Who sets the price in live-streaming commerce?
Live-streaming e-commerce and price competition are among the fastest-growing keywords in operations research, and influencer marketing is rising in management. OR papers model live commerce as a pricing game, management papers as persuasion. Who captures the margin: the platform, the streamer or the brand?
What prompted this#
On the operations research dashboard, "price competition" (11 papers in July–September 2026 against about 2 expected), "live streaming e-commerce" (7 against 2), "digital platforms" and "Stackelberg game" are all growing; in management, "influencer marketing" is too (10 against 5). Since October 2025, 48 papers carry a live-streaming keyword (23 in operations research, 17 in management). Thirteen of them also carry a game or pricing keyword: 11 in operations research and none in management.
Questions#
- When top streamers win "lowest price" deals, do brands lose margin, or win it back through volume and awareness?
- Do commissions and prices match Stackelberg models with the platform, the streamer or the brand as the leader?
- How do the often high return rates of live commerce change the optimal price?
Data that could help#
- Prices of the same products in live streams and in regular store listings, from third-party sales trackers.
- Financial reports of listed consumer brands that rely on live commerce.
Next step#
Collect paired live-stream and store prices for a few hundred products and compare the gap with what published pricing models predict.