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Industry package
One program for how you actually sell: in store, online, at markets, or all three.
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A retail business needs property coverage for its stock, fixtures and leasehold improvements, commercial general liability for customers on the premises, and product liability for the goods it sells. Most retailers add business interruption, crime coverage for cash and employee theft, and cyber coverage for card and customer data. Online sellers also need cover for stock held off-site, goods in transit and sales outside Canada.
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A retailer's risks follow its stock and its customers. The store holds inventory that can burn, flood or walk out the door, customers walk across floors that can be wet or icy, and every product sold carries a liability that can come back years later. Selling online adds stock in other people's warehouses, goods in transit and card data to protect.
We build retail programs around what you sell and where: stock limits that follow your seasonal peaks, liability and product coverage matched to your product mix and lease, crime cover for the losses a property policy excludes, and cyber protection for payment and customer data.
Retail covers everything from a corner store to a warehouse-based online brand. The exposures overlap, but the one that drives claims changes with what you sell, where you keep it and how customers reach you. Many retailers sit in two rows at once.
| Type of retailer | Biggest exposures | Core coverages |
|---|---|---|
| Clothing, gift and specialty shops | Stock damage from fire, water and smoke; shoplifting; slip-and-fall; seasonal stock peaks | Business contents, CGL, crime, business interruption |
| Convenience and grocery stores | Robbery and cash handling, refrigeration breakdown and spoilage, wet floors, sale of age-restricted products | Property with spoilage, equipment breakdown, crime, CGL; see convenience store insurance |
| Hardware, electronics and high-value goods | Burglary targeting high-value stock, product liability for tools and electrical goods, delivery and installation | Property with adequate theft limits, product liability, crime, cargo for deliveries |
| E-commerce and hybrid sellers | Stock at third-party warehouses, goods in transit, product liability on imports, data breaches, sales into the U.S. | Off-premises stock, cargo, product liability, cyber; see e-commerce insurance |
| Pop-ups, markets and seasonal vendors | Short-term venue requirements, stock in vehicles and at events, customer injury at the booth | Event or term CGL, stock away from premises; see vendor insurance |
| Regulated retail: cannabis, vape, firearms | Licensing conditions, product liability, theft, limited insurer appetite | Specialist property and liability markets with narrower appetite |
Most retail programs start from a package policy that combines property and liability, then add the pieces the store actually needs. These are the parts that matter most.
Stock is usually the largest number on a retailer's property schedule, and it is the one most often set wrong. Three settings decide whether a stock claim pays in full.
Stock also moves. Goods held at a second storage unit, in a delivery van, at a market stall or at a fulfilment warehouse need off-premises or in-transit coverage, often subject to a much smaller sublimit than the main location. Our post on managing peak-season retail risk covers December in detail, and the coinsurance and limits section of our commercial property guide shows how an underinsured limit reduces every claim.
Retail theft is rising. Statistics Canada reports that police recorded 208,941 shoplifting incidents in 2025, a rate up 11% from 2024, the fifth straight annual increase and 79% higher than in 2015. Breaking and entering fell over the same year. The difference matters, because a property policy treats the two very differently.
Most property policies cover theft that follows forced entry, and many require visible signs of it. Shoplifting is a different story. Retail property wordings commonly exclude inventory shortages and unexplained or mysterious disappearance: stock that is missing at count time with no identifiable event behind it. Ordinary shrinkage is treated as a cost of doing business, not an insured loss.
| Type of loss | Typical treatment | Where coverage comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Break-in after hours | Covered under theft, often subject to forced-entry wording and a sublimit for high-value items | Property policy; check theft sublimits and alarm warranties |
| Shoplifting and count shortages | Generally excluded as inventory shortage or mysterious disappearance | Loss prevention, not insurance, carries most of this risk |
| Robbery and hold-up | Money and stock taken by force or threat; money is usually sublimited on property | Commercial crime or a money and securities extension |
| Employee theft | Excluded from property policies | Employee dishonesty cover under a crime policy |
| Counterfeit money and fraudulent payment instructions | Not covered by property policies | Crime policy, including social engineering where added |
| Smash-and-grab and vandalism damage | Damage to glass, doors and fixtures usually covered; the deductible often applies per event | Property policy and glass coverage |
Insurers price theft exposure on stock type, alarm monitoring, display security and loss history, and some require a monitored alarm as a condition of coverage. If a warranty says the alarm must be set, a loss on a night it wasn't can be declined. Our post on organized retail crime covers prevention, and employee theft and crime coverage explains the inside job.
A retailer that didn't make a product can still be sued over it. Injured customers typically name everyone in the chain of distribution: manufacturer, importer, distributor and the store. If the manufacturer is overseas, insolvent or uninsured, the Canadian seller can be the party left to answer the claim.
Your exposure grows with how close you are to the product. Reselling a national brand from a Canadian distributor is the lower end. Importing directly makes you the first Canadian party in the chain. Selling under your own label, or having goods made to your specification, can put you in the manufacturer's position in the eyes of a claimant.
Federal law adds a reporting duty. Under section 14 of the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act, anyone who manufactures, imports or sells a consumer product for commercial purposes must give Health Canada the information they have about a serious incident within two days of becoming aware of it, and the manufacturer or importer must file a written report within 10 days. A product recall policy can pay the cost of pulling goods from shelves, which a CGL does not. Our post on product liability for makers and brands covers the private-label side.
Customer injuries on the premises are the most common liability claim for a store. Wet entrances in winter, spills in aisles, uneven flooring, falling stock from high shelving and parking lot ice all produce claims, and each can lead to a lawsuit years after the fall.
In Ontario, the Occupiers' Liability Act requires an occupier to take reasonable care in the circumstances to see that people entering the premises are reasonably safe. The standard is reasonableness, not perfection, so evidence of what you did matters. Other provinces apply similar occupiers' liability rules.
Where a snow contractor handles the lot, their contract and certificate should name you.
Most retailers lease, and the lease often decides the program before the broker does. Shopping centre and plaza leases are usually the most demanding.
Read the clause before signing, not at renewal. Our guide to the commercial lease insurance clause decodes the usual wording, and we can issue the certificate of insurance your landlord asks for once the program matches it.
Every retailer that takes card payments handles cardholder data. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) sets baseline technical and operational requirements for any entity that stores, processes or transmits cardholder data, including merchants, and compliance programs are managed by payment brands and acquirers through your merchant agreement. A breach at the point of sale or on your website can bring forensic costs and assessments under that agreement.
Privacy law adds its own duties. Under PIPEDA, an organization must report a breach of security safeguards to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and notify affected individuals when the breach creates a real risk of significant harm, and must keep a record of every breach for two years, whether reportable or not.
Online selling is now a meaningful slice of Canadian retail. Statistics Canada reported that retail e-commerce sales reached $5.7 billion in June 2026, 7.7% of total retail trade. For insurance, selling online changes where your stock sits, who you sell to and how much data you hold.
Our Amazon seller insurance page covers marketplace requirements in more detail.
A retailer that loses the fourth quarter can lose the year. Business interruption insurance replaces lost gross profit and pays continuing expenses, such as rent, payroll and loan payments, while the store is closed or restricted after an insured loss.
Retail property is rated on COPE: construction of the building, occupancy (what you sell and what your neighbours do), protection such as sprinklers, monitored alarms and distance to a fire hall, and exposure from adjacent properties. A shop in a strip plaza next to a restaurant is priced differently from the same shop in an enclosed mall. Theft exposure is rated on stock type, with electronics, tools, liquor, tobacco and designer goods drawing the closest scrutiny.
Liability is usually rated on annual sales, adjusted for the product mix. Goods that are ingested, applied to the body, used by children or imported directly carry more weight than books or housewares. Cyber is priced on revenue, records held and the controls in place.
Market conditions currently favour buyers. Marsh's Global Insurance Market Index put Canadian commercial property rates down 8% in the third quarter of 2026, and commercial rates overall down 6%. Renewal is a good time to correct stock limits.
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This page is general information, not insurance or legal advice. Coverage depends on your policy wording and the insurer. Speak with a licensed broker about your situation.
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