There is a town in Australia where one newsagent travels to the trade shows near and far, seeking out new suppliers and offers regular innovation on the shop floor. In this same town, another newsagent copies what they can, what willing suppliers let them get away with, and without the cost of travelling to trade shows.
It’s happening in more than one town though.
It sucks when you invest time and money to find new suppliers, especially suppliers who have never supplied retailers in our channel before, only to have a shop close by copy you.
It’s pathetic really, flattering to be copied, of course, but pathetic.
In my experience, these copiers don’t think they are doing anything wrong. If challenged, some have even claimed the innovation was their idea first, which, of course, it was not.
This lazy copying means the innovative newsagents work harder at their innovation, and they change their shops more frequently. This means the copiers need to pick up their pace, or give up at the thought of hard work.
Lazy retailers are ultimately found out, either by themselves when they feel exhausted at copying innovators or by suppliers who block them from copying or from local shoppers who eventually see what is happening.
If you are the retailer being copied, make a loud noise about new products, launch them so the locals know you were first, and, if you’re game, congratulate your copier on joining you in selling something you brought to town first.
If you are the copier, take a look at yourself in the mirror, know what you are doing, stop cheating.
Copying another local retailer’s innovation is like cheating on a school exam. You are the only one who loses, eventually.
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It’s easy to get in your head about being copied. It’s disheartening to see your investment diluted by spoon copying you. It can make you angry. It can be demotivating. It happened to me. The marketplace can have a way of dealing with it though. When you see your business three of four times bigger than the business copying you, when you continue to innovate while they work in darkening shadows, your own dark thoughts can feel good.
The best advice I have, I think, is to not spend any time thinking about competitors. They are not relevant to what you do in your business. Since you have no control over them, there is no point worrying about them. You’re better off worrying about, investing in and working on that over which you do have control.
it does make me angry, i was in my shop on sunday and we ha a guy from tobacconist shop who came and took photos on his phones of our gift range. i was lost for words, it does make me angy and ask that guy some question about his manners.
I have been growing my gifting for more than five years. There is a newsagency in town that started a year ago and they copy some of what I do. At first I thought it was either a supplier being greedy or a coincidence. I did some digging and found three suppliers this competitor approached. They are copying me and it makes me angry because their shop is so close to mine.
Splosh is one supplier who will happily put identical product lines in multiple stores in a small country town. We have recently closed our account with them for that reason
I agree Shayne. Splosh is unbelievable, we have been stocking them for 8 years, and now this year they have stock in 3 stores within 400m, all in the Main Street of small country town.