Looking for haptics : touch digitalization business strategies in luxury and fashion during COVID-19 and beyond

The sense of touch is central to fashion and luxury, because dress - garments and accessories - is experienced with and on the body. But on e-commerce websites, dress is dematerialized, and touch sensation simulated using audio-visual means. The growth of digital fashion communication during the COVID-19 pandemic has spotlighted this issue. However, developments in haptic technologies suggest that new modes of tactile interaction could be available in the online domain. Through interviews with fourteen fashion and luxury executives in Italy and Switzerland, this article investigates touch digitalization strategies during COVID-19 and the potential which haptics may hold to fill the online tactile void, using two surface haptic technologies as prompts. By doing so, this research fills a gap in the study of digital fashion and haptics, to the benefit of the academic and practitioner communities. Results indicate that executives deployed a host of visualization tactics during lockdown, reinforcing their conviction that still and moving images furnish an acceptable surrogate for touch sensation in the online domain. In fact, participants questioned the value of mediated tactile feedback provided by surface haptic devices. However, these experts also concurred that the technology holds promise, envisioning future use of haptic technologies in digital business-to-business and end-consumer markets. These could include haptic data integration within virtual prototyping, haptically enriched digital content for customer engagement, multisensory brand promotions in mixed or virtual reality, and phygital experiences.