Strong packaging[packaging?:DCP-H series packaging sample cutter plotter] promotes confidence in a brand's products. At a bricks-and-mortar store, the tactile encounter with a package contributes to that confidence. But when packages become virtual -- as it does in e-commerce -- do consumers have any less confidence in the product?
Consider the evidence. A European public opinion survey published in March 2004 found that those EU citizens who do not use the Internet for shopping prefer to see and touch products, to go to shops, and to feel that they will receive after-sales-service at bricks-and-mortar shops. Two-thirds of those surveyed who were not interested in making online purchases said they needed to see and touch products they intended to buy. These concerns were separate from other e-commerce issues such as whether online payments are secure or whether information provided on websites is credible.
E-commerce is largely driven -- and largely limited -- by the trust consumers are willing to place in it. Unlike bricks-and-mortar commerce, e-commerce has yet to win the confidence of consumers; it is still struggling to build trust, a weaker form of confidence. Because trust always involves an element of risk, economic relationships based on trust tend to be less permanent than those based on confidence. However, with enough positive reinforcement, trust can eventually evolve into confidence.
Early predictions were that e-commerce would appeal more to our rational natures than to our emotions. Because it takes time to search the Internet, e-commerce should discourage impulsive buying. And while the Internet includes plenty of marketing hype, product reviews exist for those who are interested. Comparative price shopping is easier online than in stores. And the lack of physical contact with online products could make us more thoughtful about Internet purchases.
But several years ago, a study found that those consumers who do make online purchases are more impulsive than those who do not buy online, that they are less averse to risk (more trusting), and are less brand and price conscious. This expression of trust has an emotional basis, and although it may also be reasonable, it is not completely rational. Unlike confidence, it does not rest on conclusive evidence.
Interactivity would seem at face value to be a powerful alternative to tactile encounters. The Gap currently has a highly entertaining website that lets you try on -- and take off -- clothes[clothes?:clothes paper cutter machine] in a virtual store. After you have found something to your liking, the website directs you to the checkout counter.
But can high-tech wizardry convey the same sense of trustworthiness as touch? In Touching (Harper & Row, 1986), Ashley Montagu wrote: "To shut off any of the senses is to reduce the dimensions of our reality, and to the extent that that occurs we lose touch with it; we become imprisoned in a world of impersonal words. The one-dimensionality of the word becomes a substitute for the richness of the multidimensionality of the senses, and our world grows crass, flat, and arid in consequence."
Meyers does not see much in the way of change ahead for packaging, however. "If my vision is correct," he says, "packaging will need adjustments to be able to work equally well .
