How Social Presence and Telepresence Drive Impulse Buying: Evidence from Live Streaming Commerce

This study aims to examine the effects of social presence and telepresence on flow state and consumer trust, as well as their implications for impulse buying behavior within the context of live streaming commerce, grounded in the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S-O-R) framework. A quantitative approach was employed using purposive sampling, targeting respondents with prior experience engaging in live streaming features on major e-commerce platforms such as Tokopedia, Shopee, and Lazada, while data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling–Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS). The findings reveal that all proposed hypotheses are empirically supported, indicating that social presence comprising platform, viewer, and streamer dimensions —and telepresence exert positive and significant effects on both flow state and consumer trust. Furthermore, flow state emerges as the most dominant predictor of impulse buying behavior, followed by consumer trust, which also demonstrates a significant but comparatively weaker effect. These results suggest that immersive and interactive live streaming environments enhance users’ cognitive and emotional engagement, thereby increasing their propensity for impulsive purchasing. Theoretically, this study extends the S-O-R framework by integrating multidimensional constructs of social presence and telepresence, while practically offering strategic insights for e-commerce practitioners to design more engaging and interactive user experiences that drive consumer behavior and improve sales performance.