eCommerce Sellers Seek Bespoke Insurance

Small business owners looking to mitigate the risk within the business that is their life’s work want to have some authority in the insurance purchasing process, but today, they have none. 

When they start shopping for or acquire small business insurance, they soon discover that they don’t have much purchasing power — and that traditional carriers dictate the products they have access to, along with the price they pay. After a lengthy process involving phone calls and paper changing hands, the entrepreneur ends up with a policy that’s usually expensive — and anything but tailor-made. 

“For the most part, these traditional carriers offer what’s called a ‘one-size-fits-all product,’” Mark Morissette, co-founder and CEO at Foxquilt, told PYMNTS. 

Getting Fair Value Propositions 

Traditional insurance products are built at a marketing segment level, rather than for each business, Morissette explained. That means customers that are more profitable for the insurance company end up subsidizing everyone else. 

This has left an opportunity for new companies to offer an option in which the pricing, rating and underwriting logic are better suited to each customer’s individual needs — taking into account their specific industries and the specific work they do. 

“Every single business is unique and different, and in any other value chain, they are getting basically fair value propositions based on the uniqueness or distinctness of their business,” Morissette said. 

See also: Businesses Expect Swift, Convenient Insurance Claim Payouts

Enabling a Cross-Border Trading Mechanism 

The same flexibility that allows companies like Foxquilt to develop bespoke policies enables them to meet other needs, as well — such as those of companies that may have difficulty getting business insurance because they have too much international exposure in terms of their supply networks. 

On April 19, Foxquilt announced the launch of a new eCommerce insurance product for small business owners, helping them mitigate risk around product liability and property — and meet the legal and compliance standards of the multinational enterprises that host the marketplaces they sell on, Morissette said. 

“If they’re sourcing purses, let’s say, from Asia and then they’re basically selling them in other marketplaces, Canada and the U.S., they need basically a blanket, ubiquitous product and capacity partner like a Foxquilt that can offer that whole cross-border trading mechanism,” Morissette said. 

Scaling up Coverage as Needed 

Improved technology and the data it provides gives small business owners access to pricing and underwriting that works for them now and scales as they grow, Morissette said. 

“Technology and this modular product that’s going to be married to it, it’s going to be an evolution that’s going to support the entire industry going forward in so many different ways,” Morissette said. 

Related: Personalized Payment Experiences Pave Way for Streamlined B2B eCommerce