Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

Retailers should be just as proud of a well-executed copycat idea as a truly innovative one, heard the delegates at this week’s Internet Retailing conference.

Marks & Spencer director Dave Hughes sees it as a source of pride that other retailers are now in talks with the agency that worked on his mobile website. He says that ‘Steal’ should be on every ecommerce director’s to do list.

And I guess it would be churlish of him to complain that others want to piggyback on M&S’s mobile commerce success. After all, he freely admits that the retailer’s click and collect service wasn’t inventing multichannel retail.

Hughes, however, made an important follow up point – that retailers need to cast their eye more widely than their direct competitors when they are looking for a little inspiration.

“You must have people who are looking outwards – and I don’t just mean reading Retail Week,” said Marks & Spencer director Dave Hughes, perhaps not realising there was a Retail Week journalist front row for his speech.

But he is right. Of course, you should all read Retail Week, but if ideas that are new to retail are going to emerge then someone has to be braver and look a bit further afield.