The Only Thing in Your Store Nobody Can Copy
Snapchat’s CEO told Lenny Rachitsky’s podcast this week that only two consumer apps have broken through in fifteen years. Every feature he ever built got copied. Every one. His conclusion was simple: the product is not the moat. Distribution is.
I have heard the same complaint from store owners for years. “They picked up my line.” “The shop across town is too close to me.” “I had it first.” Every week, somebody says it.
That fight has the wrong target. The line is the product. The product is not your moat.
Lines get carried by more than one store. Real territory protection barely exists, and even when it shows up on paper, it does not really hold. Manufacturers are not refusing to protect you because they are mean. They are trying to stay open just like you are.
So what is your moat? It is the whole experience.
How you restock the front table on Tuesday morning. The music you pick. The way the bag is folded. The note you slip in before you tie it shut. The text two weeks later checking on the necklace. Knowing the customer’s kid’s name. Remembering the anniversary. The chair you keep by the dressing room because her mother always sits there.
Somebody can copy your front display. Somebody can pick up the same hot line. They are not going to copy that whole list. That belongs to you.
Stop fighting the line fight. It is not the one you can win. Spend that energy on the experience nobody can clone — and trust the customers who already drive past three other stores to come to you. They are not coming for the line. They are coming for you.
The product is what gets them in the door. You are why they come back.
To my Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky readers — thinking of you after last night’s storms, and a second round expected tonight. Charge your phones and stay close to a safe spot.
xoxo,
❤️ AmyFay
What’s happening in the world. What it means for your store.
Monday through Thursday, from AmyFay Chandler. More in Friday Retail Tidbits, every Friday morning.
