Can Virtual Influencers Replace Human Influencers in Live-Streaming E-Commerce? An Exploratory Study from Practitioners’ and Consumers’ Perspectives

Abstract

We conducted expert interviews and a consumer experiment to investigate practitioners’ and consumers’ attitudes toward and adoption of virtual influencers to substitute human influencers in live-streaming e-commerce (LSC). Results of consumer data confirmed practitioner insights that virtual (versus human) influencers generated less positive attitudes and lower levels of perceived warmth, trust, usefulness, and dialogue. Contrary to practitioner insights, consumers did not perceive virtual influencers as more enjoyable, easier to use, more distant, and more likely to generate purchase intention than human influencers. Furthermore, influencer warmth (usefulness) is positively related to influencer attitude (purchase intention). Implications and limitations are discussed.

Acknowledgments

This work was partially supported by a research grant from the European Academy of Advertising.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially supported by a research grant from the European Academy of Advertising (EAA), https://www.europeanadvertisingacademy.org/awards-grants/#eaa-research-grant.

Notes on contributors

Anan Wan

Anan Wan (Ph.D., University of South Carolina) is an assistant professor in the A.Q. Miller School of Media and Communication at Kansas State University. She studies how advertising and new media technologies intersect. Her recent research explores the impacts and effectiveness of social live streaming, influencer marketing, and live streaming e-commerce in China and the United States.

Mengtian (Montina) Jiang

Mengtian Jiang (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is an assistant professor in the Department of Integrated Strategic Communication at the University of Kentucky. Her research explores consumer responses to branded content in digital spaces, focusing on persuasion knowledge, consumer inferences, and trust. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Advertising, Journal of Interactive Advertising, and Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing.