The Curated Hyper-Segmentation era is here
The Long Tail illustrates how traditional business based on Blockbuster, built under massive media, celebrities, mass-market products, Hollywood, MTV, have lost their strength and even disappeared. The Pareto principle resulted in a global mainstream, clone society: a Zebra Society (Zebra as a metaphor for a non-differentiated, extremely homogeneous society), empowered by middle-class American dream (house, car, television…).
At the end of the 20th century, the whole system progressively evolved and new joiners appeared on the map, like eBay, Google, iTunes, Spotify, Netflix, Amazon…Today, online distribution allows us to buy any product, from hits to niches. We entered a World of abundance, with a boundless assortment. The demand curve is less concentrated in the head, lengthens and fattens the tail covering every single need.
The Long Tail, illustrated by Amazon, developed a high-segmentation of products and customers. Today, this segmentation is being curated, hyper-differentiated, and many customers are demanding a different experience.
Amazon is tracking those customers behaviors and trends. Therefore, just launched Amazon Storefronts, a site that offers more than one million curated and high-quality products, from small & medium businesses in the US. It´s a site, within the long tail, but with a different approach, a different customer experience and product display. The retailer is starting this first in the US, focusing on some 20,000 merchants “from all 50 states” including categories such as Books, Home, Electronics and Grocery.
It reminds me of Farfetch business model, that offers a complete assortment of brands, from leading brands to niche brands, from local stores that are not able to find a platform to increase their traffic. It´s the Robin Hood of local stores, luxury niches, that find the way to sell globally thru the online platform.
Amazon Storefronts Home Site
Why a special site? The rules of the game are changing
Customers are looking for:
- Sustainability: transparency (visibility of suppliers), last-mile/ local products.
- Proximity/ Hyper-Local products
- Niche is chic: sense of uniqueness and exclusivity. Far from mainstream.
- Shopping experience: Today, it´s almost a luxury to shop in a real market, where food is by far, more tasteful, has a better quality, is not plastic… A Marketplace that brings you quality products from small & medium players is demanded. And it´s not only the product, but also the User Experience, short-delivery time and good price.