We introduced the concept of the Long Tail principle recently. In business parlance, it’s a relatively new idea coined by Wired Magazine to describe occurrences in click-and-mortar retail establishments. The idea was that the Internet has brought forth the power of the Long Tail, in that businesses that cater to niche audiences have found a faster way to reach their clientele (as opposed to businesses with a mass audience, which is more or less a hit-and-miss affair).
However, individual niche products or services alone cannot make the Long Tail principle work its magic. They key is consolidation. The one who can bring in all obscure, niche items under one roof would greatly benefit. For instance, take the business model of Amazon.com. Amazon does not have its own book retail chops, but in its sourcing selling books and other items from various companies and individuals, it’s able to cater to the needs of people who look for difficult-to-find or not-so-popular publications. And selling a large volume of relatively unknown items proved to outperform even sales from the best-sellers.
There are quite a good number of means businesses can cash in on the concept of the Long Tail, and we shall briefly go about with these shortly.