage for gas stations with convenience store operations. This sector carries distinct environmental and premises exposures.
Commercial property, general liability, and crime coverage for apparel retailers. Coverage addresses inventory, customer premises exposure, and the service needs of active retail operations.
Product liability, cyber liability, and commercial general liability for online sellers and e-commerce businesses. Coverage is structured around how digital commerce operations actually create risk.
Property, general liability, liquor liability (where applicable), and business income for grocery stores and independent markets. Coverage addresses the premises, inventory, and licensing exposures of food retail.
Commercial property, GL, crime, and liquor liability for convenience store operators. Coverage reflects the cash-handling, customer traffic, and licensing realities of this operation type.
Coverage
These are common lines to evaluate, not a preset package. Operations, current contracts, state requirements, and carrier policy forms determine what belongs in the final program.
A storefront or warehouse lives on its location, its fixtures, and its stock staying put. Property covers the building if you own it, plus tenant improvements and inventory, against fire, theft, vandalism, and certain weather. Business income answers the revenue and continuing expenses when a covered loss shuts you for a stretch. For an established operation, the income you lose while closed often runs past the damage that closed you.
Put customers on your floor all day and slip-and-fall becomes one of the higher exposures in commercial lines. GL answers third-party bodily injury and property damage from your premises and operations — inside the store, on the walkway out front, in the lot you control. The products-completed operations piece of the GL form also answers claims from goods you sold, handled, or moved.
You never touched the factory floor and the claim still names you. A retailer, a distributor, an online seller — any of them can be pulled into a product claim. It happens when an item in the supply chain injures a downstream buyer, and the claim reaches everyone who touched it, manufacturer included. Product liability usually rides inside the GL policy. The limit, the exclusions, and the form language decide how much of that answer you actually have.
Theft comes at retail from several directions at once. Shoplifting, robbery, and employee dishonesty are three different losses, and the standard property form may not fully answer any of them. A crime policy or endorsement covers money, securities, and inventory against theft by staff or outsiders. Move real daily cash, high-value stock, or consumer electronics, and this is where the sharpest exposure sits.
Bury fuel tanks under a gas station and you take on an environmental exposure that property and GL forms leave out. A release — a slow leak, an equipment failure, an overfill — can foul soil and groundwater and trigger a remediation bill. UST-specific pollution coverage answers that apart from the standard package. Some operators join a state assurance fund instead. Eligibility and rules shift by state.
Sell beer and wine from a grocery, market, or convenience store and a liquor liability exposure rides alongside the GL. Dram shop statutes in many states let a third party bring a claim against a seller who served a visibly intoxicated person or a minor. Carriers read licensing history, hours of sale, and staff training before they write it.
Illustrative scenarios
A few situations to make coverage concrete. These are illustrations only — not actual claims, and not a guarantee of any coverage outcome.
Example scenario: A customer slips on a wet floor near the entrance of a convenience store during a rainy afternoon. They sustain an injury and file a claim against the store. General liability covers bodily injury to third parties from premises operations. It can respond to medical costs and legal defense expenses, subject to the policy's terms, conditions, and exclusions.
Stores with higher customer traffic and multiple entry points see this type of claim more frequently. Carrier underwriters review prior GL loss history when quoting.
Example scenario: A wholesale distributor ships commercial cleaning products to a restaurant supply buyer. A product labeling defect leads to an improper mixture, injuring a kitchen employee. The distributor is named in the resulting liability claim alongside the manufacturer.
Product liability within the GL policy can respond to defense costs and liability exposure, subject to the policy's limits, conditions, and exclusions. Distributors handling products across multiple categories or from international suppliers may face broader exposure. Carriers review product categories and volumes as part of the underwriting process.
The claim scenarios above are illustrative examples only. They do not represent actual clients, actual claims, or guaranteed coverage outcomes. Coverage for any specific situation depends on the policy terms, conditions, exclusions, and the facts of the claim.
After you bind
A certificate summarizes policy information; it does not create or change coverage. The policy and carrier-issued endorsements control.
FAQ
Most stores start with three lines: commercial property for the space, fixtures, and stock; general liability for customer premises and products-completed operations; and workers comp once you have employees. Business income usually joins them, to answer revenue lost while a covered loss keeps the doors shut. From there the hours, the inventory, the cash you handle, and your licenses decide whether crime, liquor liability, or umbrella belong in too. The lease and the operation write the rest of the stack.
Product liability usually rides inside the commercial GL policy, in the products-completed operations coverage. It is rarely a separate policy. But the GL form's limits, exclusions, and language decide how much answer it holds. Move higher-risk categories — pharmaceuticals, supplements, electronics, imported consumer goods — and the exclusions are worth reading line by line. Some standard forms carve out whole product categories. Others need an endorsement before the coverage reaches where you need it.
The platform sets these terms, not a regulator, and they shift from one platform to the next. Many third-party seller agreements commonly ask for commercial GL, often with a $1 million per-occurrence limit. Some also want the platform named as an additional insured. Read your seller agreement for the exact coverage and documents it calls for. Once you know what it demands, we structure the coverage and turn out the certificates.
Admitted carriers write most conventional retail and wholesale without much friction. A clothing store, a grocery market, a general-merchandise retailer with a clean loss history tends to have broad market access. Raise the risk profile — a gas station with USTs, a high-theft store, a liquor license — and the review tightens, appetite narrows, and some accounts land in surplus lines. Broad-product e-commerce draws the same scrutiny. We read where an account sits before it goes to market, so the plan matches the room you actually have.
Property answers physical loss to the building, fixtures, and stock — fire, wind, outside burglary, vandalism. Crime answers a different set: employee theft, robbery, forgery, computer fraud, and other perils the property form tends to exclude or cap. Put staff on the cash, the inventory, or the books, and employee dishonesty becomes a real exposure that standard property never reaches. The two overlap at the edges and cover different ground, which is why operations tend to carry both.
Tell us how you operate and what you need reviewed. We'll identify the information required for a submission or policy-service request.
Coverage availability, pricing, terms, conditions, and eligibility depend on underwriting, carrier guidelines, state, operations, loss history, policy terms, and other risk-specific factors. Nothing on this site guarantees coverage, pricing, placement, or savings.
Illustrative claim scenarios are examples only and do not represent specific claims, predicted outcomes, or coverage guarantees. Whether a specific claim is covered depends on the policy terms, conditions, exclusions, and the facts of the specific situation.
Marketplace platform insurance requirements referenced on this page are general observations only. Sellers should review their specific platform seller agreement for the exact coverage terms and documentation required. Requirements vary by platform and may change.
Blue Lagoon Insurance Services, LLC is an independent insurance agency and is not affiliated with Amazon, FedEx, UPS, or any other parcel delivery service.
