The Long Tail

Anderson argued that products that are in low demand or have low sales volume can collectively make up a market share that rivals or exceeds the relatively few current bestsellers and blockbusters, if the store or distribution channel is large enough.

They found a large proportion of Amazon.com's book sales come from obscure books that are not available in brick-and-mortar stores. They then quantified the potential value of the long tail to consumers. In an article published in 2003 these authors showed that, while most of the discussion about the value of the internet to consumers has revolved around lower prices, consumer benefit (a.k.a. consumer surplus) from access to increased product variety in online book stores is ten times larger than their benefit from access to lower prices online. Thus, the primary value of the internet to consumers comes from releasing new sources of value by providing access to products in the long tail.