When Persuasion Is Too Persuasive: An Empirical Analysis of Product Returns in Livestream e-Commerce.

This article investigates the impact of live social interactions in livestream e-commerce on product return rates, using transaction-level data from a leading Chinese mobile commerce firm specializing in high-end products. It finds that orders placed during live sessions—with real-time interactive features such as live comments—exhibit significantly higher return rates than those from rerun sessions without live interactions, attributing this to a persuasion effect that raises customers' pre-purchase expectations beyond actual product experience. The study further shows that this effect intensifies with greater live social interaction intensity and streamer experience but diminishes with higher product prices. These findings highlight the need for livestream e-commerce managers to balance sales incentives with return rates to optimize net profits and suggest that excessive persuasion during live interactions may lead to increased product returns.