Shopify and Cookie Consent

How to make your webshop compliant to GDPR, ePrivacy and cookie laws

Shopify and Cookie Consent
Tom

CookieFirst used as Shopify cookie consent solution

At Qoorts, we get a lot of questions from E-commerce store owners regarding their compliance with prominent data privacy laws. The GDPR is usually the most common concern, affecting any site operator that handles the data of EU citizens.

Although Shopify takes measures to ensure that its users’ websites are GDPR-compliant, it is important to note that the responsibility for compliance of the website lies with the store owner. This means that all cookie-setting processes must be scrutinized for GDPR compliance, such as those set by Shopify.

This article will discuss the potential risks of using Shopify with EU consumers and how to mitigate them using the Shopify Cookie Consent solution of CookieFirst.

What is Shopify?

Founded in 2004, Shopify is an e-commerce platform designed to help businesses of all sizes run and grow their online stores. It offers a number of features including product and inventory management, payment processing services, marketing tools, and customer support. Shopify is easy to use and allows store owners to customize the look and feel of their store as well as track sales and manage customers. There is no coding required, so anyone can get started quite easily and at a relatively low cost. Shopify is among the world’s largest ecommerce platforms and currently supports over 700,000 shops worldwide.

Is the use Shopify Schrems II compliant?

The Schrems II judgment marked an important point in international data privacy law, invalidating the Privacy Shield and setting new standards for how personal information is relayed between the United States and EU. Use of Shopify may automatically place you in violation of these rules, as the platform is based out of the U.S. and deploys itself on servers in the country. Even if you’re based in Europe, your store and customer data will route directly outside of the EU, in this case to a region without the same standards for data protection. It’s a big gray area for many online store owners – our best advice is to consult with a legal professional.

Does Shopify set cookies?

Yes, Shopify uses cookies to enhance its online stores and keep them functioning at a full scale. Many of these cookies are set with very long expiry times, which can be a compliance risk when it comes to the EU’s cookie laws. Store owners should take the time to review their store settings and ensure that the cookies set by Shopify are in compliance with applicable laws. But also, you might use other third-party technologies in combination with Shopify. For example advertising services like Google Ads, or Google Analytics for conversion measurement. When using this type of third-party services in your Shopify webshop you will need to obtain consent before enabling them during the session of the user.

What is the best way to make sure my Shopify store is GDPR compliant?

If you’re an EU merchant, you need to activate restrictions on your Shopify store’s data collection settings so that nothing is implemented before consent. This can be performed via the ‘Preferences’ page in the ‘Customer Privacy’ section. You’ll want to enable the recommended option ‘Collected after consent’ to limit Shopify from using unnecessary cookies on your store until visitors give the all clear. Under these settings, sessions will only use the cookies that your site needs to function and those that are necessary for legal reasons.

While Shopify has its own cookie banner, it’s not particularly effective. There’s limited flexibility in terms of the content and options you include, where you should ideally be offering users as much control as possible.

To ensure GDPR compliance and a user-friendly consent experience, we recommend using the Shopify Cookie Consent solution of CookieFirst CMP. The CookieFirst banner integrates with the Shopify API and allows you to manage, monitor and customize your cookie consent settings while keeping users informed. Your Shopify store will remain fully compliant with data protection laws while your customers enjoy a better experience.

CookieFirst has a Shopify Cookie Banner app in the Shopify App Store.

Shopify offers a powerful ecommerce solution for stores of any size. However, it is important to understand the risks associated with using Shopify in relation to EU customers, and how they can be mitigated. CookieFirst’s comprehensive Shopify Cookie Consent tool is the perfect solution for digital entrepreneurs looking to protect their customers’ data and remain fully compliant with GDPR regulations. With an easy setup process and super flexible customization options, you can trust that your store is in safe hands with CookieFirst.

Also read our article about using CookieFirst as Cookie Consent Management Platform

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