Credibility of Youtube product reviews and customers' product return intention: a product fit uncertainty perspective
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to examine the factors that influence customers' product return intentions and proposes that YouTube product reviews can mitigate customers' desire to return a product.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed theoretical research model and hypothesized relationship were investigated using a quantitative process. This study used 302 data from Indonesian young adult respondents to examine the structural model, which was analyzed using the SmartPLS 3.2 software package.
Findings
The results show that YouTube product reviews, product fit uncertainty and customer satisfaction are the key determinants of customers' product return intention. Furthermore, the results show that the credibility of YouTube product reviews has a major impact on customers' familiarity with a product, satisfaction and the likelihood of returning goods to sellers.
Practical implications
In the e-commerce industry, increasing the use of YouTube product reviews will help businesses eliminate unnecessary product returns. Sellers are also encouraged to collaborate with YouTube producers to review specific products, which can benefit companies by raising brand awareness and gaining customer feedback. Furthermore, YouTube online product reviews can help consumers avoid having an unpleasant shopping experience that causes emotional reactions and lowers satisfaction.
Originality/value
Most research has not considered antecedents in observing the product return phenomenon; this study observes a prerequisite of consumer product returns (i.e. information asymmetry and product familiarity) and investigates the relationships between YouTube product reviews, customer satisfaction and product return intention.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the Editor and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback on this paper. The authors also thank the survey respondents for providing valuable data. This research was funded by Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan [grant number: MOST 107-2410-H-006-047-MY2].
Citation
Nugroho, A. and Wang, W.-T. (2023), "Credibility of Youtube product reviews and customers' product return intention: a product fit uncertainty perspective", Information Technology & People, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-11-2021-0838
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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