Abstract: A common practise of streamers in the live streaming marketing is to praise what they sell. However, the existing literature has not revealed whether and how this practise affects consumers’ purchase intention. Through two experiments, this paper analyzes the influence of different levels of streamers’ praise on consumers’ purchase intention. The results of experiment 1 show that consumers’ perception of trust (in professionalism, integrity and goodwill) on streamers plays an intermediary role in the relationship between different levels of streamers’ praise and purchase intention. Excessive praise can reduce consumers’ trust perception of streamers and thus lead to lower purchase intention. In order to further explore whether the intensity of the relationship between consumers and streamers will regulate the relationship between streamers’ praise and consumers’ purchase intention, experiment 2 verifies the moderating effect of different intensity of the relationship between consumers and streamers on the above relationship. That is, when the relationship between the two parties is distant, compared with no praise, excessive praise makes consumers less willing to buy; when the relationship is close, the negative effect of excessive praise on consumers’ purchase intention can be alleviated. The research conclusion provides a reference for the live marketing planning and model improvement, and has important theoretical and application value.

Key words: e-commerce live streamer, excessive praise, trust perception, purchase intention, consumer-streamer relationship intensity