Given the importance of storytelling technique in stimulating customers’ buying intentions, this study intends to examine the factors affecting the effectiveness of storytelling messages for home shopping products. Specifically, this study examines the relationship between storytelling types (drama vs. vignette) and situational involvement and the relationship between situational involvement and purchase intention. Additionally, the mediating role of emotional empathy is investigated. An experiment with 2x2 between-subject design is conducted with a sample 160 participants who are divided into four separate groups. The first hypothesis relates to the effect of storytelling types on situational involvement. Results show that there is a difference in situational involvement between drama-based storytelling and vignette-based storytelling. That is, participants who are exposed to drama-based storytelling messages show a higher level of situational involvement than are those who are exposed to vignette-based storytelling messages. The second hypothesis relates to the causal relationship between situational involvement, empathy and purchase intention. Results show that situational involvement has a significant effect on empathy and purchase intention is influenced by empathy and the mediating role of empathy on the relationship between situational involvement and purchase intention is confirmed. These results indicate that it is not situational involvement that has a direct effect on purchase intention but customers’ empathy with storytelling messages, which has a significant effect on purchase intention. Overall, this study confirms that storytelling techniques of shopping hosts are an influential factor in determining customers’ situational involvement and the resulting buying intentions, as mediated by empathy. Theoretical implications are discussed along with practical suggestions.