by Tara Curtis
Grabbing the Tail
If you make a chart of every available product in the world that you could possibly buy right now, only a small amount would fit into that “must have” category of popularity that drives big box retailers to stock up on the latest hot toy for the holidays.
The rest of the products spread out into infinity away from the spiked cluster of big-ticket items as popularity decreases, creating what we call a Long Tail. The Long Tail is really a retailing concept that abandons the traditional merchandising methods in favor of the equalizing power of the Internet.
