Had to shut down our Etsy shop in order to get home insurance in Canada...

★★★ signal-strong r/etsysellers · ↑ 73 · 💬 56 · 2025-09-01 · kw: shopify amazon sync · open on reddit ↗

Tool

Etsy, Shopify, Amazon, eBay

Issue

Canadian home-based ecommerce sellers forced to shut down online storefronts (Etsy, Shopify) to obtain home insurance; insurance companies categorically deny coverage for homes running global marketplace businesses, regardless of actual customer location or risk profile, causing loss of scalable sales channels.

Cost

unstated revenue loss; winter market gaps; commercial policy costs exceed annual business revenue in some cases

Recommendation

Seek alternative insurance brokers and companies (Co-operators, Intact, Fox Quilt commercial liability policies mentioned); add commercial business rider or separate commercial liability policy; none of these are guaranteed to work by all insurers

Date context

as of 2025-09-01; Canada-specific regulatory/underwriting practice; no recent platform changes mentioned

extracted with

anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5 · 2026-05-08

Body

So this is a weird one that we're still trying to navigate, and wasn't something we anticipated being an issue when we closed on our new home. We used a broker to find a decent price for home insurance, and after going through every company in the area, the result was the same across the board: no insurance company will insure a home if an Etsy shop is being run out of it. Doesn't matter if it's a digital shop, a sticker shop, or a ceramic shop. Doesn't matter if no customers ever step foot in the home. Doesn't matter if we promise only to sell within Canada. Apparently the global marketplace aspect of Etsy, Shopify, Amazon, eBay, etc. makes finding home insurance impossible. After some research, the reason for this seems to be US buyers being particularly litigious, though we don't understand why selling only within Canada still disqualifies us. Maybe because the option is still there? We had to promise to shut down our Etsy shop in order to secure insurance and our home. We also quietly closed our Shopify as well because the reasoning seems to apply to that kind of storefront also and we don't want to be caught out if we actually need to file a claim. So now we're restricted to in-person markets only, which is a real bummer because our online storefronts had really started to take off and in-person markets are rare during the winter months following Christmas. We're trying to come up with a plan to move forward, but outside of leasing a physical space, which is outside of our budget, we're at a loss. For every Canadian thinking "well what are thousands of other Etsy crafters doing then? How did they get insurance?" Well, we asked this question also, to which we were told: "they're either taking the risk or they aren't aware their insurance company would drop them if they found out". Has anyone else been blindsided by this? Is this a uniquely Canadian thing? How have you navigated the change? We're on the verge of calling it quits. It's quite disheartening...

Top comments (8)

[score=51] jfp1986

I was in the same boat a year ago, based in Ontario. Eventually found an insurance company that is very flexible with home business, whether selling internationally or not. I'm not going plug my insurance company here, but DM me if you want to know more.

[score=20] maypeppercorn

We are Canadian and have an Etsy shop with home insurance as well as a commercial policy for the business, it’s harder to get insured but definitely not impossible! We did find many companies did not want to deal with the shipping to the US bit, but Co-operators we were originally with and were fantastic. They allowed us to have a small business rider on the policy that was actually affordable too. We did outgrow that and are now with Intact with a separate commercial liability policy with Fox Quilt. We are in Ontario, so if by any chance you are too I would highly recommend trying either of those (and maybe a new broker because they should know what options are available, because they are there)

[score=8] Fun_universe

It’s difficult but it’s definitely possible. All my home insurance (Intact) wanted was proof of a commercial liability policy, which I found through Fox Quilt.

[score=5] [deleted]

[deleted]

[score=10] mildlycontent

I’m in BC. My home insurance company is fully aware of my business, asked a fair number of questions, and in the end had no problem issuing insurance. Maybe look further?

[score=6] ZiaFoxStudios24

That sucks, and that there are people who are almost immediately getting shut down in conversations as soon as insurance knows it is an Etsy shop is wild. I haven't had any issues here in New Mexico, but it would been a huge PITA if it did effect my insurance.

[score=4] hollybeen

Yup, similar happened to me. I asked the question and suddenly I had to buy an outrageous commercial policy in order to keep our home insurance. Even no longer selling online I either need to provide proof my business is shut down or keep paying the commercial policy, which costs more than the business makes in a year. Very frustrating.

[score=3] Known_Weird7208

Ive currently not got home insurance for the same reason. Alot of home insurance companies won't payout if you are found to be running a business from your home (which is normally after the terrible event that forces you to make a clsim in tge first place, so you are up the creek). I have a bedroom for stock and our conservatory is a packing area. All the heavy equipment is in the detached garage. But still they won't payout. The fact im here in person 95% of the time doesn't seem to count for anything as that mitages risk. I also have fire exstiguishers of various types stationed everywhere. Im thinking of looking into business insurance to cover the garage. Then try find a hybrid insurance company to cover the house as the move to working from home and home businesses there must be some out there.