Sazbean

To be fair, I have not read the book version of ‘The Long Tail’.  I do, however, feel like I have if only because the title finds its way into many strategy sessions for online products and services in which I have participated.   The argument, as I have understood it from Chris Anderson’s own writing on the subject, purports that Brick & Mortar stores are not and cannot meet the demand of the market by only shelving known hits.  The physical limitations of shelf space are removed in online markets and should result in greater diversity of product selection. Online retailers should expect that diversity to translate into longer purchasing curves from their customers as untapped demand beyond those hits start to become fulfilled.  That customers will begin to spend money on niche areas is what is meant by the long tail of products sold in a new marketplace.  The Harvard Business Review has a good writeup here.

The Harvard Business Review also published an article which investigated possible markets which should exhibit this behavior to see if they followed the long tail curve.  Their findings are interesting, if not conclusive in my opinion.  The data shows that blockbuster products, those products which are both highly publicized and in high demand, are still a solid marketing technique in the online retail space and that stores should not underfund or abandon support for popular products in lieu of diversified selection. While this flirts with the fringes of obvious, it is supported by what looks to be solid research numbers which is always a sound practice when analyzing popular pet theories in the business community.  It further infers that the ‘Long Tail’ is greatly helped by having these popular titles in the inventory and possibly acts as a catalyst for more diversified sales.

Starting on page 4 of the report the author has given the online retailers and websites (presumably the reader of the article as well) a wonderful list of suggestions drawn from her research.  Visit the HBR site for more details.  Techcrunch’s Erick Schonfeld also has a good write-up on the article here.

My personal take on the article has more to do with the presumption of availability.  Both the Long Tail and this article make clear the need for an inventory to not languish in the back unseen.  How easily your customers can find the niche products has a huge impact on those sales graphs and it is brought up as an aside in the article.  The requirement for businesses to connect customers with relevant, niche inventory is not limited to retail.  Digg just implemented a recommendation engine that has been largely covered in the press.  The simple act of bringing uncommon or less popular content to a visitor based on their viewing patterns is every bit as much about the Long Tail of content consumption as is Amazon’s product recommendor.  Bringing in the customers with the Blockbusters is half the dollar you can earn.  The rest comes from connecting that customer to other products you have and getting those products in their shopping cart.