Essential and non-essential cookies

Cookies are small data files sent from a website’s server to your web browser, where they are stored on your device. Their purpose can vary, but they are often used to:

• Help customize a website.
• Help a visitor navigate a website.
• Improve the user experience.
• Store a visitor’s preferences and login information.

Cookies can be an essential or a non-essential part of your site, depending on your needs.

Essential cookies

Essential cookies are placed on your computer or device automatically when you access a website or take certain actions on it. These cookies are used only to transmit data online and are strictly necessary to make a website operational. Examples of essential cookies include:

• Session cookies that keep users logged in as they navigate the website.
• Persistent cookies that save customized preferences for users.
• Cookies that keep a shopping basket saved during the checkout process.

Non-essential cookies

These are all the other kinds of cookies that do not fall under the definition of essential cookies. Non-essential cookies and other technologies are only placed on a user’s device if the user has given consent. Examples of non-essential cookies include:

• Cookies left by analytics tools such as Google Analytics.
• Advertising trackers such as Facebook Pixel.
• Cookies left by any third-party widgets or embedded content.

Certain data privacy laws, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), may require you as a website owner to inform your visitors about cookies and ask for their consent to use them.

To learn how to ask for your visitors’ consent to cookies on your site, see How to add a cookie banner.