Live Streaming of E-Commerce in China: Evidence from Impulsive Chinese Tea Purchases

Tea is the second most widely used beverage globally, behind water, and has the potential to enhance health and well-being for those who consume it. Tea has been used in China for around 5000 years, and Chinese people have been involved in planting, harvesting, processing, and consuming tea from ancient times. Tea is widespread in the everyday routines of Chinese people. The rise of live-streaming e-commerce has led to a growing trend among Chinese tea consumers to buy tea products through interactive video platforms rather than traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Live-streaming e-commerce promotes more authenticity and engagement in online purchasing compared to web-based e-commerce, leading to increased impulse purchases by consumers. Streamers are pivotal figures in live-streaming business and may significantly influence customers. Current research on impulsive purchasing in live streaming has mostly neglected the personal features of streamers and has conducted even fewer investigations on specific items, like Chinese tea, in a particular location. This study aims to investigate how streamer characteristics such as attractiveness, popularity, expertise, credibility, and interactivity influence impulsive buying of Chinese tea in live-streaming E-commerce in Yichun City, using a partial least squares structural equation model based on the SOR model integrated with parasocial interaction theory and flow theory. Data was gathered via an online survey and processed via SPSS and Smart PLS 4.0. The study shows that streamers’ characteristics such as attractiveness, popularity, expertise, credibility, and interactivity have a positive effect on consumers’ parasocial interaction and flow state. These, in turn, significantly influence Chinese tea consumers’ online impulsive buying and response to sales promotion. Additionally, parasocial interaction and flow states moderate the relationship between parasocial interaction and impulse buying, as well as between consumers’ flow state and impulsive purchase behaviour in live-streaming e-commerce. This research adds to the current body of knowledge and offers valuable recommendations for Chinese tea vendors operating online, live-streaming e-commerce businesses, and legislators in China.