Can Consumers Forgo the Need to Touch Products? An Investigation of Nonhaptic Situational Factors in an Online Context

Abstract

Touch is an important source of information for consumers, and there is much to learn about its role in an online purchase decision context where the ability to touch products is not (at least currently) possible. The present investigation examines three nonhaptic situation-specific factors that moderate the relationship between haptic motivation and consumer responses. The results indicate that positive mood, price promotions, and level of situation-specific product expertise are influential, yielding greater purchase intentions and product judgment confidence when touch is not available. Additionally, the findings of the investigation suggest that imagining a Web site is comparable to actually viewing a Web site. Several implications for consumer behavior research and online marketers are discussed. C 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.In fashion and furnishings so much decision making is tactile. Shoppers are trying to picture through touch, the weight of cloth and how it would feel to wear. So touch fuels emotions for rational decisionmaking. (Soars, 2009, p. 294)

Examining digital advertising using an affect transfer hypothesis

“…Accordingly, we hypothesize: H4: AAd will be positively associated with AB, such that favorable AAd will be associated with favorable AB. Successively, attitudes towards advertisements have been shown to indirectly influence consumers purchase intentions, through brand attitudes, which directly influence purchase intentions (Yazdanparast and Spears 2013;Merchant and Rose 2013;Spears and Singh 2004;Brown, Homer, and Inman 1998;Burke and Edell 1989;Edell and Burke 1987;MacKenzie and Lutz 1989;MacKenzie, Lutz, and Belch 1986;Batra and Ray 1986). Accordingly, this study hypothesizes:…”

A tapintás iránti preferencia mediáló hatása a fogyasztó neme, a termék típusa és a csatornaválasztás kapcsolatában

“…Mind az autotelikus, mind a funkcionális tapintás iránti preferenciát a Peck és Childers (2003) által kialakított, többtételes skálával mértem. Ezt a skálát már számos kutató (Grohmann et al, 2007;Yazdanparast -Spears, 2013;Rodrigues et al, 2017;Rodríguez-Torrico et al, 2017;San-Martín et al, 2017) használta a tapintás iránti preferencia számszerűsítésre. Mindkét skála reflektív, azaz az indikátorok a látens változó következményeit (Edwards -Bagozzi, 2000) fejezik ki.…”

“…A tapintás fontossága pedig hatással van fogyasztók magatartására. Így például a termék minőségének megítélésére (Orth et al, 2013;Yazdanparast -Spears, 2013), a vásárlási szándékra (Yazdanparast -Spars, 2013). Ezenkívül egyre több kutatót foglalkoztat az a kérdés, hogy a tapintás iránti preferencia milyen hatást gyakorol az online vásárlási szándékra (Citrin et al, 2003;Rodrigues et al, 2017) és az online és offline csatornák közötti választásra (Liu et al, 2017;Flavián et al, 2017;San-Martín et al, 2017).…”

Autotelic and Instrumental Need for Touch: Searching for and Purchasing Apparel Online

“…Haptic compensation tactics include informing the consumer of the product's characteristics in tactile terms [6], providing a picture of the product [9], or stimulating haptic imagery [23]. Non-haptic compensation tactics include quality cues like brand name and price [24], risk reliever cues like return policies [25], or managing situational moderating factors like consumer mood or product expertise [14]. Other signaling cues like corporate credibility, retailer reputation and online product reviews made by other consumers have strong impact on the perception of the quality of the product and perception of risk [26].…”

“…Despite efforts to promote the creation of rich and pleasurable shopping experiences of apparel online through compensational strategies such as written descriptions and pictures [14], there are still many gaps and unanswered questions concerning the impact of the lack of touch in the information search and purchase stages of apparel in the online channel.…”