When feeling takes a backseat in livestream commerce: The effects of virtual versus human streamers on consumers’ impulsive buying

Despite the growing trend of adopting virtual streamers (VSs) in livestream, their performances have fallen short of expectations. As a dynamic and interactive format, livestream inherently induces impulsive buying behaviors. However, it remains unclear how VSs influence consumers' impulsive buying compared to human streamers (HSs). To answer this question, four scenario-based experiments were conducted based on the affective-cognitive model. The findings reveal that compared to HSs, VSs reduce consumers' impulsive buying (Study 1). When engaging with VSs (vs. HSs), consumers prioritize more reason-based (or less feeling-based) decision-making strategies, thus decreasing their impulsive buying (Study 2). By measuring consumers' time orientation (Study 3a) and manipulating it through communication strategies (Study 3b), Study 3 reveals that present orientation (vs. future orientation) can mitigate the negative effect of VSs on impulsive buying. These findings contribute to deepening the understanding of VSs’ livestream performances, as well as provide practical insights for optimizing streamer arrangements to promote impulsive buying in livestream commerce.