Impact of Retailer Generated Online Content on the Perceived Helpfulness of Product Reviews

Abstract

This article quantifies the impact of retailer generated content, such as information, comparisons, and reviews, which may not be helpful to the consumer. The article uses 42,636 reviews spanning 44 products that offer different combinations of the three-aforementioned retailer generated content to isolate the impact of each. Our results indicate that such content cannot replace the utility of the review but can make a significant contribution towards satisfying the consumers need for information and help. The results also indicate that the information contained in such retailer generated content is more important for search and less so for experience goods. These results have important implications for an online retailer or review platform investing in content creation and management.