Pragmatic Identity Construction of Cross-Border E-Commerce Retailers—A Move Analysis of Responses to Negative Reviews in AliExpress

Negative customer online reviews significantly influence potential customers' purchasing behaviors and damage the reputation and profitability of online shops. The process of responding to such reviews involves the strategic construction of pragmatic identity to meet communicative needs in service recovery. However, research on pragmatic identity construction in cross-border e-commerce contexts remains relatively limited. Based on 325 responses to negative online reviews collected from AliExpress, this study employs move analysis and pragmatic identity theory to investigate how Chinese cross-border e-commerce retailers discursively construct their identities in responding to negative reviews. The findings reveal that: (1) Four main moves, Opening, Apology, Solicitation, and Closing—are identified in retailers' responses, with steps such as greeting, appreciation, dismissal, promise, and invitation facilitating the realization of each move; (2) Retailers construct both the default identity of the Seller and deviational identities including the Friend, the Defender, the Servant, the Apologist, and the Problem Solver; (3) The dynamic construction of various pragmatic identities serves to address customer complaints effectively and maintain positive customer relationships. This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence of identity construction in computer-mediated business discourse, expanding the scope of online review response genre research, and offering practical implications for cross-border e-commerce retailers' service recovery strategies.