Effects Of Male Anchor’s Appearance Attractiveness On Female Consumers’ Purchase Intention In The Context Of Livestreaming

With the development of the Internet and e-commerce,online shopping has been deeply integrated into people’s lives.Livestreaming related to online shopping has also become an important means of corporate marketing.It received widespread attention from academics and practioners.With the popularity of e-commerce livestreaming,a unique type of livestreaming-the opposite-sex anchors promoting products to consumers also becomes popular in China.Prior studies have paid great attention to e-commerce livestreaming.They documented that livestreaming can significantly increase consumers’ willingness to buy.Although scholars have done a lot of research on livestreaming,the prior studies negelcted to explore how does an opposite-sex anchor trigger consumers’ purchase intention through livestreaming.Based on the theory of para-social interaction,social identity,halo effect theory,this study explores the mechanism by which male anchors’ physical attractiveness affects female consumers’ purchase intentions through two survey studies.Study 1（N=375）found that the appearance attractiveness of male anchors has a significant positive impact on female consumers’ willingness to buy;para-social interaction plays an mediating role between male anchor’s apperance attractiveness and female consumers’ willingness to buy;introversion/extroversion personality plays a positive moderating role between para-social interaction and female consumers’ willingness to buy,that is,after male anchors’ appearance attractiveness stimulates the para-social interaction of female consumers,female consumers with extroverted（vs.introverted）traits showed greater willingness to buy.Study 2（N=415）further validates the findings of Study I.Through the two surveys,the external validity of the research findings was guaranteed based on different anchors stimulus and different samples.The theoretical contribution of this study is to reveal the influence mechanism between male anchor’s appearance attractiveness and female consumers’ willingness to buy from the psychological characteristics of consumers.It specifically reveals the mediating mechanism of para-social interaction,and the moderating mechanism of introversion/extroversion personality.The research expands the theoretical mechanism of attracting consumers through opposite-sex anchors’ livestreaming,and enriches the relevant research in the field of e-commerce livestreaming of opposite-sex anchors.The findings of this study have practical implications for enterprises to choose suitable anchors to promoting products through livestreaming.On the one hand,enterprises should choose anchors of the opposite-sex with attractive appearance.On the other hand,they should strengthen the effective communications between e-commerce livestreaming platforms and consumers,and better stimulate the para-social communication relationship between the opposite-sex anchors and consumers.