Clothing stores in South Carolina face a variety of risks to their financial stability. A single unexpected event, like a fire or a tornado, could tie up your finances in building repair costs and inventory replacement costs.

And if you’re sued for some reason, attorney fees and financial settlements could force you into bankruptcy.

But you can protect your clothing store in South Carolina with a comprehensive set of South Carolina small business insurance plans, and help from a South Carolina independent insurance agent.

What Is Clothing Store Insurance?

Risk can come in many forms for clothing store owners in South Carolina. You’re probably risking a lot just to open the doors. But don’t forget that once you are up and running, risk lurks around every corner.

To illustrate, there are over 418,000 small businesses in South Carolina, employing nearly 795,000 people. In 2019,  nearly $6 billion in commercial insurance claims were paid in South Carolina across businesses of all sizes.

Before a disaster happens, you need to seriously evaluate everything that could go wrong by identifying risks in every facet of your business. Slips, falls, injuries, negligence, and product failures are just a few of the costly events that can have you making costly repairs or paying out financial settlements.

Clothing store insurance in South Carolina helps protect you when costly problems disrupt your business. Clothing store insurance is not one standard, one-size-fits-all insurance policy. Rather, it is several policies or a customized package of policies that are designed to cover your unique risks, depending on the size of your business, what you sell, where you’re located, and a variety of other factors.

Not every clothing store needs the same type of business insurance, but most need a variety of policies that together address general business risks as well as the risks that are unique to your industry.

An independent insurance agent in South Carolina can work with you to uncover the specific threats to your business and recommend insurance policies and other techniques to protect your business property and assets, as well as provide liability protection in case you are sued.

How to Insure a Clothing Store in South Carolina

Clothing store insurance in South Carolina is not a single policy. It’s a set of individual policies that together offer comprehensive coverage for your business. A typical clothing store insurance package will include:

Property insurance for clothing stores in South Carolina

Property losses can originate in a variety of ways. 

• A fire in your shop could cause complete destruction of your business.
• A fire in an adjacent shop could cause smoke or water damage and destroy your inventory.
• Severe weather like a tornado could level your building. A severe thunderstorm could force a tree through your storefront window. A lightning strike could destroy all of your electronic equipment.

When these kinds of events happen, you can also face loss of income if the damage renders you unable to operate or meet sales goals for a some time while you make repairs, rebuild your store, or replace lost inventory.

Commercial property insurance is your lifeline in these situations. It covers the costs of repairing or replacing damaged or destroyed physical assets, such as your actual store structure (if you own your building) and its contents, such as computers, fixtures, inventory, artwork, furnishings, equipment (whether leased or owned), display shelves, and more, if they are damaged by a covered event (fire, storm, lightning, theft, etc.)

If your store is heavily dependent on seasonal sales and you carry much higher inventory levels during your peak season, it’s a good idea to talk to your insurance agent about how to properly value your business property for insurance purposes. Excessive coverage is an unnecessary expense, and too little coverage could leave you seriously underinsured if you have to make a claim.

You also need business interruption insurance to complement your property coverage. Imagine you have a period of business interruption due to a covered loss (e.g., a fire in the stockroom causes enough damage to force you to close while you make repairs). You might never recover the lost sales and your future could be in jeopardy without this important coverage.

Liability insurance for clothing stores in South Carolina

Clothing store liability insurance covers several basic risk exposures:

• Premises liability: A customer or vendor is injured in your store (e.g., someone trips on an upturned rug and breaks an ankle)
• Product liability: A customer, user, or bystander is injured because of one of your products (e.g., a customer suffers an allergic reaction to the material used in one of your products).

If someone is injured in your store or as a result of your products or operations, chances are you’ll be responsible for paying for any medical expenses for the injured party. While it may sound surprising, there are numerous ways that someone can get injured in your store.

Trip-and-fall injuries are the most typical type of liability claim faced by retail establishments. Medical expenses can be costly enough in these situations. If you are sued for additional damages, the costs can be insurmountable for a small business.

That’s where your commercial general liability (CGL) insurance comes in. It offers broad coverage for all kinds of liability claims, from trip-and-fall incidents to advertising liability, slander, and libel cases. It pays for damage to the injured party as well as your legal expenses and settlements or judgments if you are sued.

Additional insurance options for clothing stores in South Carolina

You’re likely to need several other types of coverage to be completely protected against all of the risks you face. You can purchase endorsements (add-ons to your basic policies) or stand-alone policies as needed to fill all of the gaps.

• Commercial umbrella insurance provides an important safety net for cases when a claim exceeds the coverage limit on your general liability policy. If you were hit with an extremely costly lawsuit, this policy would kick in when the coverage on your general liability policy was exhausted.
• Worker's compensation insurance is required for almost every business that has employees. It compensates employees who are injured on the job by paying for medical expenses and lost wages related to their injury. Your employees can trip over racks, fall off ladders, or suffer repetitive motion injuries from working the cash register or unloading shipments. This coverage ensures that their expenses will be covered in these cases, and prevents them from suing you for additional damages.
• Crime coverage protects your business against crimes that can be committed in your clothing store, including vandalism, shoplifting, and employee theft or embezzlement. This coverage is important for most retailers.
• Sign coverage pays for damage to outdoor signs that are not attached to your building when the damage is caused by weather, vandalism, fire, etc.
• Employment practices liability insurance covers you if an employee sues you for discriminatory employment practices.
• Cyber liability insurance protects you against the costs related to certain cybercrimes and accidental data breaches. Cyber liability insurance helps to cover financial and reputational damage for anyone who was impacted. What’s more, cyber liability insurance typically covers your own defense costs as well as any settlements or judgments that you must pay if you are sued because of a cyber breach.

What Doesn't Clothing Store Insurance Cover in South Carolina?

Every insurance policy you purchase for your clothing store will include a very specific list of coverage exclusions, or things that are not covered by the policy. Commercial property policies typically exclude coverage for damage caused by flooding or earthquakes. And a CGL policy usually won’t protect you if you’re sued for damage caused by pollution or some other environmental negligence.

But in many cases, what is excluded in one policy can simply be added back on to the policy with an endorsement or by purchasing a separate, risk-specific policy.

Clothing stores that are located in flood zones can purchase flood insurance from the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Or, if your business has certain liability exposures that are not covered by your CGL policy, you can often purchase one or several additional liability policies to fill in all the gaps.

But remember, some situations will almost never be covered. It’s common for insurance companies to exclude coverage for damage caused by acts of war. What’s more, damage or injuries caused by intentional wrongdoing or criminal acts by you or your employees aren't likely to be covered by any policy under any circumstances.

Benefits of Clothing Store Insurance in South Carolina

Businesses face the same types of risks as individuals, and then some. Fires, car accidents, slips and falls, illnesses and injuries—and resulting lawsuits—are just some of the risks that clothing stores in South Carolina face every day just by opening their doors to workers and customers.

Clothing store insurance in South Carolina is an important way to protect your assets after a disruptive and costly event.

And if you’re accused of harming someone else or damaging someone’s property as a result of your operations or your products, you can be expected to pay for property damage and medical expenses for the injured parties. What’s more, you’d likely be sued for additional damages.

Clothing store insurance in South Carolina can literally mean the difference between recovering from your losses and closing your doors for good.

How Much Does Clothing Store Insurance Cost in South Carolina?

The cost of clothing store insurance in South Carolina depends on the risks your business faces and the coverage you need to protect it. The riskier your business is, the more you will pay for business insurance.

Clothing stores in general are not considered to be high-risk businesses, but your costs will be based on a variety of your unique risk factors, such as your location (e.g., the weather, crime, and fire risks at your location), your liability coverage needs (do you need more than just a basic CGL policy?), and the amount and types of coverage you want.

Other factors include:

• The size of your store
• The value of your inventory and other commercial property
• Your deductibles
• Number of employees
• Coverage limits

On average, clothing store insurance costs about $500 to $1,500 per year for liability coverage alone. But your costs will likely be higher or lower than average depending on the unique characteristics of your business.

How a South Carolina Independent Insurance Agent Can Help

It makes sense to work with an independent insurance agent right in your city.

Independent insurance agents will get to know you and your business. Then they’ll shop around for insurance companies that specialize in the type of work that you do, and that can provide policies and premiums that fit your coverage needs and your budget.

A South Carolina independent insurance agent knows all the rules for local businesses, and will help you make sure nothing is left to chance. And they’ll be there for you when you have to file a claim, helping you through the process and getting you back on your feet quickly.