How engagement metrics shape consumer decision-making in livestream commerce

Although on-screen engagement metrics (e.g. viewer counts, comments, and likes) in Livestream Commerce strongly correlate with sales, the soaring costs of traffic acquisition and the ambient noise of potential metric inflation cast doubt on their true Return on Investment. This study examines whether these metrics possess a genuine psychological persuasive effect beyond a simple mathematical scale effect. A randomized experiment (N = 495) confirms that high engagement metrics enhance Perceived Collective Engagement (PCE), increasing purchase intention via trust in the streamer and perceived product risk. Crucially, while product knowledge attenuates PCE’s effect on product risk, it does not weaken its effect on trust. Theoretically, this research validates Social Proof’s resilience in low-trust environments and refines the Elaboration Likelihood Model by demonstrating the object-dependent nature of social cues. Practically, the study warns that without a foundational trust infrastructure, inflated metrics merely provide a scale effect rather than a genuine persuasive advantage.