Impact of Live Commerce Affordance on Consumer Purchase Intention - Swift Guanxi Perspective

Live commerce has emerged as a new form of digital consumption that integrates real-time interaction and technological innovation. The interaction characteristics of live commerce platforms are not limited to consumer-to-consumer exchanges but fundamentally involve dynamic interactions between consumers and the platform’s technological environment. Drawing on affordance theory, this study aims to investigate how the technological affordances of live commerce platforms influence consumers’ psychological responses and purchase intentions.<br/> Affordances were classified into explicit affordances (visibility, metavoicing, and shopping guidance) and hidden affordances (product information, live streamer information, and transaction information). This study also examines flow, trust, and swift guanxi, which extends the traditional Chinese concept of guanxi to the digital environment, as key psychological mechanisms through which these affordances influence consumers’ purchase intentions.<br/> An online survey was conducted with Chinese users who have experience using live commerce platforms. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 29.0.1.0 for exploratory factor analysis and SmartPLS 4.1.0.8 for hypothesis testing. The empirical results indicate that both explicit and hidden affordances positively influence consumers’ flow, trust, and swift guanxi, which in turn enhance purchase intention.<br/> The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of how the technological and relational features of live commerce jointly shape consumer behavior. The study extends affordance theory into the live commerce context and highlights swift guanxi as a critical relational mechanism that bridges technological design and consumer trust. These insights provide valuable theoretical and practical implications for platform developers and marketers seeking to enhance user engagement and promote sustainable purchase behavior.