The Impact of Online Q&As on Product Sales: The Case of Amazon Answer

Warut Khern-am-nuai (), Hossein Ghasemkhani (), Dandan Qiao () and Karthik Kannan ()
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Warut Khern-am-nuai: Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1G5, Canada
Hossein Ghasemkhani: Krannert School of Management, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907
Dandan Qiao: Department of Information Systems and Analytics, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117417, Singapore
Karthik Kannan: Eller College of Management, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721

Information Systems Research, 2024, vol. 35, issue 2, 747-765

Abstract: This paper uses data from two online shopping platforms to investigate the impact of questions and answers on product sales. This research question is important as online marketplaces are increasingly incorporating questioning and answering (Q&A) capabilities. However, the economic implications of these Q&A capabilities have yet to be explored and discussed in the literature. We use a difference-in-differences approach to empirically examine the effect of questions and answers that exist on only one platform on the sales of experience goods. Interestingly, we find that answers, particularly the depth of answers, have a positive impact on sales. In addition, the fraction of questions with at least one answer has a positive and significant impact on product sales as well. Our further analyses on textual content suggest that fit-oriented questions and quality-oriented questions impact sales differently and that positive answers and negative answers also impact sales in different ways. Our findings suggest that platform sellers should pay particular attention to questions that their products receive, as answered questions increase product sales.

Keywords: online platform; user-generated content; questions; answers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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