Whether Live Streaming Has a Better Performance? An Examination of Product Presentation Modes on Cross-Border E-Commerce Platform

Abstract

Scholars have long recognized that product presentation plays an important role for consumers to understand product and make further decisions, but it is not well-tested in the cross-border e-commerce context. Additionally, there exist inconsistent insights regarding the influences of the two major product presentation modes currently used by cross-border e-commerce platforms (i.e., static pictures and live streaming). Therefore, drawing on regulatory focus theory, this study develops a research model to explain and differentiate how live streaming and static pictures affect cross-border purchase intentions through the motivation systems associated with different desired end states (i.e., accessing benefit and avoiding uncertainty). Partial least squares approach and relative importance analysis were used to test the model with 272 survey participants. The empirical results show that both product presentation modes can enhance cross-border purchase intentions through regulatory focus. More interestingly, it shows that static pictures are better at reducing perceived uncertainty, whereas live streaming is more effective at increasing perceived desirability, in leading to higher cross-border purchase intentions. This study contributes to differentiating the impacts of different product presentation modes in attracting cross-border purchase intentions from a regulatory focus perspective and provides practical implications for cross-border e-commerce providers and sellers to leverage distinct product presentation modes to attract consumers.