Merchandising/Marketing/Retailing: Management

Can Live Stream Reduce Fashion Consumers’ Uncertainty? Understanding Brick-and-Mortar and Live Stream Shopping Experience

---

Abstract

This study investigates how live streaming fashion shopping is associated with brick-and-mortar shopping and identifies live streaming’s role in reducing product uncertainty and promoting consumers’ purchase intention by adopting the Uncertainty Reduction Theory (URT)’s three strategies. The results indicate that obtaining product knowledge from the seller’s product demonstration through passive strategy positively influenced consumers’ purchase intention mediated through the product uncertainty reduction while obtaining product information from interaction with the seller (interactive) or other viewers’ reviews (active) did not significantly reduce product uncertainty. In association with brick-and-mortar shopping, consumers who benefit from the physical store shopping experience valued the enhanced benefit of obtaining product information through corresponding live stream features. The findings provide practical insight to live stream retailers in supporting consumers by reducing product uncertainty and exemplify the promising future of live streaming fashion shopping’s features that can potentially substitute for the brick-and-mortar shopping experience.

Keywords: Livestream shopping, Fashion consumers, Uncertainty reduction, Brick-and-mortar shopping

How to Cite:

Hwang, J. & Youn, S., (2022) “Can Live Stream Reduce Fashion Consumers’ Uncertainty? Understanding Brick-and-Mortar and Live Stream Shopping Experience”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 78(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.13776