A recent study of the consumer electronics business from comScore reveals some interesting facts about online purchase behavior.

One fact I found most interesting is that only 15% of the searches in their study resulted in online purchases following a search session, 85% occurred in a subsequent browser session, and nearly 40% of all purchases occurred 5 to 12 weeks after the initial search session.

Additionally, they found that an estimated 92% of the purchases were made offline.

I encourage you to read the full press release for more facts and details.

This brings into question two important questions for merchants. 1. What is your cookie duration and how was the duration determined? and 2. Do you track offline sales?

Merchants with very short or no cookie durations and no offline sales tracking are taking more than their fair share of affiliate generated sales.