Initial Cookie Blocking for Improved Shopify Store Privacy

We keep receiving questions such as "How does cookie blocking work?" and "How to initially block cookies?" or even "Where can I find the cookie blocking settings in Shopify?". That's why we decided to make this blog post and thoroughly explain how the initial blocking of cookies work within Shopify and how our app helps with that. 

Initial bocking of cookies in Shopify

In order to give your customers control over their data, you will need to go to Online store > Preferences > Customer privacy section in your Shopify Admin and click on the Collected after consent option. This way, data is not collected until a customer gives consent. We recommend selecting the Collected after consent option for the purpose of fully integrating Shopify and our app so that the tracking of visitors corresponds to their consent.

Online store > Preferences > Customer privacy section

If you have any tracking services set from the Preferences section in your Shopify Admin, such as Google Analytics, it's best to check the option for Use Enhanced Ecommerce for all of them. This ensures that tracking services are blocked until consent via the cookie bar is given by the visitor. Additionally, many pixels - Facebook, Pinterest, and Tiktok - will also be blocked from the option shown above.

Online store > Preferences > Google Analytics > Use Enhanced Ecommerce check

Block cookies in Consentmo app

To set the initial blocking of cookies in our app, navigate to Cookie Bar tab > Cookie Bar Behavior section > Initial State Of The Cookie Bar. Here, you must block all three cookie categories so that the app can work seamlessly with Shopify's settings we have configured above.

Cookie Bar tab > Cookie Bar Behaviour section > Initial State Of The Cookie Bar > Block all categories

For the most secure data privacy for your customers, make sure you have set both the Shopify Customer privacy to Collect after consent and blocked the cookie categories in our app settings. More information you can also find in our FAQ: "How to enable the Limit Tracking for customers from Europe and the state of California?".

Last but not least, if you want the "Accept" button to accept all cookies when it is clicked, you can set the option Regard the Initial State Of The Cookie Bar for the 'Accept' button located in the Cookie Bar tab > Cookie Bar Behavior to No. That way if your website visitor clicks on the Accept button, they will accept all of the cookies.

Cookie Bar tab > Cookie Bar Behavior >  Regard the Initial State Of The Cookie Bar for the 'Accept' button > No

Tracking services and their blocking

In our Integrations tab > Services Tracking section, we have presented the ways to add blocking scripts to all of Google and Facebook's most common services with one click of a button. To learn more, you can check out the blog post "What more can the Integrations tab do for your shop?" and for information on additional tracking services not in our Integrations tab, like Klaviyo, UET, Rakuten Advertising or Google Optimize, check our FAQ page or contact the support team.

If you happen to notice that other Google and Facebook Tracking services are also activating before the visitor gives consent, it would be best to check our Setup Guide point 6 "How to add blocking of tracking services: Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, etc..?"

Note  Our app can only block first-party cookies - meaning cookies set from your domain. If you need help blocking custom scripts, you can contact our support team at apps-support@isenselabs.com

This is the setup we recommend for the initial blocking of cookies in Shopify. To keep your store and visitors safe, go ahead and download the Consentmo app. If you have any specific questions do not hesitate to contact us via chat or email, or simply check our FAQ page.