Visual Tactile Attributes in Online Product Presentations for Improving Purchase Intention

Abstract

Online shopping is increasing worldwide. Providing customers actual feeling of the product is essential in online shopping. Various technological aids can be used to support visual feeling. When delivering visual tangibility, it is important to study which attributes are significant in product presentations that best portray the actual tactileness. In this perspective, we suggest ‘visual tactility’ (VT) as a parameter for delivering tangibility in visual presentation. By measuring visual tactility in different product types, latent factors of visual tactility were identified and their influence on purchase intention was determined in this study. We defined material properties of touch such as surface texture, hardness, temperature, and weight as Visual Tactility (VT), the influential factor of tactility. We investigated the influence of VT on product purchase intention and analyzed tactileness within four online product presentations: single static picture, multi static pictures, zoom, and video. Our purpose was to investigate underlying effects of visual tactile attributes on touch and determine their influences according to online product presentation formats. Our results showed that visual tactility positively affected purchase intention and that each attribute differed in importance according to product type. Moreover, this study revealed a strong relation between online product presentation and VT attributes. These results provide a guide when selecting which presentation is optimal for delivering a product’s tactility in online shopping situation.