Linear and nonlinear impacts of product, streamer and consumer factors on live streaming e-commerce sales: a heuristic-systematic perspective

Purpose Live streaming has emerged as a pivotal channel to boost sales, but few studies have simultaneously studied the effects of product, streamer and consumer factors on live streaming e-commerce (LSEC) sales. Our study draws on a heuristic-systematic model and examines the linear and nonlinear impacts of products’ live demonstration, streamers’ social capital and consumers’ engagement on product sales in LSEC. Design/methodology/approach We applied an econometric method to analyze a dataset comprising 29,872 records of product sales from the Taobao LSEC platform. Findings The findings show that products’ live demonstration exhibited an inverted U-shape effect on sales volume, while both streamers’ social capital and consumers’ engagement displayed positive linear influences. The heterogeneity analysis further revealed that the inverted U-shape effect of products’ live demonstration on sales volume worked only for experience-based and less-popular-branded products. Originality/value Our findings offer comprehensive insights for organizations and individual sellers regarding how to grow business in LSEC.