New insights into ‘technologies of touch’: Information processing in product evaluation and purchase intention

Technology forecasting is a preliminary step in understanding social change. The response to COVID-19 will affect retailers and customers for years to come, forcing changes to interactions between individuals and technology. Innovative technologies that interrelate social and technological factors merit a re-examination, to explain the impact on consumer behavior where ‘physical’ and ‘digital’ are brought together. This paper explores the use of haptic rendering stimulation for pre-purchase decision-making. The objective is to identify how touching an interface can influence product evaluation and purchase intention. Drawing from an exploratory experimental design, the findings show the importance of interface touch for inferring product information or pleasure to interact with the product, confirming the relationship between knowledge and mental representation, body sensory-motor actions and online shopping contexts.