The Influence of Tactile Input

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Journal of Retailing 83 (2, 2007) 237–245 Research note The influence of tactile input on the evaluation of retail product offerings Bianca Grohmann a,∗ , Eric R. Spangenberg b,1 , David E. Sprott b,2 a John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W., Montreal, Quebec H3G 1M8, Canada b College of Business, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-4730, United States Accepted 6 September 2006 Abstract Retailers can benefit from allowing customers to touch their products. The influence of tactile input on evaluation, however, remains undemonstrated in the literature. In four experiments, effects of tactile input were observed for product categories wherein tactile input was diagnostic, and depended on product quality. While this effect was moderated by individual differences in need for touch when there was no opportunity for multiple product comparisons, there was no support for a mediating role of affect. Implications for retailing theory and practice are discussed. © 2007 New York University. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Retailers; Customers; Tactile input When evaluating a retailers’ product offering, consumers often substantially weight information obtained through tactile input (e.g., Holbrook 1983). Only recently, however, has research directly addressed the effects of tactile input with findings indicating that consumers differ with regard to their need to use touch during product evaluation (Peck and Childers 2003a) and that the opportunity to touch products affects choice in offline versus online retail environments (McCabe and Nowlis 2003). Further, the availability of tactile input has been shown to affect consumers’ confidence in their evaluations, while disallowing touching of products results in high levels of frustration among consumers who rely on touch (Peck and Childers
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