Wholesale trade is inherently more complicated due to the sheer size of the shipments. When there is a lot of goods and money on the line, it is not a wise choice to take chances with the accidental losses or damages during shipment.
There are many ways in which goods can be lost or damaged in transit. It can be due to accidental fires, piracy, acts of God, improper packaging, and others. As much as you ensure that the seller properly handles the goods and hands them over to the shipping company, there are possibilities that goods can be compromised during transit.
There is a misinformed notion that the carrier is responsible for your goods and if there are any problems, you can hold them liable for your cargo. However, what many fail to realize is that carriers have a lot of defenses to deny claims citing conditions that are beyond their control for the protection of your goods.
Hence, it is in your best interest to take shipping insurance to be sure of protecting the value of your goods as they are shipped to your destination.
Why Shipping Insurance?
The reason you need shipping insurance is simple — to protect the value of your goods from general average, theft, and damage.
Carriers usually have a limit of liability based on the weight of the package. For shipments through the sea, the limit of liability is around $500 per package. For air freights, the maximum liability is around $24 per kilogram. If your shipments cost way more than the maximum liable amount offered by the carrier in case of losses/damages, you are rolling the dice and hoping that nothing bad happens to your cargo during shipment.
Also remember, carrier liability is not a given. There are incidents outside the control of carriers that can deny their liability for your goods.
So, for your best defense, you need shipping insurance to ensure your goods are protected and that you have peace of mind knowing that your investment is safe.
What is General Average?
In addition to the losses due to theft and damage to your goods, there is the risk of “general average” when your goods are not secured by shipping insurance.
In the event of a fire or piracy attack on the carrier where the lives of the crew are at risk, some cargo is sacrificed to salvage the rest. In such cases, even if your cargo is not damaged/lost, when the shipment arrives at the port, you will have to pay a percentage of the loss that happened to release your goods. This payment that you have to make as part of pooling the losses with other shippers is known as general average loss.
When you do not have your cargo insured, you run into the risk of general average loss. Sometimes the payments that you have to make to even release your goods can be equal to or greater than the value of your goods. For a small wholesale buyer, this can be a potentially fatal incident that can shut down their business.
This is why it is paramount to have shipping insurance to protect your shipments so that you have the cover for the full cost of your shipment regardless of the liability of the carrier.
Shipping Insurance Solution with Strade
Understanding the needs of international wholesale buyers, Strade has come up with a simple solution for shipping insurance.
Strade has integrated the addition of shipping insurance directly into its platform. So, when buyers have added the products from their favorite sellers to their cart and are ready to check out, they can add shipping insurance to protect the value of their purchase.
The cost of the shipping insurance is 1% of the value of the shipment.
This is a relatively low cost to protect the value of the shipment and have peace of mind knowing that if anything unfortunate happens, the cost of your shipment is covered.
The shipping insurance is provided by Route and buyers can download the iOS and Android apps of Route to track their shipments as it makes its way from the seller’s location to their destination.
For insurance claims, buyers can easily submit a claim on Route.
Strade has simplified the extra work of finding a suitable insurance provider and has integrated a reliable insurance solution for wholesale buyers directly on its platform.
This move is in line with the ethos of the brand that is focused on simplifying global wholesale trade.
Strade has thousands of registered and verified wholesale sellers ready to ship products around the world. If you’re a wholesale buyer, register for a free account on Strade and get access to the best manufacturers and distributors from 100+ countries offering a wide range of unique products at the best wholesale prices.
Strade is your one-stop-shop for finding all the unique products from around the world.
