An Empirical Study on the Impact of E-Commerce Live Features on Consumers’ Purchase Intention: From the Perspective of Flow Experience and Social Presence

Exploring the influence of live streaming on consumer purchase intention: A structural equation modeling approach in the Chinese E-commerce sector

The e-commerce landscape is evolving rapidly, and businesses seek novel ways to enhance their competitive edge. In this context, understanding consumers' purchase intentions becomes crucial. Drawing from the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) theory, we propose a conceptual framework investigating the factors influencing purchase intention in e-commerce live-streaming marketing. The research adopts Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and hypothesis testing to evaluate the relationships. The findings revealed that the attributes of live streaming, including the live streamer, the product, and the field, as well as trust and impulsiveness, positively influence purchase intention. This study provides a novel perspective on live streaming e-commerce with evidence on how e-commerce live streaming drives purchase intentions, enriches the content of live streaming e-commerce literature, and explores the practical implications for marketing managers who are looking for marketing by live streaming.

Research progress analysis of live streaming commerce based on CiteSpace

In recent years, live streaming commerce (LSC) has become a popular research topic. However, current studies on LSC are relatively insufficient, and analyses have generally focused on its specific aspects, lacking a comprehensive and systematic perspective. Hence, this study utilises CiteSpace to undertake a visual bibliometric analysis aimed at delineating the knowledge framework and evolution of LSC and indicates future research directions to provide a comprehensive picture of the development of this dynamic field over the past six years. The results show that LSC is a thriving subject with several growing annual publications. Additionally, a strong collaboration exists between institutions and authors. Further, 'influence', 'consumer behaviour' and 'consumer purchase intention' are more popular in this domain and have assumed a leading position in recent research. Moreover, novel research trajectories have emerged, indicating interdisciplinary integration within the field. This study is innovative as it combines live streaming with commerce, analyses six years of literature, and builds an accurate and comprehensive knowledge framework within this domain. By identifying current gaps, this study contributes to the literature by addressing prior study limitations, enriching the knowledge base, providing crucial research directions for future exploration, and inspiring scholars to efficiently find research topics.

From E-Commerce to the Metaverse: A Neuroscientific Analysis of Digital Consumer Behavior

The growing interest in consumer behavior in the digital environment is leading scholars and companies to focus on consumer behavior and choices on digital platforms, such as the metaverse. On this immersive digital shopping platform, consumer neuroscience provides an optimal opportunity to explore consumers' emotions and cognitions. In this study, neuroscience techniques (EEG, SC, BVP) were used to compare emotional and cognitive aspects of shopping between metaverse and traditional e-commerce platforms. Participants were asked to purchase the same product once on a metaverse platform (Second Life, SL) and once via an e-commerce website (EC). After each task, questionnaires were administered to measure perceived enjoyment, informativeness, ease of use, cognitive effort, and flow. Statistical analyses were conducted to examine differences between SL and EC at the neurophysiological and self-report levels, as well as between different stages of the purchase process. The results show that SL elicits greater cognitive engagement than EC, but it is also more mentally demanding, with a higher workload and more memorization, and fails to elicit a strong positive emotional response, leading to a poorer shopping experience. These findings provide insights not only for digital-related consumer research but also for companies to improve their metaverse shopping experience. Before investing in the platform or creating a digital retail space, companies should thoroughly analyze it, focusing on how to enhance users' cognition and emotions, ultimately promoting a better consumer experience. Despite its limitations, this pilot study sheds light on the emotional and cognitive aspects of metaverse shopping and suggests potential for further research with a consumer neuroscience approach in the metaverse field.

The Effects of Live Streamer's Facial Attractiveness and Product Type on Consumer Purchase Intention: An Exploratory Study with Eye Tracking Technology

As a booming branch of online retailing, live-streaming e-commerce can present abundant information dimensions and diverse forms of expression. Live-streaming e-commerce has enabled online retailers to interact with customers face-to-face, resulting in widespread instances of emotional and impulse buying behavior. Prior research in live-streaming e-commerce has suggested that live streamers' characteristics, especially the live streamer's face, can affect customers' purchase intentions. The present research used questionnaire surveys and an eye tracking experiment to investigate the impact of live streamer's facial attractiveness on consumer purchase intention for search-based and experience-based products. The questionnaire survey analyzed 309 valid questionnaires and revealed that attractive faces are the key influencing factor driving consumers' impulse purchase intentions. Moreover, consumers' emotional experience plays a partial mediating role in the process of live streamers' faces influencing purchase intention. The eye tracking experiment further explored the mechanism of a live streamer's facial attractiveness on consumers' purchase intentions of search-based products and experience-based products from the perspective of visual attention by analyzing 64 valid sets of data. The results showed that attractive faces attract more consumers' attention and, therefore, increase their purchase intention. Furthermore, there is a significant interaction between product type, the live streamer's facial attractiveness, and consumers' purchase intentions. In the case of unattractive live streamers, consumers are more likely to buy search-based products than experience-based products, while the purchase intention does not vary between search-based products and experience-based products in the case of attractive live streamers. The present study provides evidence for 'beauty premium' in live-streaming e-commerce and sheds light on the design of the match between live streamers and different types of products.

The Impact of Interpersonal Interaction on Purchase Intention in Livestreaming E-Commerce: A Moderated Mediation Model

Over the last few years, livestreaming e-commerce has shown rapid growth and has become an important form of e-commerce. However, the potential mechanisms of interpersonal interaction's influence on purchase intention in livestreaming e-commerce have yet to be fully investigated. Based on the SOR (Stimulus-Organism-Response) framework, this study reveals the association between interpersonal interaction (consumer-anchor interaction and consumer-consumer interaction), psychological distance, consumer purchase intention, and the positive role of brand identification and time pressure in this context of influential relationships. The results of analyzing 603 questionnaires show that psychological distance between consumers and products plays a mediating role in the effect of interpersonal interaction on purchase intention. Meanwhile, this study found that consumers' brand identification with the products in the live room was effective in enhancing the direct effect of interpersonal interaction in the model. Additionally, the time pressure associated with limited-time sales was also found to be effective in enhancing the effects of interpersonal interaction and psychological distance on purchase intention. The results of this study reveal the potential influence mechanisms of interpersonal interactions with various identities in livestreaming e-commerce, providing theoretical guidance and practical insights for practitioners in the field.

Factors Influencing Consumers' Intentions to Switch to Live Commerce From Push-Pull-Mooring Perspective

Conventional e-commerce retailers are less advantageous in attracting online consumers than streamers in live commerce. In China, live commerce has gradually become the mainstream sales channel. Based on the push-pull-mooring model of migration theory, this study aims to identify the reasons that urge online consumers to switch from shopping on conventional e-commerce to live commerce, as well as the potential obstacles of such a switch. About 306 Chinese consumers with conventional e-commerce and live-stream shopping experience participated in this study. The results indicate that live commerce's attractiveness has the greatest impact on consumers' willingness to switch to live commerce, followed by dissatisfaction with conventional e-commerce, while switching costs has no significant effect. Low interactivity most greatly impacts dissatisfaction with conventional e-commerce, while streamers' charisma greatly impacts on live commerce's attractiveness, and low familiarity impacts switching costs. The authors analyze the data by gender and occupation to yield additional findings.

Propaganda Information of Internet Celebrity Influence

At present, internet celebrity marketing has become a driving force for the growth of mobile e-commerce; however, it has also become more apparent that the credibility and authenticity of the internet celebrity is directly correlated to the success of the marketing model. Therefore, in order to entice consumers into purchasing products, cooperations and internet celebrities must be deemed trustworthy. In addition, there are several factors that influence the trust between internet celebrities and consumers. To highlight these factors, this paper constructed an internet celebrity marketing model from the perspective of trust and takes internet celebrity features, marketing character, and product factor as three constructs. Furthermore, eight independent variables are defined, and the corresponding items are designed. Through a quite large data survey and analysis, they have three findings: all eight independent variables have significant influence on trust, and internet celebrities' popularity, interactivity, and professionalism are the top three important factors.

An empirical study on impulse consumption intention of livestreaming e-commerce: The mediating effect of flow experience and the moderating effect of time pressure

Based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model, this paper studies the impulsive consumption mechanism of consumers participating in livestreaming e-commerce from the perspectives of information source characteristics and social presence and examines the mediating effect of flow experience and the moderating effect of time pressure. Based on the consumption data of 268 live shoppers, multiple regression analysis and Bootstrap method were used to test the research hypothesis. The empirical results show that the credibility, professionalism, attractiveness, and interactivity of live information sources have significant positive impacts on consumers' flow experience and impulsive consumption intention. Furthermore, coexistence, communication and emotional presence of social presence have a significant positive impact on consumers' flow experience and impulsive consumption intention. Flow experience plays part of the mediating role in the process of the characteristics of livestreaming information sources and social presence affecting consumers' impulsive consumption intention, while time pressure has a positive moderating effect in the relationship between livestreaming information source characteristics and coexistence presence and flow experience. The higher the time pressure, the stronger the promotion of live information source characteristics and coexistence presence on flow experience. This study enriches the research literature on the consumption driving mechanism of livestreaming e-commerce and offers practical enlightenment and reference to improve the effectiveness of livestreaming e-commerce anchors. It is also one of the first studies to apply the theory of flow and social presence to the impulsive consumption intention of livestreaming e-commerce.

The influence of androgynous streamers on consumers' product preferences

Since the rapid development of network technology, the rise of live-streaming shopping platforms has followed. Some streamers influence consumers' preferences for products through their gender role attributes, thus generating great commercial value. Based on attachment theory and using an experimental approach, this study explored the impact of streamers' gender roles (single gender/androgyny) on consumers' preferences through 2 studies. Study 1 shows the androgynous streamer elicits a higher product preference than the single-gender (masculine and feminine) streamer. Study 2 demonstrates the moderating effect of gender stereotypes through 2 experiments to construct clear boundary conditions for the main effect and the results show that regardless of whether the streamer is male or female when individuals have a high gender stereotype, the single-gender streamer leads to a higher product preference than the androgynous streamer. When individuals have a low gender stereotype, the androgynous streamer promotes a higher product preference than the single-gender streamer.

The impact of social presence and facilitation factors on online consumers' impulse buying in live shopping – celebrity endorsement as a moderating factor

Purpose

Although prior studies have studied the relationship between online consumers' attitudes and buying behaviour, the research focussing on online consumers' impulse buying behaviours and exploring the role of celebrity endorsement is limited. Drawing on the social presence and the social facilitation theory, this paper establishes a research model based on the stimuli–organism–response (S–O–R) model and the motivation theory. It explores how live streamers impact online consumers' impulse buying behaviours under specific social and cultural backgrounds, with celebrity endorsement as a moderating variable.

Design/methodology/approach

To test the research model, the online questionnaire method has been conducted in this study. This paper utilises Chinese online consumers as samples and promotes an online survey. Using the variance-based structural equation modelling and partial least squares path modelling (SEM-PLS), 433 valid questionnaires have been analysed on SmartPLS.

Findings

First, live streamers' attractive appearance positively correlates with online consumers' hedonic attitude and positively impacts their utilitarian attitude to live shopping. Second, live streamers' real-time interaction positively affects consumers' utilitarian attitudes because of their professional marketing and communication skills. Third, their hedonic and utilitarian attitudes positively influence online consumers' impulse buying behaviours. Finally, this paper presents that celebrity endorsement negatively moderates the relationship between online consumers' hedonic attitudes and impulse buying during live shopping.

Originality/value

This research combines the S–O–R model and the motivation theory and analyses related social influencing factors to study online consumers' impulse buying behaviours. Meanwhile, it explores the celebrity endorsement factor as a moderate role and identifies the different effects between live streamers and celebrities in live shopping, which is of great significance to the strategy of live shopping marketing and the literature on online consumers' behaviours.

Factors affecting clothing purchase intention in mobile short video app: Mediation of perceived value and immersion experience

Based on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework, this research introduces perceived value and immersive experience, and builds a model of media interaction affecting consumers’ consumption of clothing in mobile short video app (MSVA). Among the conducted survey, using the method of questionnaire survey, a total of 820 questionnaires were collected, and data from 752 valid questionnaires were used for analysis. The research results showed that the MSVA media interaction has a positive impact on perceived value, immersion experience, and purchase intention; Perceived value has a significant positive impact on immersion experience and purchase intention; Immersion experience has a significant positive impact on purchase intention. Perceived value and immersion experience play a mediating role in the relationship between social media interactivity and purchase intention. This research will provide theoretical support for clothing marketing businesses of MSVA and suggestions for the development and design of MSVA.

Beyond beauty: A qualitative exploration of authenticity and its impacts on Chinese consumers' purchase intention in live commerce

Live commerce is a phenomenally innovative form of social commerce in China. In this paper, the authors aim to explore the authenticity of live commerce. By employing a qualitative approach using in-depth interviews and grounded theory, 21 initial categories are classified into six core categories. Among them, authenticity-associated concepts are classified into explicit concepts and implicit concepts. Explicit concepts of authenticity are associated with objectively authentic cues, while implicit concepts of authenticity are associated with subjectively authentic experiences. Moreover, the study explores the relationship between explicit concepts of authenticity and product commitment, as well as the relationship between implicit concepts of authenticity and affective commitment. Both of these paths are found to influence consumers' shopping-related behaviors. Although consumers can more easily perceive explicitly authentic cues than implicitly authentic experiences, this study suggests that the latter may be more effective in inducing shopping behaviors. In addition, the effect of streamer attractiveness on opinion leader building is addressed, while authenticity is found to be an alternative approach to attract consumers both for attractive and nonattractive streamers. Finally, the study addresses theoretical implications and practical implications as well as suggestions for future research.

A moderated mediation mechanism underlying the impact of website telepresence on purchase intention - Evidence from Chinese female college student customers

Telepresence in e-commerce, the feeling of resembling shopping in a physical store, plays a critical role in determining online purchase intention. However, the cognitive mechanism and boundary conditions about its effect still need further investigation. The current study construed flow experience and socioeconomic status as important variables and developed a moderated mediation model for their roles in the effect of telepresence. The model was supported by our study where a group of Chinese female college students participated in simulated online apparel shopping and completes relevant questionnaire surveys. The results show that: (1) website telepresence predicts positively the purchase intention of females, (2) flow experience mediates the impact of website telepresence on purchase intention, and (3) the relationship between website telepresence and flow experience could be moderated by socioeconomic status, namely, females with higher socioeconomic status demonstrate stronger mediation of flow experience. These findings can help researchers and online retailers understand the flow concept in e-commerce and formulate marketing strategies to retain consumers with different socioeconomic statuses.

Factors Influencing Watching and Purchase Intentions on Live Streaming Platforms: From a 7Ps Marketing Mix Perspective

Previous studies have investigated how customer purchase intention is influenced by live streaming. However, no study has investigated the effect of service marketing mix (7Ps) on consumer shopping behavior from sellers’ perspectives. The present study is designed to shed light on the relationships among the 7Ps and the customers’ purchase intention through watching the broadcasters’ show. An integrative marketing-oriented model is proposed and tested using data collected from 330 customers (including 237 shoppers for apparel and 93 customers for seafood) through Facebook live shopping platforms. The research results reveal that promotion, placement, and physical evidence have positive effects on customers’ purchase intention. In addition, the watching intention had a positive effect on purchase intention. It is also found that watching intention has a full mediation effect on the relationship between the 7Ps marketing mix and the purchase intention. The implications of the findings and issues for future research are also discussed.

How Will Video Conference Fatigue Affect Participants of MICE in the With-COVID-19 Era? Focusing on Video Conference Quality, Social Presence Theory, and Flow

Is our mental health at risk due to spending a significant amount of time online due to the COVID-19 pandemic? In the new era that we are living in, where we live a life that coexists with the virus, we are participating in video conferences held online rather than on-site in order to slow the spread of the virus. Video conferencing has become our necessity since March 2020, and is becoming a new standard, especially in the MICE industry. Recently, however, people who have excessively used video conference platforms are complaining of video conference fatigue, which is a new negative emotion such as stress, anxiety, and worry as well as general work fatigue. Therefore, this study focused on the mechanism of video conferencing in MICE, which is rapidly digitally converted by the virus, and the digital psychological factors of the participants. This study derived the quality attributes of video conferencing in MICE and empirically analyzed the relationship with digital psychological factors of the video conference participants, such as video conference fatigue, social presence, and flow. One hundred and thirty-eight valid questionnaires collected from participants of several international academic conferences held in EXCO, Daegu, Korea, from 23 to 28 May 2021, were analyzed. The main results are as follows. First, unlike general video conference fatigue, MICE video conference fatigue was not found to be related to the preceding and following variables. This is due to the characteristics of the MICE video conference and the expertise of the participants. Second, social presence was identified as an important variable in MICE video conferencing. Although media-mediated, the feeling of being present with the presenter and participants was found to affect the participants' flow in the video conference. Third, in this study, the fun factor was identified as the most important video conference quality that can enhance the social presence of the video conference participants of MICEs.

The Impact of Broadcasters on Consumer's Intention to Follow Livestream Brand Community

As the essence of livestream e-commerce is social commerce, building a livestream brand community and attracting brand followers are the key aspects to achieving sustained revenue. For many companies, inviting celebrities has become a shortcut to attract new followers. Considering the unsustainability and high cost of the celebrity host mode, some companies switched to using their own branded broadcasters to attract followers. However, as branded broadcasters lack a fan base, choosing the suitable broadcaster type has become a challenge in livestream e-commerce. The motivation of consumers to follow brand livestream accounts is mainly to obtain potential value by embedding them in social networks. Therefore, based on motive theory, this research explores how different broadcaster types affect consumer's intention to follow a livestream brand community. Results from the analysis of secondary data from livestream platforms and two laboratory experiments reveal that (1) celebrities contribute more to consumer's intention to follow than branded broadcasters, and utilitarian (vs. hedonic) products can strengthen the effect of branded (vs. celebrity) broadcasters on attracting potential followers. (2) Moreover, branded (vs. celebrity) broadcasters can promote consumer's intention to follow a livestream brand community by satisfying consumer's need for informational (vs. emotional) value during utilitarian (vs. hedonic) product evaluation. This research analyzes the differential effects of different types of broadcasters on livestream brand community building. The findings can deepen the understanding of the consumer's behavior of following brand livestream communities and provide companies with suggestions on broadcaster selection in livestream e-commerce.

Financial Inclusion Paradigm Shift in the Postpandemic Period. Digital-Divide and Gender Gap

Financial inclusion is strongly differentiated by age groups and countries and the pandemic has highlighted the increased gaps and inequalities but also the weaknesses of the system, in terms of flexibility, access and facilities of the customer-bank relationship and also from the perspective of the financial education of young generations and vulnerable people, active in the labor market. Based on the available data provided by the Global Findex database, and some findings after more than one year of COVID-19 crisis we outlined the main aspects of financial digitization, by categories of people and countries. At the same time, we identified the challenges and problems during the pandemic that significantly adjusted the consumption pattern of citizens and increased the need for on-line access for financial transactions. Starting from the analysis of the inequality of access to financial instruments in the last years, from the informational asymmetry in financial education and the challenges of the pandemic period, we underlined the main coordinates of changing the model of sustainable financial inclusion-based on five pillars-access, education, support tools, CSR and resilience. The research results highlight the need for convergence in providing opportunities to consider financial inclusion as a public good and an active tool to increase consumers' satisfaction and the quality of life of individuals.