电子商务市场长尾现象研究述评与展望

A Literature Review and Prospect of the Long Tail in E-commerce Market

长尾现象是指随着互联网技术和电子商务市场的发展,产品销售出现非主流和非热销产品销量上升,并且种类比主流产品更为丰富的现象,其聚合销量可与主流产品相匹配甚至更大,使得在产品销量分布图上形成一条长长的尾巴。长尾现象的出现会对商家产品营销、市场竞争以及消费者福利等方面产生重要影响。对商家来讲,长尾现象表明除主流产品外,那些冷门的利基产品在电商市场也能创造巨大销量,有效开发经营利基产品也能成为商家新的销售增长点。对消费者来讲,电商市场中利基产品种类增多和多样化程度的提高,也有利于满足不同消费者的个性化需求,提高消费者效用,增加消费者福利。因此,长尾现象自产生以来,一直备受学者的关注。本文主要从长尾现象的概念内涵、研究进展、形成机理、影响效果等角度,对相关文献进行梳理和总结,并对未来研究进行了展望。

The Long Tail refers to a kind of phenomenon that the sales volume of niche and obscure products increases with the development of internet technology and e-commerce,and it may be the same or even higher than popular products in aggregate on account of a greater variety of products,thereby creating a long tail in the distribution of sales.The emergence of Long Tail can make a significant impact on seller’s product marketing and market competition,as well as consumer welfare.For sellers,the Long Tail shows those niche products can also sell very well as like as the popular products in the e-commerce market.So the sellers can develop niche products to be a new source of profits.For consumers,the increasing of series and diversities of niche products in the e-commerce market can satisfy personalized requirements of various consumers.So the consumer's utility and welfare can be improved.Since the Long Tail emerging,it has always attracted attention from scholars.This paper reviews related literature in aspects of concept,research progress,formation mechanism and impact effect of Long Tail,and makes prospects for future research directions.