Effects of tactile integration on consumer evaluation in mixed reality environments

Extended Reality (XR) technologies are increasingly adopted to support sustainable product development and immersive retail experiences. However, the role of tactile feedback in mixed reality (MR) environments remains underexplored, particularly for tactile-intensive products such as leather goods. This study experimentally examines whether adding physical touch to MR product visualization influences consumer evaluations and decision processes, and under which conditions such effects are observed. In a controlled laboratory experiment (N = 32) with a repeated-measures design, participants evaluated five leather bag variations in either a purely visual MR condition or an MR condition supplemented with physical leather samples. Results suggest that tactile integration does not consistently enhance evaluations: its effects are material-specific and contingent on visual–tactile congruence. MR-only visualization generally achieved high levels of perceived usefulness, telepresence, and enjoyment, while tactile access added value primarily for selected textures and occasionally altered cross-modality decision patterns when visual and haptic cues were incongruent. Individual differences in Need for Touch and fashion expertise did not appear to meaningfully moderate these effects. Overall, the findings indicate that additional sensory input may not always improve decision-making, highlighting MR as a resource-efficient alternative to physical prototyping. Implications are discussed for immersive retail design, multisensory marketing theory, and sustainable innovation. Given the exploratory nature of this work and the culturally homogeneous sample, replication across diverse populations, product categories, and XR platforms is encouraged to further consolidate and extend these insights.