In the United States, consumers spent 15% more on online shopping last year. However, online retailers also experienced a record return rate of eight per cent more! In an article for TIME, Martin Lindstrom, author of the book "Brainwashed," pointed out that the problem faced by online retailers is a "question of touch."

"We can love the look but, in an online environment, we cannot feel the quality of a texture, the shape of the fit, the fall of a fold or, for that matter, the weight of an earring. And physically interacting with an object makes you more committed to your purchase," wrote Lindstrom in "The Secret Cause of Buyer's Remorse".

This problem can be said to be structural, after all, you can not inherently physically interact with the product you intend to buy online. If this "question of touch" is going to be a persistent problem, which translates to a equivalent increase in return rate every time there's an increase in purchase, businesses might as well search for the technology to augment the consumer's online shopping experience. After all, more and more retailers are going online as more consumers shift to online shopping.

So, here's a survey of the technology available right now that can help shoppers augment their online shopping experience to approximate physically interacting with the product.

Touchscreen Touches You Back

Late last year, Sensig announced that it had made a bendable touch screen which is capable of creating textures that a user can actually feel. Sensig's "feel screen" is based on haptic display technology, which creates an electrostatic field that produces different degrees of friction on parts on the screen and transfer a current from the screen to the finger.

The haptic tech company said it this technology will be available as soon as 2013 and is currently targeted for application in gaming with tablets and smart phones. But just imagine, the future offers the possibility that you can touch your screen and feel the texture of a Persian rug you been eyeing for months on eBay. Wouldn't that make you want it more?

3D Holograms You Can Feel

A lot of people when they buy earrings or any piece of jewelry place them on their hands and try to get a sense of the weight of the item on their palm. Lindstrom points out that in an online environment, you can't feel the weight of the earring. But the technology to augment your online shopping to deliver that particular experience has been around for quite some time.

Back in 2009, researchers from the University of Tokyo unveiled 3D holograms that you can touch with bare hands. Holograms, as a rule, cannot be felt since these are just made of light. But the Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display is a different kind. You can feel the pressure it creates on your hands because the technology added tactile feedback holograms while it hovers in 3D space. It uses acoustic radiation pressure, an ultrasound phenomenon, to create a pressure sensation on a user's hands which are track by two Nintendo Wiimotes.

Trying On Clothes Virtually

A lot of returns in online shopping are caused by clothes that you thought would fit you while you browse it on your desktop, but when the they arrived on your doorstep, it turned out you are either too big for small, and too small for big. That shouldn't be a problem in the not-so-distant future.

Now, you can try on clothes while online shopping! An augmented reality technology from Bodymetrics, building on Microsoft's Kinect's PrimeSense technology, let's you find the right fit online. The new product, set to be unveiled at CES 2012, uses PrimeSense 3D sensors to scan your vital statistics as well as other shapes and curves unique to you. After you had opened account with Bodymetrics, you can now virtually try on clothes from partner retailers, which in turn let you know how a particular clothing will fit you.

Cinnamon and Freshly Baked Bread

Think back of a day you step in on a store or a grocery? Try to remember how the air smelled. Any hint of cinnamon or freshly baked bread? It might be possible to replicate that experience while online shopping. The technology is definitely closing in with the unveiling of the "sound perfume".

Last year, a team of researchers from Keio University in Tokyo and the National University of Singapore developed a pair of glasses with speakers and scent emitters that gives users their own unique calling card. The "sound perfume" enables users to have their own personal smell and sound to present when meeting new people. That's the use originally intended by the researchers, but applying it on retail does not sound too far fetch. After all, scents like cinnamon makes consumers buy more.

It might be, that soon, online shopping will be just like you physically walked into a store. But it might as well be that the eight per cent spike in return rate may just have one explanation: the economy.