Buyer–seller relationships in live shopping marketplaces

Purpose Live-streaming commerce reshapes buyer–seller relationships, yet the relational mechanisms underpinning these dynamics remain undertheorized. Drawing on commitment–trust theory (CTT), the purpose of this study is to investigate how live shopping marketplace design, governance and community dynamics configure CTT antecedents and outcomes in a shoppertainment context. Design/methodology/approach A hybrid qualitative approach analyzed 13,690 user reviews from Whatnot (2020–2025) via BERTopic modelling, generating 56 topics. Equal-allocation stratified sampling yielded 1,120 reviews for thematic analysis, combining inductive exploration of marketplace dynamics with deductive CTT-guided coding of antecedents and outcomes. Findings Five themes reveal trust operating as a dual-object phenomenon directed simultaneously at individual sellers and the platform as intermediary. Dual-role participation reshapes trust criteria; embedded capital and interactional immediacy extend CTT antecedents to synchronous exchange; and marketplace design simultaneously enables relational value and consumer harm through dark patterns, addiction discourse and gambling-like mechanics. Practical implications The findings of this study inform platform governance decisions, seller trust-building practice and regulatory frameworks addressing mystery-box mechanics and compulsive buying risk. Social implications Explicit user reports of addiction, fear of missing out exploitation and gambling-like mechanics indicate live shopping platforms are sites of genuine consumer vulnerability demanding ethical platform design and policy intervention. Originality/value This study illustrates how BERTopic can support a principled qualitative sampling strategy and applies CTT to live-streaming commerce, proposing embedded capital and interactional immediacy as context-specific constructs. A tentative proposition is offered that commitment and trust may operate as performance-sensitive rather than purely enduring states in this setting, warranting longitudinal investigation.