Korean Fashion and Beauty Livestreaming Commerce before and after COVID-19

Abstract

From the perspective of live commerce consumers in South Korea, this study aimed to investigate the changes in consumer interest since the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. To this end, a consumer perception survey on live commerce was conducted. Further, this study utilized social big data analytics, which involved collecting posts and articles from Korean portal sites for the 2019–2020 period and then analyzing them through text mining. The results revealed that, before the outbreak of COVID-19, the keyword “mobile” showed high appearance frequency and high connection centrality. “Fashion” and “beauty,” which are classified as subcategories of live commerce in Korea, also appeared as top keywords, both before and after the onset of COVID-19. Considering the social environment and characteristics of live commerce, providing services that enable consumers to participate in the streaming platform more actively is necessary. Additionally, providing services that encourage customers to respond would also be desirable. This study’s findings can serve as baseline data for the development of an extension plan for the Korean fashion and beauty industry through live commerce and can provide insight into the consumption patterns of consumers of live commerce.