EXPRESS: Cross-Country Evaluation of Livestream Shopping Affordances: Interactivity, Gamification, and Personalization in Western Countries and China

Research on livestream shopping (LSS) remains fragmented, with a predominant focus on China and single-platform analyses, limiting understanding of how platform ecosystems and cultural contexts shape LSS as an international marketing phenomenon. Drawing on the notion of affordances, which are context-dependent action possibilities arising from interactions between platform features and users, the study addresses this gap through a comparative analysis of LSS across China, the United States, and Europe. This qualitative inquiry employs screencast videography of 33 LSS sessions from 12 platforms to explore how they enact affordances in real time. The analysis identifies three core affordance dimensions—gamification, interactivity, and personalization—and develops a configurational framework with four propositions explaining how they converge across platform ecosystems. The findings reveal systemic and episodic-relational logics associated with distinct viewing experiences. The study contributes to international marketing and affordance literature by identifying LSS affordances as interdependent, ecosystem-specific configurations rather than isolated platform features, arguing that cross-market transferability of LSS strategies depends on these configurations within different platform ecosystems. Methodologically, it demonstrates the value of video-based methods in capturing real-time, platform-contingent, and region-specific dynamics. This study guides international marketers, platform developers, agencies, and creators on adapting platform selection, engagement, and localization strategies across markets.