Snippet Commerce: A New Frontier in Digital Entrepreneurship

Snippet commerce—where grassroots publishers repurpose livestream recordings into short videos—has emerged as a complementary format to live commerce. While it offers low entry barriers and wide algorithmic reach, it faces challenges from content saturation and limited strategic guidance. This study examines how storytelling and branding influence viewer engagement and sales performance in snippet commerce. Drawing on Uses and Gratifications Theory, we argue that, unlike live commerce, snippet commerce relies on hedonic gratification and incidental exposure rather than deliberate evaluation. Using a mixed-methods approach, we analyze archival data from Douyin and conduct controlled experiments. Results show that storytelling significantly enhances sales by increasing engagement, while recognizable branding amplifies this effect. However, overt commercial cues may trigger psychological reactance and reduce purchase intent. These findings extend the IS literature on digital entrepreneurship and offer actionable insights for grassroots publishers seeking to optimize content strategy in the evolving short-video commerce ecosystem.