One Size Fits All? Information Accessibility and Inclusivity in Online Platforms

Abstract

Despite representing a substantial market segment, plus-sized consumers face systematic information inequality in digital marketplaces compared to other users. While retailers increasingly offer inclusive sizing, this expansion has not been accompanied by adequate visual information for plus-sized consumers making purchase decisions. We partner with a US-based apparel rental platform and leverage large-scale rental and user-generated photo data to examine how social stigma deters plus-sized users from posting photo reviews and its impact on economic outcomes. First, we document significant underrepresentation in photo reviews from plus-sized users despite proportional rental activity, highlighting that information inequality extends from retailer-provided information to UGC, compounding the disadvantages plus-sized consumers already face.. Second, using a difference-in-differences design, we demonstrate that photo reviews from plus-sized users increase demand for plus-sized products by 16%, revealing the economic consequences of this information inequality. Third, through a natural experiment exploiting a policy change that reduced reviewer anonymity and a hierarchical choice model, we identify privacy concerns driven by weight-based social stigma as the primary mechanism deterring plus-sized users from contributing visual content. Our findings reveal how systematic underrepresentation in user-generated photos perpetuates information inequality and suggest that platforms must implement privacy-protective design features to serve diverse consumer populations effectively. This study contributes to understanding how social stigma translates into participation barriers in digital platforms and highlights the business value of addressing information inequality for underrepresented groups.

Keywords: information inequality, inclusivity, social stigma, privacy, photo reviews