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The big risks customer injuries can pose to retailers

On Behalf of | Sep 30, 2016 | Premises Liability

Certain events have the potential to create real problems for a retail store. One is a customer suffering injuries on the premises. Customer injuries cannot only draw in bad publicity and be a customer-relations nightmare; they could also expose a retailer to costly litigation. This is why taking appropriate customer injury prevention steps can be such a critical part of a retail business’ efforts to protect itself from risk.

Customer injuries are a big part of the risk landscape for retailers. This can seen in a recent report from a global actuarial and consulting firm. The firm in question is Milliman.

The study looked at the average cost of risk for retailers here in America this year. It found the average to be $5.93 in costs for every $1,000 in sales. This is similar to the risk cost levels seen in other recent years.

The research indicated that customer injuries were a significant contributor to these risk costs. According to it, around 20 percent of the risk behind these costs came from things like customer injuries and property damage.

It was also concluded that, while the frequency of claims for things like customer injuries at retail establishments has gone down in recent years, the average monetary size of such claims has increased over this time.

As this underscores, when a retailer is facing litigation in relation to customer injuries, a lot can be at stake for it financially. Given the high-impact nature of such legal matters, a retailer may want a skilled personal injury defense lawyer’s advice when a customer levels injury allegations against it.

Source: Retail Dive, “Study: Retail risk costs to hit $23B in 2016,” Daphne Howland, Sept. 7, 2016

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