The impact of keyword characteristics on seller performance in e-commerce platforms: focusing on the moderating effect of product types

PurposeDrawing on the shopping goal theory, this study sets the following research questions. Research question 1: How do keyword characteristics of e-commerce platforms affect seller performance? Research question 2: Do these effects differ according to product type (utilitarian vs hedonic)?Design/methodology/approachEmpirical analysis was conducted using a dataset of 24,907 keywords collected from 30 product categories on Amazon. Multi-level modeling was used to distinguish between product level and keyword level.FindingsRegression analysis showed that keyword readability, customer characteristic keywords and brand characteristic keywords positively affect seller sales. The influence of these keyword characteristics on seller performance varied significantly across different product types.Originality/valueThe exploratory results of this study expanded existing studies by adding keyword characteristics to the factors that determine e-commerce platform seller performance and expanded the literature that mainly examines search engine keyword characteristics. In addition, by newly utilizing the LIWC (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count) methodology, this study provided a novel contribution to the literature on keyword characteristics.