It is no surprise that, when faced with something as unfair as the ever increasing burden of the rates bill, retailers should want to share the pain.

It is no surprise that, when faced with something as unfair as the ever increasing burden of the rates bill, retailers should want to share the pain.

In that sense, recent calls for some kind of ‘Market Fairness’ tax on online retailers to ‘level the playing field’ are understandable.

They are also, however, the wrong place for retailers to put their energy. If retail rates are too high (which they are) then our lobbying efforts should be focussed on getting them reduced, with a renewed push behind Retail Week and the BRC’s Fair Rates for Retail campaign.

Arguing for more tax on someone else is short sighted. The world changes and new technologies emerge. Trying to slow or regulate that process through the tax system can only stifle innovation and be bad for customers – absolutely the thing retailers want to avoid.

The fact that online retailers don’t have a lot of property isn’t ‘cheating’ – it’s just the reality of a different way of doing business. Those retailers may not have a lot of property leases but they do take huge and risky bets on technology investment, face high customer acquisition costs and many other challenges – evidence for which is that so many fail.

And we shouldn’t mix up a debate on property taxes with one on profit taxes. It is manifestly wrong that international companies (including many of the leading pureplay retailers) can shift profits around to low tax regimes. No amount of spineless posturing by MPs on select committees will solve that problem, however. It needs a considered rewriting of the corporation tax code, something retailers should also consider lobbying for.

A real and important debate on taxation of all kinds shouldn’t distract retailers from the real challenge of the digital world. The fact is that retail space is expensive, and as customers migrate some of their business online it gets harder to earn a return on that investment.

The solution to that is flexibility and innovation. Retailers will need to invent new and interesting multi-channel models. They will need to re-tool their retail spaces as customer acquisition centres and as showcases for products and services. They will need to grow their own businesses online. And yes, they will probably need fewer shops than they have now.

I know from bitter experience what it’s like to run a business which has too much retail space and not enough digital innovation. Join with Retail Week and the BRC to lobby for a more sensible tax system by all means, but don’t get distracted for a single minute from the vital task of getting your own business ready for the demands of tomorrow’s customer.

Ian Shepherd, director, Barracuda Digital