The Effect of Online Q&As and Product Reviews on Product Performance Metrics: Amazon.com as a Case Study

Abstract

Online reviews have received an overwhelming interest in the recent decades. Comparatively speaking, the online product questions and answers (Q&As) have received less attention than online reviews, despite that they both affect the image and the value of a project. Although online reviews and Q&As are both forms of user generated knowledge ion online communities, they may affect customers decision making differently. Furthermore, Q&As are very useful for pre-purchase information-searching and comparison shopping, especially when online product reviews either do not provide the needed answer or getting the desired information requires additional “cost” (i.e. time and effort) to sort out. Our findings show that Q&A traits had a varying effect on the product performance. We also found that review helpfulness is another important factor that affects product sale and popularity on e-commerce sites. The present study adds to existing electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and product review literature.