Adding Cookie Notification to your ecommerce site

Cookies are small text files stored in a browser of a website visitor that include information on pages a website visitor opens. Some cookies can collect data from different websites and then display specific content or adverts for the website visitor.

Privacy nowadays is a crucial issue on the internet, and laws that regulate the use of cookies exist (or are being developed) in many countries. Probably, the most well-known is the EU "Cookie Law". According to it, websites are required to ask their visitors for permission to use cookies. The EU “Cookie Law” regulations refer to websites for EU customers — so, basically, it can be any website in the world.

In your Ecwid store, you can ask your store visitors for their permission to use cookies.

Enabling cookie consent banner in the store admin

If you’re using the original version of Instant Site, or if you want the cookie consent banner to appear in your store that you have added to some other website, you can enable the banner in your Ecwid admin.

To enable the cookie consent banner:

1. From your Ecwid admin, go to Settings → Legal.
2. Scroll down to the Customers’ consent section.
3. Enable the Cookie consent banner:
   

   

Once enabled, the cookie consent banner will appear on the pages of your store with the option to accept, partially accept, or decline. Refresh the storefront page to see it. It will also appear on the front page of your Instant Site if you’re using its original version:

Visitors can always change their cookie decision later on the My Account page in your store. This option is available both for customers who have their accounts in your Ecwid store and for not registered visitors:

Enabling cookie consent banner for New-Gen Instant Site

If you are using Ecwid’s New-Gen Instant Site, you can enable the cookie consent banner right in the site editor.

To enable the cookie consent banner:

1. From your Ecwid admin, go to Overview → Manage Instant Site → Edit Site (or Website → Edit Site).
2. Click Settings → Tracking & Analytics.
3. Enable the Show cookie consent banner toggle:
   

   

4. Publish the changes.

Once enabled, the cookie consent banner will appear both on the front page of your Instant Site and on the pages of your store with the option to accept, partially accept, or decline (refresh the page to see it):

Visitors can always change their decision later by clicking the Cookie settings link in the footer of your New-Gen Instant Site. This option is available both for customers who have their accounts in your Ecwid store and for not registered visitors:

Adding cookie notification to your custom site

If your Ecwid store is added to a custom website (i.e., you do not use the free Ecwid Instant Site as your e-commerce site) and you track users' behavior there as well, you should add a separate cookie banner to the website.

If a user disables cookie tracking in the store, it doesn't automatically disable tracking on the website. Thus, you should add a cookie banner both to the store and the website. You can use these cookie plugins for some website builders:

Plugins for WordPress
Extensions for Joomla

For Wix users: you can set up a Cookie Banner to be displayed on your Wix site. Your Ecwid store will automatically be informed about the decision your customer makes concerning cookies in the Wix Cookie Banner and will apply this decision to the cookies in your Ecwid store. If a customer later changes cookie consent in Wix, your Ecwid store will change its cookie settings accordingly. This works even if you haven't enabled the Cookie consent banner in your Ecwid store.

Disabling cookie consent banner

If you want to turn off the cookie consent banner, make sure it is disabled in your Ecwid admin and in the Instant Site Editor (if you are using Ecwid’s New-Gen Instant Site).

To disable the cookie consent banner in your Ecwid admin:

1. From your Ecwid admin, go to Settings → Legal.
2. Scroll down to the Customers’ consent section.
3. Disable the Cookie consent banner:
   

   

Once you do that, the banner will no longer appear on the pages of your store and on the front page of your Instant Site.

If you are using Ecwid’s New-Gen Instant Site, then you can disable the banner in the Instant Site Editor.

To disable the cookie consent banner in the Instant Site Editor:

1. From your Ecwid admin, go to Overview → Manage Instant Site → Edit Site (or Website → Edit Site).
2. Click Settings → Tracking & Analytics.
3. Disable the Show cookie consent banner toggle:
   

   

Once you do that, the banner will no longer appear on the front page of your New-Gen Instant Site and on the pages of your store.

In case you have added cookie notification to your custom site, follow the instructions for the specific tool that you use to disable the notification.

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