Goodbye Pareto Principle, Hello Long Tail: The Effect of Search Costs on the Concentration of Product Sales. February 2007. Online article vailable at http://ssrn.com/abstract=953587. Accessed November 12 th

Business managers have long used Pareto Principle, commonly called the 80/20 rule, in their sales forecasting and product line management. The rule says a small proportion (e.g., 20 percent) of a company’s products often generate a large proportion (e.g., 80 percent) of the company’s sales.1 This 80/20 rule has proved to describe the product sales distribution very well in a traditional busines