Paradox of Information Quality: Do Consumers Pay More for Premium Product Information on E-commerce Sites?

The main goal of this study is to investigate the link between information quality and the customer's willingness to pay for it. We propose that the level of product homogeneity affects the consumer’s purchase. This study hypothesizes that consumers tend to choose the lowest price when purchasing homogeneous products, regardless of the quality of information provided on the web site. In contrast, when purchasing heterogeneous products online, consumers do not necessarily choose the lowest price, but rather choose the higher-priced option that provides high quality information on the product. Before testing these hypotheses, we conducted a pilot study. The results of this pilot study show the feasibility of future studies.