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Long tail

The long tail is the large group of products in a catalogue that each sell only once or twice in a period but together bring in a noticeable share of revenue.

How it works

The name comes from the shape of a sales chart. A few bestsellers form a tall head, followed by a long, low line of products with one or two sales each. Chris Anderson popularised the idea in Wired in October 2004: products with low sales can together rival the few bestsellers. Anita Elberse questioned it in Harvard Business Review in 2008, with sales data showing that the web made hits more important.

Our article on long tail theory in e-commerce tests the idea on stores’ ad data. In GetProfit data, the tail is a moving set: most products that sell once or twice this month did not sell last month. So a list of tail products goes out of date quickly, which shapes how you advertise long-tail products in Shopping and Performance Max.

Where you see it

  • GetProfit portal, Products and labels: the Long tail group, products that sell little but at target ROAS.

Example

Example store, not client data.

In one month, 160 of the tableware shop’s 3,000 products sold. Of these, 110 had one order and 20 had two: 130 tail products, or 81% of the products that sold. Together they brought in 70,000 of the 180,000 in revenue, or 39%. The other 30 products had 150 orders and brought in 110,000.

Not to be confused with

  • Long tail label — the portal group, based on the last 12 months. It keeps only products that hold the target ROAS; tail products below the target go to Marginal or Loss-making.
  • Zombie products — products that spend budget and sell nothing. A tail product sells, just rarely.

Right and wrong readings

  • Wrong: “Products with one order a month are too small to matter.” Right: in the example each one brings in little, but together the 130 make up 39% of revenue.

Benchmarks

We measured 116 stores month by month (GetProfit data, June 2025 – June 2026). Products with one or two orders in a month made up a median 64.9% of the products that sold and 57.0% of revenue. Of a month’s tail products, 75.0% had not sold the month before, against 12.5% of products with six or more orders. Your catalogue may differ.

Sources

  • Long tail — Wikipedia: the term, Anderson’s 2004 Wired article, Elberse’s criticism. Checked 2 October 2026.
  • Should You Invest in the Long Tail? — Anita Elberse, Harvard Business Review, July–August 2008. Checked 2 October 2026.
  • GetProfit data: 116 stores, June 2025 – June 2026 — the tail’s share and how fast it changes.