How much does insurance cost for a retail store?

What the published retail figures are, and why they differ

Three insurers publish a figure for retail. None is “the cost of retail insurance”; each describes one policy type sold to that insurer’s own customers.

Insurer- and broker-reported figures from each company’s own customers, as published on its website; not a random sample of all businesses. Figures are rounded as published.

Reading them side by side:

• The Hartford reports $712 a year for general liability and $152 a month for a BOP among its small-business customers, with no sample size or date window disclosed, and notes the figures are estimates⁠⁵⁠⁶. Our conversion: $152 a month is $1,824 a year, and $712 a year is $59.33 a month. The BOP figure is therefore about 2.6 times the liability-only figure. A BOP adds commercial property and business income cover to liability⁠⁷.
• ERGO NEXT reports $55 a month for retail general liability, from customers who bought in the previous 12 months⁠⁸. That is $660 a year (our calculation), about 7% below The Hartford’s $712. Both are liability-only, so the gap between them is smaller than the gap to the BOP.
• ERGO NEXT workers’ comp is $89 a month for retail, which is $1,068 a year (our calculation)⁠⁹. The disclosure under that figure reads as if copied from the commercial property page, so treat its sample description with caution.
• ERGO NEXT professional liability lists retail stores at $55 a month (August 2025)⁠¹⁰. A store that only sells goods rarely needs this; it applies where the shop also sells advice or services, such as fitting or repair.

Customer mix drives most of the differences. A store with a lease, inventory and a front window prices differently from a seller working from a spare room, and neither insurer says how many of its retail customers are which. The Hartford lists industry, type of assets, property owned, employees, payroll and claims history as its rating factors⁠⁷.

The coverages a store needs, and what is required

Workers’ comp is the only line that state law requires of nearly every store with employees. Requirements and thresholds vary by state; see the requirements table and workers’ comp basics.

General liability covers customer injuries and property damage on the premises. No statute requires it, but commercial leases commonly do. We have no source for specific lease limits, so read the lease’s insurance clause for the amount and the additional-insured wording.

Commercial property covers the building contents, fixtures and stock. The Hartford says burglary and theft has affected 20% of small businesses in recent years, though it does not give a period or sample⁠⁷. Weather and crime exposure in your area feed the rate⁠⁶.

Crime coverage (employee dishonesty, forgery, robbery) is a separate form from property and BOP in many programs. We could not confirm from a published form what a given BOP includes, so ask for the crime section of the quote to be shown in writing. No figure is published for it in our data.

Cyber matters when you hold customer payment or email data. The Hartford’s retail page lists data breach cover as an add-on to the BOP⁠⁷. See cyber liability.

Selling other people’s products: who pays for a defect

A store that sells a defective product can be sued for the injury. How far that reaches depends on state law. Washington’s product liability act is one example. A seller other than the manufacturer is liable only if its own negligence, breach of its express warranty, or intentional misrepresentation or concealment caused the harm⁠¹¹. It takes on the manufacturer’s liability in listed cases: no solvent manufacturer can be served in the claimant’s state or Washington, a judgment against any manufacturer is highly unlikely to be collectable, the seller controls or is controlled by the manufacturer, the seller supplied the plans or specifications that caused the defect, or the product was sold under the seller’s own trade or brand name⁠¹¹.

For pricing this means private-label goods, imports with no solvent U.S. manufacturer, and goods you modify or assemble sit closer to manufacturer exposure than reselling branded stock. Other states differ, and we have not surveyed them. Check your state’s statute and keep supplier names, contracts and certificates on file, since a seller’s defense often depends on identifying the manufacturer.

Workers’ comp: official rates for store classes

Ohio, Washington and Wyoming publish the rates themselves. Retail is split into several classes, and the class that fits what you sell sets the rate:

Base rates set by the state fund before experience modification. Ohio and Wyoming charge per $100 of payroll; Washington charges per hour worked, and part is withheld from wages. Other states’ insurers file their own rates; see where rates are published.

In context:

• Ohio. Retail stores NOC (8017) is $0.6188 per $100 of payroll, about 13 times clerical class 8810 ($0.0466). Hardware stores (8010, $1.0389) and furniture stores with drivers (8044, $1.1329) cost 1.7 and 1.8 times 8017. Convenience and grocery stores with self-service gas (8006) are $0.7478. These are our calculations from the schedule effective July 1, 2026⁠¹.
• Washington. Rates are per hour worked and vary a lot by goods sold: $0.3292 for book, coin, camera, phone and instrument stores (6411), $0.3918 for jewelry and optical (6308), $0.4403 for clothing and shoes (6305), $0.6185 for housewares, drug, sports, hobby and variety (6406) and $1.1838 for furniture and appliance (6306)⁠². Furniture and appliance is 3.6 times the book and camera class (our calculation).
• Wyoming. NAICS-based classes: $0.93 for clothing, shoe and jewelry retailers (458000), $1.28 for general merchandise (455000) and $1.92 for food and beverage retailers (445000) per $100 in 2026⁠³.

Worked example, with stated assumptions. An Ohio store in class 8017 with $300,000 in annual payroll and no experience modification: $300,000 / $100 x $0.6188 = $1,856.40 base premium. A Washington variety store (6406) with 10,000 worked hours: 10,000 x $0.6185 = $6,185 in total hourly rate. These are illustrations of the formulas, not quotes. Ohio’s experience rating multiplies the base rate by your modifier, and other states’ insurers file their own rates on bureau loss costs, so a quote elsewhere will differ.

BLS reports that private employers spent $0.54 per hour worked on workers’ comp in trade, transportation and utilities, 1.4% of compensation, against $0.43 across all private industry (June 2026). That sector includes warehousing and trucking, so it overstates a pure storefront⁠⁴. ERGO NEXT’s $89 a month retail average, an insurer figure, is the only retail-specific comp price we could find⁠⁹. See comp cost by industry.

How to budget a store’s insurance

1. Start with the lease and the lender

   They set the required liability limits and the additional insureds; we have no published standard.

2. Price comp from payroll by class

   If you sell several kinds of goods, ask which class applies to each; Washington’s classes show how much it matters.

3. Quote the BOP, not separate lines

   The Hartford’s BOP figure bundles liability, property and business income⁠⁷.

4. Add the lines a BOP leaves out

   Ask in writing about crime, cyber and any inventory in transit or stored off-site. See inland marine.

5. Check renewal audits

   Comp premium is estimated on payroll and trued up after the year; see premium audits.

Sources

1. 1
   Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation / Ohio Administrative Code, OAC 4123-17-06, Appendix A: base rates effective July 1, 2026 (private employers) Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
2. 2
   Washington State Department of Labor & Industries, 2026 hourly rates by risk classification Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
3. 3
   Wyoming Department of Workforce Services, Workers' compensation 2026 industry base rates by classification Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
4. 4
   U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026 (released Sept. 9, 2026) Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
5. 5
   The Hartford, How much does general liability insurance cost? (updated 05/20/2026) Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
6. 6
   The Hartford, Business owner's policy cost (updated 05/20/2026) Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
7. 7
   The Hartford, Retail insurance Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
8. 8
   ERGO NEXT, How much does general liability insurance cost? (data updated April 2026) Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
9. 9
   ERGO NEXT, How much does workers' comp insurance cost? (data updated April 2026) Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
10. 10
    ERGO NEXT, How much does professional liability insurance cost? (data updated August 2025) Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
11. 11
    Washington State Legislature, RCW 7.72.040, Liability of product seller other than manufacturer Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑

Spotted an outdated figure? Report an error