I need to touch it to buy it! How haptic information influences consumer shopping behavior across channels

Abstract

Increasingly interactive touch-enabling technologies are mitigating the lack of haptic information for products online. This paper explores how consumers’ haptic traits – instrumental and autotelic – indirectly influence their impulse buying and channel stickiness intentions by the means of utilitarian and hedonic shopping motivations. A structural equation model investigating three shopping channels (i.e., physical, web, and mobile) reveals that haptic traits act differently across channels. Consumers with strong haptic traits prefer physical and mobile channels. The autotelic dimension is key in online channels. Findings support the implementation of effective multichannel strategies among retailers of high-haptic products, showing the mobile to be a valuable alternative to in-store shopping.