Also in online shopping, it is important to pay attention to the customers’ needs for multi-sensorial perceptions. Try to complement useful information with sufficient visual elements. Make use of the need for tactile information by carefully describing aspects such as softness, contact temperature, etc. 

Multi-sensorial online product descriptions can become extremely important in times of strong competition, where products often cannot be differentiated using their basic characteristics alone.

Touch and taste often coincide, but smell can also add a dimension to the sense of touch. Make sure that the scent in your store matches the experience of touching the products (e.g., the scent and the material are congruent), so that the product that is touched by the customer is evaluated more positively. For instance, a “manly” scent may be diffused in a rough and rugged interior to enforce the masculine experience.

When a salesperson touches a customer very subtly and lightly, the chance of participation by this customer, the tip he gives, or in some circumstances his/her evaluation of the service increases. Still, some care is warranted. Salespeople should evaluate whether and when it is appropriate to touch someone during their sales talk. Women tend to have a higher preference for tactile contact and age also seems to play a role as customers over 65 appear to find tactile contact more convincing.

Products should be neatly displayed or folded on the shelves, as customers find products less attractive and are less likely to buy them when they think that these products have been touched multiple times before.

The tactile interaction created by a product (or piece of furniture) in a store appears to affect the way this product is perceived. An important consequence is that the tactile aspect of products/furniture needs to be congruent with the appeal of it (the underlying message). The tactile aspect can also be used to reinforce the visual aspect.

People have different preferences when it comes to the senses they use to acquire information. For some, haptic information (that gained through the sense of touch) is predominant. Haptic information is important for evaluating products that differ in terms of texture, hardness, temperature and weight. To cater to these customers, it is best to avoid presentations that hinder the ability to touch a product (such as placing a product behind glass or on a display which is out of reach). Have a look at the comprehensive overview paper ‘haptic is practical’ by Peck & Childers (2003) for more insights on this topic.

Why not use the tactile characteristics of a product to draw customer attention? Indeed, research shows that when customers are attracted by the tactility of a product, they are less likely to shift their attention to a competing product or brand. However, when a product doesn’t feel pleasant or doesn’t invoke a satisfying feeling, customers will more likely search elsewhere.

When selecting materials for a store interior it is very important to pay sufficient attention to the way these materials will be experienced by the users: both the retailers and the customers. Indeed, the colour and texture of a given material can influence the visual perception of its warmth. Although not always true, the visual aspect tends to dominates in a multi-sensorial perception. Hence in an interior, colour (especially that of interior walls) has a greater impact on the visual perception of warmth than texture. In other words, a red concrete wall will be perceived to be warmer than a coarse concrete wall. The coarse wall, in turn, will be perceived to be warmer than a smooth concrete wall. Thus, as it is not always possible to change the colour of an existing material, you might consider altering the texture of a surface to influence its perceived warmth.

Promoting products with the use of tag lines such as ‘preferred by millions’, ‘a bestseller’, ‘trendy’, ‘very popular’ or ‘used by the majority’, is more effective in a store with a warm ambient temperature. Cooler store temperatures will, on the other hand, benefit products described as ‘unique’, ‘rare’, ‘scarce’, ‘tailor-made’ or ‘one-of-a-kind’.

When offered a hot beverage the warmth the customers’ hands absorb generates an “emotional warmth” leading them to consider other individuals as warmer, more generous and caring.