Business theft insurance: 14 tips to prevent commercial crime

Business theft insurance can help reimburse you for losses if your business experiences a theft or burglary. Usually included as part commercial property insurance, it’s an essential for many different types of businesses.

Jump ahead to learn:

• What is business theft insurance?
• Does business insurance cover theft?
• Does commercial property insurance cover business theft?
• How much does business theft insurance cost?
• 14 tips to minimize theft from your small business
• How NEXT helps small business owners with business theft

What is business theft insurance?

Business theft refers to incidents when criminals steal your valuable property, including tools, computer equipment, inventory, furniture and more.

Business theft insurance can help your business recover some of the financial losses of burglary, robbery, shoplifting or financial fraud.

Shoplifting and organized retail crime rings cost U.S. retailers nearly $100 billion in retail “shrinkage” in 2022, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Employee theft costs retailers $1,551 each prosecution, and over $50 billion in losses each year.

Cyber crime and financial fraud like check tampering, revenue skimming and bogus wire transfers can be harder to uncover, but they can have an equally devastating impact on your business’s cash flow.

However it occurs, business theft costs small businesses billions of dollars every year.

Business theft insurance can help cushion the financial blow from some of these mounting threats. To help protect your small business, consider commercial property insurance. It can reimburse you if someone steals your business property.

Does business insurance cover theft?

Small businesses are vulnerable to theft. But business insurance could help mitigate this risk.

Business theft insurance could help save your company significant financial losses, but you must have insurance before the thefts occur.

Commercial property insurance can help provide financial assistance for:

• Stolen inventory, equipment or supplies.
• Business interruption due to equipment theft.
• Damage to the building or premises caused by the theft.

Does commercial property insurance cover business theft?

Yes. Commercial property insurance can cover your business assets, including your structure and the inventory, equipment and furnishings you need to run your business. Business personal property can include:

• The tools and equipment you need to operate your business.
• The products (inventory) you sell at your store or online.
• The furniture and furnishings in your workspace.
• Store fixtures that display merchandise.
• Computers, data storage and networking equipment.
• Outdoor property such as signage and fencing.

Even if you rent or lease your business property, your commercial property insurance can help cover the contents of the building or shop.

Commercial property insurance can help cover property loss due to employee theft or financial fraud with additional coverage. Depending on the loss, cyber liability insurance may also offer some protection.

How much does business theft insurance cost?

NEXT offers personalized commercial property insurance adjusted to your line of work.

Your exact price depends on your location, the type of work you do, your number of employees and other factors. You can estimate how much you might pay for commercial property insurance with our calculator.

14 tips to minimize theft from your small business

Minimizing theft should be an ongoing objective, and many companies have employees dedicated to this task.

If you don’t have a loss-prevention specialist on staff, train your employees to adopt a theft-prevention mindset. Teach them to work proactively to stop criminals before they victimize your company.

Here are 14 best practices your team can consider to minimize theft from your business:

1. Stay visible and engaged with retail customers.
2. Increase the number of staff working during high-traffic holiday shopping seasons.
3. Deploy wireless security cameras to monitor the inside and outside of your business.
4. Minimize inventory clutter in your store.
5. Train employees on how to detect suspicious shopper behavior and what to do if they observe shoplifting.
6. Review your point-of-sale (POS) system daily to detect suspicious transactions.
7. Be certain that your outside and inside doors have deadbolt locks.
8. Invest in the highest quality alarm system you can afford.
9. Train all employees to follow credit card companies’ authorization procedures precisely.
10. Encourage employees to ask for identification to verify credit card holders.
11. Pay close attention to a check’s appearance. Watch for altered writing, post-dating and a match between the signature and the printed name.
12. Watch for employees charging more than what a product costs (to keep the difference).
13. Require dual signatures and reviews for checks and wires.
14. Conduct periodic surprise fraud audits throughout the year.

How NEXT helps small business owners with business theft

NEXT helps small business owners find affordable, always-on insurance. We make it easy to get the protection of customized commercial property insurance to help keep your small business safe.

We also offer business income insurance and business owner’s policies to cover other risks that could affect you or your business.

Just answer a couple questions for a free instant quote. You can buy insurance 100% online in about 10 minutes and get your certification of insurance immediately.

Start your free instant quote with NEXT.