Investigating a long tail in retail vehicle sales

► A long tail in demand distribution is observed in vehicle sales sold through conventional car dealerships. ► Simulation experiments reveal how customers willingness to wait and to compromise affect the pattern in vehicle sales. ► There is danger in using the sales distribution as a definitive indicator of demand. ► The order fulfillment process needs to align with the characteristics of the market. ► There are negative effects when focusing replenishment on a small subset of the most popular product variants.