The Long Tail

Just finished another "business" book, The Long Tail by Chris Anderson.  I've known the basic tenet of the book for some time, but given my recent immersion in the world of e-commerce for GoneReading, it was high time that I read it for myself.

The basic concept of the book is that commerce is no longer dominated solely by hits.  The growth and empowering effects of the Internet have brought about the rise of the "niche".  In fact, the sum of all of the "niches" can be bigger than the sum of the "hits".

My takeaways as far as e-commerce is concerned:

• It's OK to serve a niche.  In fact, it probably makes more sense to serve a niche than to serve a mass market.
• Serve that niche with the widest possible selection of products.  Don't filter anything from the audience.
• Let the audience select what they want by providing them with powerful filters: Customer reviews, great navigation, search, and ranking options.

My only criticism of the book is that the overwhelming majority of the discussion regarded non-physical products: media, music, entertainment, etc.  While the principles apply almost equally to physical vs. non-physical products and services, most of the examples were from the former.

As such, Anderson talks about the "infinite" size of the online retail shelf without any mention of realities such as inventory cost.  True, a distribution center doesn't have the same storage costs as a retail store, but the inventory costs remain the same, and they can be substantial.

Still, I believe in the concept put forth by The Long Tail, and will put it into practice.