Live shopping as a participatory spectacle: The intersection of user practices, platform affordances and governance regimes in the repurposing of TikTok LIVE for e-commerce

Annabell, Taylor ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6384-6754, Aade, Laura and Goanta, Catalina 2026. Live shopping as a participatory spectacle: The intersection of user practices, platform affordances and governance regimes in the repurposing of TikTok LIVE for e-commerce. Platforms & Society 3 10.1177/29768624261457280

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Abstract

Although the formal integration of e-commerce through TikTok Shop has not yet been fully launched in Europe, users leverage other platform affordances, such as livestreaming, to facilitate shopping. In the Netherlands, TikTok LIVE serves as a hybrid space where entertainment, interaction and commerce come together, exemplifying the platformisation of consumer culture on social media. This article examines how streamers and viewers stage shopping as an interactive, participatory spectacle during Black Friday week, exploiting the governance arrangements that regulate livestreaming. Based on qualitative textual analysis of 131 LIVE sessions across 80 accounts, we observe and document how e-commerce unfolds both within and beyond the app. First, we identify norms of interactions and self-governance of shopping across three formats: live auctions mediated via chat, external sales directing users to websites and community-driven giveaways that reward previous buyers. Second, we analyse roles performed by users during LIVEs, highlighting a range from charismatic influencers to transaction-oriented sellers, and the division of labour among streamers, moderators and viewers. Finally, we reflect on the implications of these practices for consumer law, highlighting how the temporality, emotional engagement, self-surveillance and commercial orientation, which are fundamental to the live shopping phenomenon, are enabled by the legal uncertainty regarding TikTok's role.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Journalism, Media and Culture
Additional Information:	License information from Publisher: LICENSE 1: URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, Start Date: 2026-06-10
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	15 June 2026
Last Modified:	16 Jun 2026 01:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/187557

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