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A review by tsutrav
The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson
3.0
I was very excited to read this book. It's a neat idea that I felt captures the 'silver lining' to online retail. I saw it as leveling the playing field between the big guys and the little guys.
In a nutshell, Anderson says that, thanks to the Internet, web-based businesses can hold their own against big box retailers. Since big box retailers have a limited amount of shelf space they can't carry everything. So they only carry a few things they can sell a lot of. Whereas online shops have no physical limits and which allows them to sell the "fast moving" items as well as the item that sells once every 2 years.
So the big boxes sell one item. But it's bought 1,000 times and the little guys sell 1,000 items but only make one sale per item.
This idea opens up all kinds options for web stores to carry niche items. I believe the world would be richer for it. But I have some reservations with Anderson's ideas and methodology.
This book started as a blog Anderson was keeping. Back in the beginning he interviewed some online businesses and formed his ideas and theories. Over the years, thousands of folks commented and helped out and a book was born. But what Anderson didn't do is go back to those businesses to see if his ideas panned out. He's just now written the book, but based on the old initial data. When reporters asked him if, in the years it took to write the book, he was able to see his ideas bloom at some of the companies he mentions, he said he hadn't looked. Why wouldn't he look?
If he had he'd see that a couple of the companies he bases his thoughts on had changed their strategies and made adjustments, because things weren't working out. So Anderson is writing from old assesments. No real harm in that. Unless you are a small business owner and think you just ran across a rock solid business plan and try to implement it yourself. So be careful.
So I think the basic idea here is solid. Or maybe I'm just hopeful. But I have serious problems with Anderson's case studies and evidence.
For more information look for an article that ran in the Wall Street Journal by Lee Gomes in the summer of 2006.
In a nutshell, Anderson says that, thanks to the Internet, web-based businesses can hold their own against big box retailers. Since big box retailers have a limited amount of shelf space they can't carry everything. So they only carry a few things they can sell a lot of. Whereas online shops have no physical limits and which allows them to sell the "fast moving" items as well as the item that sells once every 2 years.
So the big boxes sell one item. But it's bought 1,000 times and the little guys sell 1,000 items but only make one sale per item.
This idea opens up all kinds options for web stores to carry niche items. I believe the world would be richer for it. But I have some reservations with Anderson's ideas and methodology.
This book started as a blog Anderson was keeping. Back in the beginning he interviewed some online businesses and formed his ideas and theories. Over the years, thousands of folks commented and helped out and a book was born. But what Anderson didn't do is go back to those businesses to see if his ideas panned out. He's just now written the book, but based on the old initial data. When reporters asked him if, in the years it took to write the book, he was able to see his ideas bloom at some of the companies he mentions, he said he hadn't looked. Why wouldn't he look?
If he had he'd see that a couple of the companies he bases his thoughts on had changed their strategies and made adjustments, because things weren't working out. So Anderson is writing from old assesments. No real harm in that. Unless you are a small business owner and think you just ran across a rock solid business plan and try to implement it yourself. So be careful.
So I think the basic idea here is solid. Or maybe I'm just hopeful. But I have serious problems with Anderson's case studies and evidence.
For more information look for an article that ran in the Wall Street Journal by Lee Gomes in the summer of 2006.