Exploring physical senses in the digital realm

Many of the brands that succeeded did so by providing outstanding customer experiences and tapping into feelings. Positive emotional connections between brands and consumers can influence a customer’s perception of a brand and increase loyalty.

So, how can retailers create these emotional connections through online experiences?

Powering sight through AR

Augmented Reality (AR) has been hotly tipped as one of the next big things for a few years now. Why? AR can make online experiences more immersive for consumers (and more profitable for brands).

AR bridges the gap between physical and digital, and consumers crave experiences. Savvy consumers need more than passive, flat content like photos and videos. They want to be part of the experience.

When the pandemic set in, many retailers turned to AR to bring the shopping experience to people’s homes. Hoka, a popular shoe brand, created an AR Lens on Snapchat that they advertised on their website product pages. Customers could try on the shoes via a digital image, alongside an all-important ‘shop now’ button.

Virtual Touch

Meta, formerly known as Facebook, has taken AR research in another direction. Its entry into the arena: haptic gloves, allowing users to virtually ‘feel’ sensations.

Meta is not the only firm that has made the foray into haptics.

Other companies have worked on designs that track hand movements or allow people to ‘feel’, including sometimes, sensations of temperature. But these designs are mostly targeted at military, industrial or academic institutions. Meta’s glove is consumer-oriented. The goal: to help customers experience the sensation of ’touching’ virtual products, and give them a tactile connection to brands.

The company began working on the gloves in 2014 and developed a prototype a year later. Research continued using soft robotics. Right now, the glove can reproduce the sensation of pressure. This, together with video and audio cues, produces the illusion of real touch. Researchers are working to make the gloves more sensitive, improving their ability to confer high-quality sensation.

Today’s working model of the haptic glove is bulky and wired. But research is focused on making it more consumer-friendly. Developers are working to make it smaller, wireless, closely fitting, and easier to clean. When the gloves go on the market, customers will be able to ‘feel’ goods that are, perhaps, half a world away.

Sound on to get the feels

Both Instagram and TikTok have provided platforms for brands to create digital shelves through social media. We’re advancing tech when it comes to social commerce and live shopping, but what really gets the feels is the sound. This is especially true on TikTok, which is very much a ‘sound-on environment’. Sound can elicit robust emotional responses such as chills and thrills in listeners. It can also be nostalgic, invigorating and tap into our emotions.

And it can increase sales. According to a study by Kantar, TikTok is the only platform where ads with audio generate significant lifts in both purchase intent and brand favourability.

Bringing products to life with words

When customers get to your website, they should enjoy the same product information they would have enjoyed in-store. How does the product feel? How does it fit? How can you replace the friendly shop assistant’s advice? Online content has the power to bring products to life, using attractive imagery and informative yet compelling copy. But this critical component is often overlooked by brands. In fact, a recent report of US retailers showed that 74% could increase revenue by focusing on their ecommerce content.

In the eyes of the consumer, online experiences are just as important as offline. It’s time for brands to start crafting exemplary customer experiences online by appealing to consumers’ emotions and senses. Your competitors are merely a click or swipe away.