Selling-Mode Choice in Live-Streaming E-Commerce Under Platform Traffic Pricing and Heterogeneous Consumer Preferences
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.23055/ijietap.2026.33.5.11984Keywords:
Supply chain management, streamer’s selling ability, consumer preferences, reselling and agency selling, game theory.Abstract
The rapid growth of live-streaming e-commerce has raised important questions regarding how suppliers should select selling modes when collaborating with live-streaming enterprises (LSEs) in the presence of heterogeneous consumer preferences and platform traffic pricing. We develop a game-theoretic model to examine the strategic interactions among a platform, a supplier, an LSE, and two types of consumers: shopping-preferred (SP) consumers and content-preferred (CP) consumers. The model examines how LSE selling ability, consumer preferences, and platform traffic pricing jointly affect selling-mode choices, traffic decisions, profitability, and the strategic alignment of preferences between the supplier and the LSE. Three main findings emerge. First, selling-mode preferences depend primarily on commission incentives and consumer preferences. Agency selling can align the supplier’s and the LSE’s preferences when revenue sharing provides sufficient traffic acquisition incentives without imposing excessive commission costs; otherwise, reselling may be mutually preferred. Second, both the supplier and the LSE prefer targeting CP consumers under either selling mode because livestream content creates additional consumer value and increases the sales return generated by acquired traffic. Third, the platform’s equilibrium traffic price is determined by its marginal traffic-service cost, whereas the equilibrium amount of traffic acquired varies with the commission rate, LSE selling ability, and consumer preferences. An extension incorporating consumer viewing costs shifts the relevant selling-mode preference boundaries but does not overturn the main qualitative findings. These results provide managerial guidance for selling-mode selection, consumer targeting, and platform traffic pricing in live-streaming e-commerce.
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