E-Commerce and Plus-Sized Consumers: Study Examines Online Platform’s Informational Accessibility, Inclusivity
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that the average U.S. woman is considered plus sized, but according to industry reports only 0.5% of models are, and the fashion industry has long been criticized for being insufficiently inclusive in terms of body size. In a new study, researchers confirmed the dearth of plus-sized consumers posting reviews online and examined the effect of this and of the tendency of these consumers not to share photos of themselves in online reviews.
The study, by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy and the University of Washington (UW), is a working paper.
Market research suggests that in 2016, the sale of plus-sized women’s clothing surpassed $21 billion, contributing 6% of the overall apparel market, but plus-sized brands represent only 2.4% of the total number of brands carried by the top multi-brand retailers. This is not due to lack of demand: The CDC says the average U.S. woman wears a size 14 or greater.
But although an increasing number of clothing brands are expanding their product lines to be more inclusive, this rise has not been accompanied by an increase in information for plus-sized consumers online. Customer reviews by plus-sized women are lacking.
“Despite the enormous purchasing power of plus-sized consumers, many find themselves navigating a digital landscape marked by information scarcity,” explains Uttara Ananthakrishnan, assistant professor of information systems at Heinz College, who led the study. “The lack of plus-sized user-generated reviews exacerbates information asymmetry, making it exceedingly challenging for plus-sized consumers to make informed purchasing decisions,”
To probe these disparities, researchers explored the impact of the lack of representative information on consumer behavior and the mechanisms that drive the information asymmetry. From January 2021 to December 2022, they partnered with a U.S.-based apparel rental firm that operates on a subscription model and requires customers to provide star ratings after renting; whether customers add photos of their clothing is optional. The study included more than 11,000 active users and more than 66,500 pieces of rented items, as well as more than 92,000 online reviews and nearly 17,500 reviews that included photos.
In e-commerce, online reviews play a crucial role in alleviating information asymmetry, helping consumers make better decisions. But writing a review requires customers to cede some level of privacy, which, because of societal stigma and anti-fat bias, may limit the likelihood of plus-sized customers writing reviews. As a result, plus-sized consumers face more informational uncertainty when buying apparel, exacerbating the cycle of informational asymmetry.
There is a significant underrepresentation of online reviews from plus-sized customers, the study found. When these consumers write reviews, they are less likely to include photos, even though photo reviews boost demand for a product 10% among other plus-sized users.
Moreover, based on a hierarchical model the researchers developed, the presence of photos in reviews, particularly those form users of similar sizes, appeared to encourage others to share their photos. This suggests that reviews with photos, unlike text-only reviews, create a feeling of solidarity among plus-sized users.
Finally, plus-sized users face the highest privacy costs, which deters their participation in online communities and contributes to an underrepresentation of plus-sized groups in these spaces. When a policy change on the platform meant that reviewers’ names were shared, all users reduced their photo postings, with plus-sized users decreasing their inclusion of photos even more.
Among the study’s practical implications, the authors suggest that digital platforms design features to ameliorate privacy concerns (e.g., by using auto-blur, concealing faces in posted photos), increase the diversity of models (e.g., by inviting plus-sized influencers to post), and boost information that is not user-generated (e.g., by being explicitly inclusive in product descriptions). In addition, when significant privacy costs are involved, platforms should provide features that preserve users’ anonymity.
Among the study’s limitations, the authors note that because they focused on e-commerce platforms, their findings may not be directly applicable to other types of platforms where user-generated content also plays a significant role. In addition, the demographics of their user sample, which may have been limited in gender, age, geography, and socioeconomic status, could have introduced biases that may have affect the generalizability of the findings. Finally, their suggestions for intervention (e.g., anonymity features, auto-blurring faces in review photos) are grounded in theory but have not been tested for effectiveness.
“Our study underscores the importance of privacy considerations in alleviating informational asymmetry for underrepresented populations on review platforms, especially since this asymmetry stems from social and cultural stigma,” says Yu Kan, a Ph.D. student in information systems and operations management at UW, who coauthored the study.
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Summarized as a working paper, One Size Fits All? Informational Accessibility and Inclusivity in Online Platforms by Ananthakrishnan, U (Carnegie Mellon University), and Kan, Y (University of Washington). Copyright 2024. All rights reserved.
About Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy
The Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy is home to two internationally recognized graduate-level institutions at Carnegie Mellon University: the School of Information Systems and Management and the School of Public Policy and Management. This unique colocation combined with its expertise in analytics set Heinz College apart in the areas of cybersecurity, health care, the future of work, smart cities, and arts & entertainment. In 2016, INFORMS named Heinz College the #1 academic program for Analytics Education. For more information, please visit www.heinz.cmu.edu.