Retail & Wholesale · E-Commerce
Every box you ship carries liability with it. Product, cyber, and property exposures stack up fast for an online seller — and a homeowners policy or a generic BOP leaves most of them addressed in the margins, not the policy. We read what you sell, where inventory sits, and how orders move out the door — including platform agreements and what your contracts actually require.
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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.
What to expect
A BLIS representative reviews the information you submit and follows up if something important is missing.
Your details get read against what carriers actually want for your kind of account — not routed through a form stack.
How you operate maps to the coverage lines and markets that fit the risk.
If something important is missing, a few targeted questions — not another long form.
Coverage, exclusions, carrier fit, and cost — side by side, not just price.
Certificates, endorsements, audits, renewals, policy changes — handled.
Your operation
No storefront, but the exposure runs across a lot of ground. Inventory in a spare bedroom or a 3PL, a supplier chain that crosses an ocean, customers in every state you ship to, payment data on a platform you don't own. A policy written for a physical retail shop doesn't map to that picture. We read the account from product sourcing through order fulfillment — including platform agreements, marketplace certificate requirements, and where the property risk actually sits — and build from there.
Product liability for goods sold online. Sell a product and you join the distribution chain — whether you made it or not. A customer injured by something you sold can bring a claim directly against you. When the actual manufacturer is overseas, has no U.S. presence, and carries no recognized U.S. insurance, the seller often absorbs what the manufacturer can't answer.
General liability covers products liability as part of the standard commercial GL form. Carriers look at what you sell, where it comes from, and how it's packaged and labeled.
Inventory stored off-premises or at a third-party fulfillment center. Stock in a home address, a self-storage unit, a leased warehouse, or a 3PL each creates a different coverage picture. A homeowners policy excludes business personal property at any meaningful value. A business owner's policy or commercial property policy covers inventory at scheduled locations.
If inventory sits at a 3PL, the property risk question — yours, theirs, or shared — belongs in the policy structure before a loss, not after. Sellers moving stock through multiple locations may want inland marine or a stock throughput form.
Marketplace platform insurance requirements. Platform agreements set their own GL limits and endorsement language — and they update without notice. A $1 million per-occurrence limit is common, but confirm the current wording in your specific contract. DTC brands on their own websites carry the same product liability exposure without any marketplace layer to absorb a claim.
We map what your active agreements require during intake and make sure the policy satisfies all of them.
Cyber liability and online transaction exposure. Payment data, shipping addresses, account credentials, purchase history — an online store collects more customer data than most operators realize. A breach or payment fraud event triggers state notification obligations, forensic costs, and customer claims, even when the incident originates at a payment processor or platform plugin.
Cyber liability covers first-party costs — notification, credit monitoring, forensic investigation — and third-party claims from customers whose data was exposed. General liability doesn't reach any of it.
Business interruption and supply chain disruption. Orders in, orders out — that's the revenue engine. A fire at a leased warehouse or a covered property loss that shuts down fulfillment stops it cold. Business income coverage, typically included in a BOP or commercial package, helps offset lost revenue during a covered interruption. Trigger events, exclusions, and waiting periods vary by form.
Knowing what actually kicks the coverage in before a loss is more useful than finding out after.
Returns, chargebacks, and customer dispute exposure. Customers buy blind — no chance to inspect the product before the box ships. When a customer claims a product caused harm after delivery, it's a product liability scenario. There's no face-to-face return desk and no resolution before the claim is filed.
Chargebacks are a payment-processing problem, not an insurance one — but the volume and pattern of product complaints can signal claim history that carriers notice when evaluating the account.
Shipping, transit, and last-mile loss exposure. Packages get lost, damaged, and stolen. Shipping carriers limit their liability under tariff terms — often to declared value well below actual replacement cost. If you're moving high-value goods, the gap between what the carrier owes and what you actually lost doesn't close itself. Inland marine or cargo coverage is built to address that gap.
It's worth setting the structure before a high-value shipment disappears.
Home-based operations and the homeowners policy gap. A spare bedroom full of inventory, packing materials stacked in the garage, a regular stream of delivery drivers at the door — that's an active business running inside a residence. Standard homeowners insurance wasn't built for it. The business personal property sublimit is minimal. Business liability from home operations is typically excluded outright.
As the operation grows, the right answer is an in-home business endorsement, a Home Business Policy, or a standalone commercial policy — each suited to a different scale.
Goods imported from overseas — importer liability and recall exposure. Source goods overseas and sell them under your name, and U.S. law treats you as the importer. When the actual manufacturer can't be reached in a U.S. claim — no presence, no recognized insurance, no reachable assets — the exposure lands on the seller.
Recall costs add another layer: notifying buyers, retrieving product, and managing a safety event carry real costs that a standard GL policy typically doesn't cover.
Coverage
These are common lines to evaluate, not a preset package. Your operations, current contracts, state requirements, and the carrier's policy forms determine the final program.
Customer injured by a product. Visitor hurt at a home-based warehouse. Property damage from a delivery. GL is the foundational coverage line for an e-commerce operation, and the products and completed operations component extends it to claims that arise after the item reaches the buyer. Many marketplace agreements commonly require a $1 million per-occurrence limit. Confirm the exact wording your active agreements specify — that's what the certificate has to reflect.
A business owner's policy bundles general liability and commercial property into a single package. Some e-commerce sellers hold meaningful inventory at a home office, a leased warehouse, or a rented commercial space. For them, the commercial property component covers inventory against fire, theft, and covered perils. BOP policies typically include business income coverage, which can offset lost revenue during a covered property loss. Sellers operating entirely from a residence may need a standalone commercial property endorsement or a separate policy. It depends on the carrier and the scale of the operation.
Cyber liability addresses the data and transaction exposure that comes with operating an online business. A data breach or account takeover can expose your business to first-party costs and third-party claims. First-party costs include forensic investigation, customer notification, and credit monitoring. Third-party claims come from customers or card brands. Cyber exposure exists even when checkout is handled by a third-party payment processor. Cyber liability is a separate coverage line — it's not included in a standard GL or BOP. The scope of coverage varies significantly between forms.
The products liability component of a general liability policy covers claims arising from products you sell, distribute, or import. For e-commerce businesses carrying goods from overseas manufacturers, the products liability limit and the policy's approach to import exposure matters. If you're in a category with meaningful injury potential (personal care products, health supplements, children's items, tools, electronics), you'll face higher underwriting scrutiny.
Inland marine coverage extends to business personal property in transit or stored at locations not scheduled in a property policy. It also covers property otherwise moving through the supply chain. For e-commerce sellers, this line covers inventory in transit from a supplier to a warehouse and goods moving between fulfillment locations. It also covers high-value shipments that exceed the shipping carrier's standard liability limit. Some sellers use a stock throughput policy, a marine form that follows inventory from purchase through final sale delivery.
A commercial umbrella sits above the limits of the underlying general liability policy. Some e-commerce businesses have significant product volume, a diverse product catalog, or high-value inventory. For them, the severity potential of a single product liability claim can approach or exceed standard GL limits. Umbrella coverage is also relevant when marketplace agreements or B2B contracts require aggregate limits that exceed what a base GL policy provides.
If you have employees, you'll need workers' compensation as required by state law. This applies to part-time employees and seasonal hires for peak shipping periods. Sole proprietors and single-member LLCs without employees may not be required to carry WC for themselves, but requirements vary by state.
Quote factors
These are the details that can shape eligibility, terms, and pricing. You don't need all of them to start — send what you have, and we'll follow up on anything important that's missing.
Illustrative scenarios
A few situations that show how coverage can respond when something goes wrong. These are examples only — not actual claims, and not a guarantee of any outcome.
A seller markets a supplement under its own brand, controls the formulation and labeling, and sells direct through its website. A customer claims an adverse reaction and alleges the ingredient panel omitted a known allergen. The claim sits squarely on the brand owner who put the item into commerce.
General liability with a products and completed operations component can respond to legal defense and resulting damages, subject to the policy's terms, conditions, and exclusions.
An online seller operates fulfillment out of a leased commercial unit. A pipe fails over a weekend. By Monday the packing station, shipping equipment, and ready-to-ship stock are soaked. Fulfillment stops until the space is dried and restocked. Commercial property coverage scheduled to that location can respond to the damaged contents and inventory, subject to the policy's limits, terms, and exclusions.
Business income coverage can respond to revenue lost during the shutdown. The restoration period is the figure worth examining when the limit is set.
A seller runs a storefront on a third-party e-commerce platform. A compromised plugin exposes customer email addresses, shipping addresses, and partial payment data. State breach notification laws require the seller to notify affected customers and arrange credit monitoring.
Cyber liability coverage can respond to notification costs, forensic investigation, and credit monitoring obligations, subject to the policy's terms and exclusions. General liability doesn't reach those costs — they require a separate cyber form.
A seller ships a high-value electronics order. The carrier confirms delivery but the customer reports no package received. Investigation doesn't locate it. The carrier's standard tariff limits liability to a declared value well below the actual product value.
Inland marine or cargo coverage structured for goods in transit can respond to the gap between the carrier's limit and the actual loss, subject to the policy's terms and exclusions.
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
After a carrier binds coverage, contracts and operational changes can create new documentation needs. A certificate summarizes policy information; the policy and its endorsements control coverage.
FAQ
Yes — the products and completed operations component within a commercial GL policy covers third-party bodily injury and property damage claims from goods you sell, distribute, or import. When a customer is injured by a product, GL can respond to legal defense and resulting damages, subject to the policy's terms and exclusions. How broad that coverage is depends on the carrier and what you sell. Higher-hazard categories — health supplements, children's products, electronics, personal care — may face more restrictive terms or narrow standard market appetite. We'll review your product catalog during intake.
Platform protection programs cover the platform's own liability exposure — not yours as a seller. They don't substitute for a commercial policy you own and control. Many marketplace seller agreements commonly require sellers to carry their own general liability at a minimum per-occurrence limit, with the platform named as an additional insured. Review your specific agreement language and confirm the current requirements directly with the platform — terms vary and change. A commercial GL policy also travels with you across every channel, not just the one marketplace where you're active today.
Most likely yours — if it's structured for it. A 3PL typically insures its own building and equipment, not client inventory stored there. Your commercial property coverage, written on a blanket basis or scheduled to include the 3PL location, can cover stock in their facility. Some 3PL agreements carry limited liability for client inventory damage — but those caps usually fall well short of actual value. Review both what your policy covers and what the 3PL contract says before a loss occurs. We'll work through the structure when you're onboarding a new logistics partner or approaching renewal.
It does. Import goods and sell them under your name, and U.S. law positions you as the importer in the distribution chain. When an overseas manufacturer has no U.S. presence, no recognized U.S. insurance, and no reachable assets, the product liability exposure that can't reach the manufacturer falls on you. Carriers evaluate the imported product's hazard level, country of origin, and what quality control or testing process the seller has in place. Sellers importing in higher-hazard categories may find standard market appetite narrower and underwriting questions more detailed.
Two sides. On the first-party side, cyber liability typically covers forensic investigation, customer breach notification required by state law, credit monitoring services, and business interruption losses tied to a covered cyber event. On the third-party side, it covers legal defense and damages when customers or others claim harm from the exposure of their data. Cyber liability is a separate coverage line — it's not included in a standard GL or BOP. The trigger events, coverage scope, and exclusions vary meaningfully between cyber forms. Not all cyber policies address the same events.
Not meaningfully. Homeowners policies exclude or tightly sublimit business personal property — the typical cap is a small fraction of what a working inventory represents. Business liability from home operations is excluded too. A delivery driver injured picking up orders at your residence is the kind of claim a homeowners policy won't answer on the business side. Options depend on scale: an in-home business endorsement covers smaller operations, a Home Business Policy is a broader standalone option, and a commercial policy is the right structure as the operation grows.
Product category and annual revenue are the two dominant factors. Product category shapes which carriers look at the account and what terms they'll write. Revenue drives GL rating for product-based sellers. Beyond those, carriers look at where inventory is held, how orders are fulfilled, whether goods are imported, what the loss history shows, and what the cyber exposure profile looks like. Higher-hazard product categories draw more scrutiny and may require carriers with specific product liability appetite. We walk through all of it during intake.
Requirements vary by state and entity type. California generally requires coverage for employees, while Nevada, Arizona, Texas, and Florida apply their own rules; Texas generally permits many private employers to operate as nonsubscribers, subject to exceptions and consequences. Fulfillment work still creates lifting and repetitive-motion exposure. Confirm worker classification and legal obligations with counsel or the applicable state authority.
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Get a QuoteCoverage 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.
Examples are hypothetical and illustrative. They show how a coverage can respond, not a promise that any specific claim will be covered. Actual coverage depends on your policy's terms, conditions, and exclusions.
Blue Lagoon Insurance Services, LLC is an independent insurance agency licensed in California (0M74955), Nevada (3983946), Arizona (3003332484), Texas (2966873), and Florida (L120266). BLIS does not underwrite insurance; coverage and underwriting decisions are made by the insurance carrier.
