Cookie-deletion cripples online retailers’ tracking of customers’ behavior

During 2004, 58% of online users deleted cookies, a practice that could severely compromise online retailers’ ability to track customer behavior and measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and web site enhancements, says Eric Peterson, analyst at Jupiter Research.

The Jupiter Research survey also found that as many as 39% of online users may be deleting cookies from their primary computer monthly. “Because personalization, tracking and targeting solutions require cookies to identify web visitors over multiple sessions, the accuracy of these solutions has become highly suspect,” Peterson says.

That means retailers and their web analytic vendors will have to find new ways to track consumer behavior.

Consumers’ concerns about online privacy and security are the cause of the cookie-deletion, Peterson says. “Consumers really don’t have anything to fear from cookies but deleting cookies is really, really easy,” he says. “It takes no experience at all.”