From a marketing perspective there is a lot to be gained from using ’cookies’ on a website. Small bits of code stored in your browser can do amazing things for a company, from understanding your surfing habits, to storing your online shopping cart to increasing the cost of your airline flights when you visit a website for a second time.
At the most basic level, analytics cookies are almost automatically added when developing a website, often Google Analytics, which give the business owners and their marketing team insights into their visitors. Who visited, what they clicked on, how did they find us. That kind of thing.
Some cookie use can be abusive to the website visitors privacy, that’s why in Europe GDPR regulations were introduced. This makes website owners warn their users of the cookies being used and allow them to opt out of certain cookie use. Sounds idealistic and empowering, but the popups that facilitate this can become annoying so frustrated users just click through them the quickest way possible to make them disappear.
GDPR regulation is there to be respected by website owners as too should website visitors be treated with respect. It’s an honour to have their time and attention.
We started to look at the issues involved and wow, it’s complicated.
Then we had a lightbulb moment. Why not just remove all of the cookies from our website and have none at all?
As an Ethical Company the idea appealed to us since it would mean there is no customer data to be trusted with and we don’t need to annoy our visitors with the usual pop-up messages. The flip side is that we would loose a lot of interesting marketing stat’s on our visitors.
Although the data that the cookies might provide would be useful, we decided that the goals of the website didn’t necessitate the use of them, so the decision was made to go cookie-free!
We tasked Jayesh, our really useful web guy with adapting our website to function without cookies. It’s built on WordPress and it just so happens that after adding a handful of plugins the site becomes riddled with cookies! But that’s what Jayesh is for and by the end of the day not a single cookie crumb was left.
A small detail almost as small as the cookies themselves, but as an Ethical Company we have a responsibility to make the best decisions at every turn and our cookie policy is one such example.
If you would like to get an insight into the cookies used on any particular webpage, take a look at the Cookie Metrix website from Squeeze Mind.
For two decades David has been the owner and director of several marketing and distribution companies. During this time he has learned the indisputable benefits of looking after customers, colleagues, workers, suppliers and the local community, treating them all as respected stakeholders in a common project. Recently he consolidated his personal beliefs and business ethics by founding the Natural Intimacy brand and developing it as an Ethical Company.
