Determinants of online merchant rating: Content analysis of consumer comments about Yahoo merchants

Zhe Qu, Han Zhang*, Haizheng Li

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

84 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Online merchant rating is an important determinant of online merchant success, and plays an essential role in building consumer trust. Based on a rich data set collected from Yahoo's merchant review system, we applied content analysis to identify the most important factors that affect the overall rating of online merchants. We find that consumers in general put more weight on post-transaction services than online-transaction services when they rate online merchants' performance. This research can help e-commerce practitioners understand potentially problematic areas with their business. This research will also provide some easy-to-implement strategies for e-tailing managers to improve their service quality as well as their overall rating in the online feedback systems.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)440-449
Number of pages10
JournalDecision Support Systems
Volume46
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2008

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Management Information Systems
  • Information Systems
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • Information Systems and Management

User-Defined Keywords

  • Content analysis
  • E-tailing
  • Merchant rating
  • Online feedback systems
  • Online merchant

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