When I started work in Auction.ph, I had misgivings because I was well aware that “feeling the merchandise” was natural behavior for Filipino consumers. I think it still holds true and no matter how you play the convenience card, being able to touch merchandise still trumps it.
What I wasn’t aware of was that this kind of pre-sale ritual is truth in every part of the world. I find that despite cultural differences, consumerism is making all of us more alike than we realize.
Recently, I read an article in Time Magazine about haptics – the science of touch. The article says that consumers are likely to pay more for items experienced by touch. Behavioral economists call it the endowment effect, which basically states that consumers get a ’sense of ownership’ after a palpable experience with the merchandise.
The palpable experience is probably the biggest setback and one of the most difficult challenges for online retailers. The most common recourse is to pepper item descriptions with adjectives pertaining to the sense of touch. Words like soft, fluffy, smooth, can send signals and can trigger imaginations that are a bit more palpable than tangible.
In my opinion, however, while it does increase the likelihood of an online purchase, the increase is very marginal. The main problem is the big divide between the virtual experience and the actual experience. The power of suggestion is not nearly enough to bridge that divide. The virtual experience should be more tactile. It should be more sensory rather than imaginative. It should be technology and not semantics.
But when I think of the technology, the images formed are grotesque and not as superfluous as I would like it to be. I imagine wires and I imagine plugging in. It’s not a very appealing picture. We’re already getting so attached to our gadgets in a metaphysical sense that I’d much rather avoid contraptions that necessitate physical attachment. Maybe we can do something with the touch pads. Prodigious touch pads that can simulate texture. I’m already imagining tickling Elmo online.
And speaking of ‘tickling’, I imagine another Internet industry that could benefit from this technology. If you’re a guy and you’re reading this, I’m sure you know what I am talking about. Bailout?
