Online shopping is a world away from traditional retail therapy.  Shopping online is an escape, it enables us to get away from work, school, and lets us purchase from the convenience of our own home.  Home is the ideal place for our senses, we are relaxed and comfortable; most importantly we aren’t bombarded by obnoxious music or head clouding scents.  But what are we really giving up by shopping online?

Using our senses is the foundation for how we shop.  We initially inspect the style of our clothing by looking at the color, cut, and label of our items.  After we look, we touch.  Touching inspects the quality, texture and fabric of those items.  This is the make it or break it moment for clothes. For some, if we detect the slightest hint of polyester, rayon, acrylic, or spandex we are inclined to say nay.

Shopping online has limited our senses.  Four senses of traditional shopping are now limited to one, vision.  Websites must focus on the visual aspects of clothes, because without it they would have nothing. The goal is for vision to create a full user experience by allowing features like close up views of the fabric and different angles of the clothes without physically touching or wearing the clothes.  A short description of the clothes is made in attempt to compensate for the inability to stimulate other senses with a hope to persuade the shopper to make the final “check out” with full bags.

Online shopping has created a wall.  We can no longer tediously inspect a pair of jeans, measure the color, fabric, and style with the ultimate goal of trying on the jeans asking the million-dollar question, “How do these make my butt look?” This is the selling point of clothes.  Trying clothes on allows us to sit in the car before we take it for a ride.  Obviously, by shopping online we are missing out on a fundamental step of purchasing behaviors.  So how do we compensate for this step? Unfortunately it is not easy to compensate for the in store experience.

If online purchases are unsatisfactory, then returns are made easy with pre-labeled shipping returns and prompt refunds. Besides that we are left in the dark.  We can only hope the measurements for each size is accurate and that the clothes fit properly. Until the day comes where shoppers can upload life-sized digital versions of themselves and touch potential clothing online shopping will be at a loss for our senses.