During you visit to our shop, we use a number of cookies to collect information that help us to provide an effective e-commerce service.
A “cookie” is a term for a packet of data that a computer receives and then sends back without changing or altering it. It is a small text file that can be put on a user’s hard disk, tablet, smartphone or any other device that they use to browse the internet.
Cookies have a wide range of uses and can be classified into different categories. These cookies have unique purposes and carry out different activities. The following table provides some detail about the most commonly used cookies.
| Cookie Name | Activity/Purpose |
Session Cookies: | These cookies allow websites to link together the actions of a user during a 'session' on the site. They tend to store a user's login credentials when they are browsing the website. These cookies will be erased when you close your browser and they are not retainable. |
Persistent Cookies | These cookies are stored on your computer and are not erased when you close the browser. They have an expiry date and are destroyed by the computer when the retainable period is over. However, you do have control over these cookies and can delete them at any time (please read "User and Data Retention" below). These cookies are commonly used for analytics and visitor tracking. |
First Party Cookies | These are cookies that are set by the website owner (our store). This is primarily for storing items in the shopping basket, wish list and other functions, but also involves analytics and visitor tracking. |
Third Party Cookies | These are cookies that are set by a different provider on a different domain (i.e Google Analytics). They can also include advertising and other services that help to build up a picture of user behaviour. |
We use cookies to track visits and activity on our website, but we also use cookies that serve as a function for our users so that they can store products in their shopping basket, store items in their wish list and store their log-in details to create a more seamless shopping experience. These cookies are provided by Shopwired - the e-commerce platform that our shop was built on.
In the following two tables we have outlined the cookies that we use and the purpose that they serve.
Cookie Name | Type of Cookie | Description | Duration |
PHPSESSID | Session Cookie | The PHPSESSID allows websites to store data relevant to a user when they are browsing the website. It establishes a temporary cookie that keeps users logged-in to their account for the duration of their ‘session’ on the website. | When the user’s browser is closed. |
_pk_ses, _pk…ref | Persistent Cookie | Used by our e-commerce platform to track session and visitors to our online shop. | 13 months |
basket | Persistent Cookie | When a customer adds a product to their shopping basket, this cookie stores the product ID in the basket. | 30 Days |
recently_viewed_products | Persistent Cookie | This stores the product IDs of a user’s recently viewed products. | 30 Days |
Wishlist | Persistent Cookie | This is used by our Wishlist system and contains our product IDs. It stores customer’s desired products in a list for a protracted length of time. | 400 Days |
Login_token | Persistent Cookie | This is used for customer accounts and keeps customers log in details stored for ease-of-access. | 7 Days |
Cookie Name | Type of Cookie | Description | Duration |
1P_JAR, APISID, HSID, NID, SAPISID, SID, SIDCC, SSID, OTZ | Persistent Cookie | These cookies are used to collect and gather data about visitor statistics and tracks conversion rates. They are also used for other Google services like Google Maps and Youtube. | 26 months |
GA_ | Persistent Cookie | This is a Google Analytics Cookie that is used to distinguish users. It creates a unique client ID for each visitor to a website. | 26 months |
GiD_ | Persistent Cookie | This is a Google Analytics Cookie that is used to distinguish users. | 24 hours |
Gat_gtag | Persistent Cookie | Used to throttle request rate. | 1 minute |
(You can find out more about Google's Privacy Policy here.)
Every time a new user visits our website they will be prompted by a dialogue box informing them that they are about to access a website that uses cookies. Although Cookies do not process personally identifiable information (like a name or an email address), consent does need to be obtained before the cookie is set on the user’s computer or device.
By giving consent you opt-in to allowing third party cookies (as listed above) to be placed on your computer.
Through Google Analytics, we currently store all visits and activity on our website for a period of 26 months. When data reaches the end of the retention period, it is deleted automatically on a monthly basis.
We only use data retained by Google Analytics to help us better understand the visits and activity on our website and how we can improve our service for users. We also use it to gather information about our search result standings on google.co.uk. We are not in the business of selling data or using it for any other purpose other than those that have been outlined.
At any time you can enable, identify, and delete the cookies installed on your device by accessing the settings menu on the browser that you use to surf the internet. These settings might differ for each browser, so we have compiled a list of instructions that provide information about how to manage your cookie preferences.
If you have any queries relating to this Cookie Policy or our Privacy Policy, please email hugh.simpson@comtec-services.co.uk or write to LJM Greenfinch Ltd t/a Comtec-Services, Unit 15 Such Close, Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire, SG6 1JF.
Cookie Policy last updated 16/08/2018
