A Genre Analysis of Online Customer Review Discourse on the Digikala Online Retail Platform

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate Prof., Department of Business Management, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran.

2 MSc. Student, Department of Business Management, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran.

3 Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Business Management, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran.

10.22059/jibm.2024.369013.4714

Abstract

Objective
Over the past decades, the widespread adoption of the Internet has led to continuous growth in online shopping platforms, while exposing customers to extensive choices across diverse product categories. Consequently, consumers increasingly rely on online reviews as an accessible and credible source of real-world information to support their purchase decisions. To address key research gaps in understanding the communicative patterns of online customer reviews, this study adopts a comprehensive mixed-methods approach conducted in two phases. In the first phase, we identify the rhetorical strategies (moves) used in the most helpful consumer reviews on DigiKala, Iran’s leading e-commerce platform. In the second phase, we examine potential differences in these rhetorical strategies between search goods and experience goods through a comparative analysis across product categories.
Methodology
To address the stated research objectives, we conducted a detailed Genre Analysis using a Top-down Move Analysis Approach grounded in this study. Data were collected using purposive non-probability sampling from the best-selling products on DigiKala between October 23 and November 21, 2022. The statistical population included all customer reviews associated with these products. The Statistical Sample consisted of reviews from 37 of the best-selling products that had received 20 or more likes. In total, 414 customer reviews were subjected to qualitative coding and analyzed using MAXQDA version 2020 software. In the second phase of the study, all selected products were classified as either search or experience goods. To explore structural differences in rhetorical strategies, move frequencies were compared across these categories. Frequency variations were analyzed using SPSS 26 through Chi-square Tests of Independence.
 
Findings
Customer online reviews consistently provide critical product insights directly from consumer perspectives, thereby serving as essential decision-making aids for potential buyers. This study successfully identified six Major Rhetorical Moves and eight Minor Moves within DigiKala's most helpful consumer reviews corpus, each serving a distinct communicative function. The Major Moves comprise: Title, Overall Recommendation, Personal Experience, Reviewing Products’ Overall Features, Product Evaluation, and Expressing Consent. Collectively, these Major Moves accounted for a substantial proportion, approximately 82 percent of the entire corpus. Crucially, the statistical findings robustly confirmed a significant difference in the frequency of these moves between experience and search goods.
 
Conclusion
Customer online reviews are demonstrably important within e-commerce ecosystems primarily because they provide authentic, unfiltered insights into tangible product features and performance directly from consumers’ real-world usage perspectives. This research identified six Major Moves, with only the Overall Recommendation being mandatory for posting reviews in DigiKala; other moves reflect consumer discretion. This optional deployment of other moves demonstrates reviewers' structural autonomy in crafting comments. Based on our findings, we argue that since Personal Experience and Product Evaluation are particularly important to consumers, online platforms and retailers can strategically enhance user engagement by creating targeted content to emphasize these moves.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

 
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Journal of Business Management
Volume 17, Issue 3
2025
Pages 199-227

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