In Chapter 4 of our book we examine the positive results from allowing consumers to touch and examine merchandise before purchasing them. In the article "Picky, Picky: Consumers Tend to Reject 'Contaminated' Merchandise" the writer reviews a study done by Andrea Morales that explores the reality that consumers don't want to buy products that appear to have been touched by others. This is why we reach for the cereal box in the back of the stack.
This is a very true observation. For the experiment they had participants do a blind test where they went to the university bookstore where they would find an envelope with a task. The task for each participant was to find a specific shirt. When they asked the sales associate for the shirt the associate would inform them there was only one shirt left. The associate would then say the shirt is currently being tried on by another customer, tell the customer the shirt is on the return rack, or direct the customer to it on the rack. For the scenario where it was being tried on the person trying it on would return it to the associate and the associate would proceed to give the shirt to the participant to try on. The experiment proved that time and time again customers were not willing to make a purchase because they saw someone else touch their product.
To combat this issue Morales suggests several things for retailers to consider. One is that they merchandise their products so only a limited number of products are actually touched by browsers. Also cleaning clothing from dressing rooms as soon as possible and getting them on the floor. For returned merchandise they suggest putting on new tags to give the appearance that it has never been handle.
This study shows there is a big paradox for retailers to consider. They need to allow consumer to touch and browse the merchandise without there being any apparent contamination.
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