The Impact of Live Commerce Host and Live Commerce Platforms on Chinese Consumers’ Impulse Purchase Intention

With the integration of e-commerce platforms and live streaming, live shopping has rapidly emerged and has become an important form of entertainment and a key consumption channel for people. To better understand the relationship between e-commerce host' live streaming styles and consumers' purchase intentions, this study examines the impact mechanism of live streaming styles on consumers' impulse buying tendencies from the perspectives of live commerce platform types and psychological distance. The research findings indicate that when the characteristics of an host’s live streaming style align with different types of commercial live commerce platforms (expertise style with traditional platforms and interactive style with entertainment platforms), they not only exert a significant positive impact on consumers’ impulse buying intentions but also substantially reduce consumers' perceived psychological distance. Furthermore, psychological distance perception plays a strong mediating role in the interaction between e-commerce hosts’ live streaming styles and platform types in influencing consumers' impulse buying intentions. These findings contribute to a better understanding of consumer behavior on live streaming shopping platforms and the formulation of more effective operational strategies.