This research extends the seminal work on the role of haptic (touch) information for consumers’ purchase decisions in both online and store shopping settings. Especially, this research focuses on which information consumers rely on as substitutes for haptic information when they cannot touch products at online shopping. A conceptual model is developed to investigate and compare the relative importance of touch, brand, virtual word-of-mouth, and product design. The proposed model is tested with the data collected from 380 consumers in an Asian country (Japan). The empirical results on two product categories (leather bags and smart phone cases) suggest that 1) consumers rely on other information than touch for online shopping, 2) the priority of substitute information differs depending on product categories, and 3) the priority also changes between online and store shopping for the same product category.

• Tomoko KAWAKAMI(Kansai University)