The Longer long tail

The Longer long tail by

Chris Anderson

my Take

The concept of Long Tail can be explained by first talking about the head. The head is essential "the hits" and the tail is made up of "misses". In the music industry the head consists of the hit songs and the tail of not so popular songs.

In the brick and mortar stores, the inventory is mostly made up of the head items. Due to the cost of physical storage the tail items are not stocked. The web has disrupted this business model. The online sites have the head and the tail items in their stock. The buyers now have unlimited choice of items to buy.

This book has revealed that the tail does not become zero for the e-tailers. Thus the title Longer Long Tail. Even the not so popular songs and books are bought by customers. Thus money can be made in the misses as well as the hits.

The e-tailers also have another advantage over the retail stores. The tail items can be appropriately be given to the buyers by using filters. In a retail store with a huge choice, it becomes difficult for a customer to narrow down her choice. But in a e-tailer with good filters, the customer can have easy access to their choice of product