Determinants of online clothing review helpfulness: The roles of review concreteness, variance and valence

Abstract

Online reviews have emerged as an essential information source for online clothing purchasing behaviour. It is thus paramount for marketers to understand what makes online clothing review helpful to consumers. This research primarily aims to examine the relationship between review textual content factors and review helpfulness in the context of online clothing purchasing. Experiments on review concreteness (concrete or abstract), review variance (consistent or inconsistent) and review valence (positive or negative), between participants were conducted to explore the interaction effect. The findings suggest that online clothing review concreteness, variance and valence are significant factors affecting review helpfulness. Additionally, this study's findings show that abstract review, negatively review and inconsistent review has a stronger effect on online clothing review helpfulness than concrete review, positively review and consistent review. The findings will help customers to write better clothing reviews, help retailers to manage their websites intelligently and aid customers in their product purchasing decisions.