Recently and while talking about e-commerce the issue of not being able to touch a product on an e-retailer came up. Users, when buying specific types of products such as clothes, feel restricted by the online experience because they cannot touch and see how a product feels against their hands. This is true; it would be great if we could touch and feel when browsing online, but we cannot. I am sure some really clever people somewhere are working on it and I am also sure the porn industry will let us know when the technology is ready. In the meantime, we will have to do without the privilege.
The question I have is why are we so focused on the limitations of haptic experiences online? So what if we cannot hold a pair of jeans in our hands when browsing an e-retailer? Being able to touch and feel a product is only part of the experience. What is important is how the product makes us feel. Does it make us feel warm, cold, loved, ignored, sensuous, erotic, smart, stupid, thin, fat, cool, expensive, cheap, cutting edge, or ordinary?
Creating these feelings involves more than just the sense of touch, which in the world of e-retailing includes the online brand experience, the use of other media, such as pictures, illustrations, videos, etc. 
A designed artefact could even create a sense of touch. Take Meret Oppenheim's fur-lined teacup for example (see picture). Just by looking at a picture of the cup makes your entire body shiver, as if you had just touched it. Why is it then that e-retailers cannot reproduce a similar sense of touch by the way they present their goods?
I understand that I have barely touched the subject and I need to look into it in much more detail, but a brief look at luxury e-retailers has left me unispired and uninterested in their products.
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