Live streaming e-commerce : explicating users' motivations, warranting strategies, and purchase intentions

In this research, we examined users’ psychology and behaviours when interacting with live streaming e-commerce - a new type of e-commerce trend integrated with real-time social interactions via live streaming. We conducted one-on-one in-depth interviews with 25 interviewees who have prior experiences with live streaming e-commerce. First, from a uses and gratification theory perspective, this study identified eight motivations driving users’ engagement, including information seeking, convenience, entertainment, passing time, social gratification, bandwagon, persona-driven following, and recognition. Second, guided by warranting theory, we also explored how users verify information credibility through platform traits (e.g., establishment of live streaming platform, nature of the platform), streamer characteristics (e.g., demographic information, reputation), viewer’ knowledge (e.g., previous experience, cross-referencing) and content cues (e.g., comprehensiveness, selling techniques). Lastly, we found that a set of affordances – visibility, interactive metavoicing, vicarious guided shopping, social commerce ambience, and specified real-time trading which efficiently facilitate users’ purchase intentions during live streaming sessions. The findings of this research advanced the current literature on live streaming e-commerce and the theory of affordances and offered actionable recommendations to practitioners.Bachelor of Communication Studie