Yahoo! and Compete, Inc. released a new study last week that aimed to track Internet search and transaction activity as it relates to the sales of retail apparel online. While the study was specific to apparel purchases, there are some interesting bits of take-away that could be handy for all types of sites.

From the study:

• Only 21% of conversions were directly from a search, while 79% were latent - 15% of which were more than one month after the last search.
• The "search to purchase" window shows 4% immediate, 17% same day, 64% same month and 15% at 1 to 2 months.
• Search visitors spend a third more time on a site than non-search visitors did.
• Search visitors were more likely than non-search visitors to view shipping information, register for newsletters, view product images, add items to a cart, view size charts and use store locators.
• 20% of offline buyers who used search said that they'd used it to find out about sales events.

For the full results, check out the full study: Search and the Engaged Customer: An Apparel Study.