Long Tail Strategy Comprehensive Guide to the Long Tail Effect

3877 reads · Last updated: November 16, 2025

The long tail is a business strategy that allows companies to realize significant profits by selling low volumes of hard-to-find items to many customers, instead of only selling large volumes of a reduced number of popular items. The term was first coined in 2004 by Chris Anderson, who argued that products in low demand or with low sales volume can collectively make up market share that rivals or exceeds the relatively few current bestsellers and blockbusters but only if the store or distribution channel is large enough.Long-tail may also refer to a type of liability in the insurance industry or to tail risk found in investment portfolios. This definition deals with the business strategy use of the term.

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