Cartoonish vs. Realistic: the marketing effect of form realism of AI avatar in live streaming e-commerce

AI avatars are replacing humans as sales agents in live streaming e-commerce. However, the understanding of the marketing effect and the working mechanism behind this phenomenon remains limited. This research focuses on avatar form realism to increase the knowledge in this domain. With 474 subjects involved in total, two studies through experiments confirm the significance of form realism on avatars’ perceived attractiveness, realistic avatars have a higher perceived attractiveness than cartoonish ones regardless of physical, social, or task dimensions. With the mediation of perceived attractiveness, avatar form realism can positively impact viewers’ brand attitude besides purchase intention. Such mediation effects are valid in selling search goods and experience goods. In particular, avatar sales agents’ perceived task attractiveness is more effective in promoting viewers’ brand attitude towards search goods rather than experience goods. This research can contribute to the emerging research on utilizing AI avatars as sales agents in live streaming e-commerce and provide practical implications regarding the commercial application and design of AI avatars.