How to enhance consumers’ purchase intention in live commerce? An affordance perspective and the moderating role of age

Live commerce is a novel form of social commerce characterized by real-time interaction and synchronous visualization. Drawing upon affordance theory and the affective-cognitive framework, we propose a comprehensive research model that integrates three key dimensions of affordances of live commerce technology, namely utilitarian (visibility), social (social presence, interactivity, self-presentation), and hedonic affordances (entertainment), together with consumers’ cognitive and affective states (perceived diagnosticity and psychological distance). Furthermore, we explore age as an important contingency factor in understanding consumers’ purchase intention in live commerce. We collect data from 353 consumers who have live shopping experiences in China and analyze the research model with the structural equation model approach. Results indicate that visibility, social presence, and interactivity positively contribute to perceived diagnosticity, whereas entertainment and the three social affordances reduce psychological distance. Notably, the influence of perceived diagnosticity on purchase intention is more pronounced among older consumers, whereas the impact of psychological distance on purchase intention is stronger among younger consumers. This study not only advances the understanding of affordance theory within live commerce contexts but also offers practical insights for streamers and live commerce platforms.