Privacy banner / cookie banner

Privacy banner allows buyers to configure their privacy preferences regarding local regulations, such as GDPR in Europe or CCPA in California.

There are two ways to make your store compliant:

  • Recommended: you can use the native Shopify privacy popup.
  • Deprecated: You can use the theme's built-in privacy popup.

Historically, Shopify did not offer native features, so the theme popup was the recommended approach. However, we now strongly encourage merchants to turn off the theme's banner and use Shopify's native popup instead. The theme's built-in popup is deprecated and will be removed in future releases of our themes.

Contrary to the theme's privacy banner, the Shopify native one integrates with many more privacy settings and is updated when local regulations change. This ensures that you stay compliant even when regulations evolve without having to update your theme.

Enabling the Shopify native popup

  1. Before using the native Shopify privacy banner, disable the theme's one. To do that, open the Theme Editor, and click on the eye icon next to the Privacy banner section.

  1. Then, follow Shopify instructions to enable privacy popup in your privacy settings.

You must keep only one popup active at a time. If you use the native Shopify privacy banner (as recommended), you must ensure the theme's banner is turned off. Failing to do so will cause incorrect privacy settings to be saved or cause the banner to show multiple times.

FAQ

Privacy banner will show over and over even when accepted/declined

If you use the theme's built-in banner, turn it off and use the Shopify native privacy banner instead. Ensure that you have only one banner enabled at a time.

If the problem persists, reach out to Shopify support, as Shopify controls the privacy banner logic.

What is the difference between the theme banner and Shopify native one?

While the theme banner uses the Shopify privacy API under the hood, it does not have access to all the data offered by the Shopify native banner. It also won't be updated automatically as soon as local regulations evolve. For those reasons, merchants are strongly encouraged to turn off the theme privacy banner and use the Shopify one instead.

Privacy banner won't show even when enabled

The privacy banner will only show if the buyer lives in an area subject to local regulations. For instance, a customer living in a country that is not affected by such regulations won't see the banner, even though it is enabled. If you are using a VPN, you might also not see the banner, as this will trick geographical detection.

Similarly, Shopify will remember the user preferences. If a user has accepted or denied privacy settings, the banner won't be shown again.

Privacy banner won't show despite matching all conditions

If you believe the privacy banner has been correctly set but still don't see it when you believe you should, you must reach out to Shopify support directly. Whether the banner will show is controlled directly by Shopify system, and the theme does not have access to the logic controlling this.