Might a Product Be Popular Because Other People Are Buying It?
Popularity can sometimes create more popularity.
A customer sees one bakery shelf nearly empty while another remains full. Without knowing anything else, they may assume the nearly empty shelf contains the better product.
The hidden mechanism is social proof. People often use the behavior of others as information when making decisions under uncertainty.
Businesses and researchers have observed that popularity can sometimes reinforce itself because visibility attracts attention.
The insight is that demand is not always created only by product quality. Sometimes demand grows because people interpret popularity as evidence.
