posted on March 11, 2013 11:19:13 AM
I have a local competitor who I have known for years. It seems that as of the last 3 years his business has done everything it can to copy what we do. I will advertise somewhere, so their business will advertise there. I start offering free shipping, they start offering free shipping. I use the Vendio banner to display other items for sale, they now use the banner for their eBay listings. About a year ago we moved into a new location where someone does CNC routing, so we advertised this service to our customers... guess who now offers the service??? We ran an advertisement online, now they run a very similar advertisement too.
I remember a few years ago the owner asked me how I get top rankings on Google (as if I am willing to share my trade secrets).
There is obviously little I can do, as it is nothing more than copying business strategies... but how about some ingenuity?
The one thing they haven't managed to copy is our customer satisfaction. We have 100% feedback 314 reviews.
They have 34 feedbacks with 94.3% rating including 2 negatives from different users.
posted on March 11, 2013 03:06:45 PM
Yep. About 7 years ago we were looking at bringing in a dealer to our store to rent space. I estimated our total cost for retail square footage to be $2.50 including everything (utilities, insurance, etc). I offered the space for $2.75.
They wanted it for $1.25. Completely unreasonable for retail space where we were. You couldn't even find your own retail space for less than $1.50 before renovations and plugging in.
I will never forget the comment they made, "We would be bringing clients to your store. We get over 3 million hits on our website a year! I don't know how I kept a straight look on my face when I was told that. It was so ridiculously absurd. Not even Powell's, the largest independent bookstore in Portland, got 3 million hits a year.
I know they paid a fortune to buy into selling on 1stDibs too. Not sure what the vetting standards are, but I was quite surprised to hear it knowing what I know.
posted on March 11, 2013 03:08:27 PM
They can't be doing everything that you are or they wouldn't have 2 negatives.
Apparently they didn't copy your integrity!!
posted on March 12, 2013 04:34:40 AM
You might have some legal standing if the other person is plagiarizing your company name, email address, ebay name, and or the format of your ads and you can prove this impacts your business in some way.
Also an attorney can send them a warning to cease and desist. The next step being a C&D order from a judge. All depends on if this is costing you money and customers or is just annoying.
posted on March 13, 2013 10:26:44 AM
I used to work in a law office, and in my opinion there is nothing legal there. It is just someone who keeps an eye on what everyone else does for marketing and then copies it if they like it. It isn't a matter of copyright or anything else like that.
