Cookie Policy
This page lists every cookie this website sets, what each one does, how long it lasts, and how to switch off the ones that are optional. Cookies that are necessary to run the basket, the checkout and your login cannot be switched off without breaking the shop. Everything else is optional and you can decline it at any time, without losing access to any part of the site.
Our position, in short
- We use cookies to run the shop, to count how the site is used, and to know whether an advert we placed led to a sale.
- We do not use cookies to build an advertising profile of you, and we do not use remarketing or retargeting. We will not follow you around the internet with adverts for our wine or our flour.
- We do not sell or share your information with data brokers, and we run no social media tracking pixels.
- You do not have to accept optional cookies to use this site. There is no cookie wall.
What a cookie is
A cookie is a small text file that a website asks your browser to keep. It lets the site remember something between one page and the next — that you are logged in, or what is in your basket. Some cookies are deleted when you close the browser; others stay for a set period. This policy also covers similar technologies such as local storage.
Necessary cookies
These make the shop work. Without them the basket empties, the checkout fails, and you cannot stay logged in. They are not used to track you and they are not shared with anyone.
| Cookie | Purpose | Lasts |
|---|---|---|
woocommerce_cart_hash | Tells the shop your basket has changed | Session |
woocommerce_items_in_cart | Tells the shop whether your basket has anything in it | Session |
wp_woocommerce_session_* | Links your browser to your basket and checkout details on our server | 2 days |
woocommerce_recently_viewed | Remembers products you have looked at, to show them again | Session |
wordpress_logged_in_* | Keeps you logged in to your account | Session, or 14 days if you choose “remember me” |
wp-settings-* | Remembers display preferences for logged-in users | 1 year |
wordpress_test_cookie | Checks whether your browser accepts cookies at all | Session |
Age verification cookie
If you verify your age in order to buy wine, our age verification tool stores the result in a signed cookie on your device, so that you are not asked again on every page. It records that a verification passed and when — not your date of birth. If you are logged in, the result is also stored against your account.
This cookie is necessary: without it we cannot show that we verified age before selling alcohol, which the law requires us to do. You can clear it from your account at any time, which means you will be asked to verify again. See our Alcohol Policy.
Analytics cookies — optional
We use Google Analytics to understand how many people visit, which pages they read, and where they give up. It tells us that a page is confusing. It does not tell us who you are, and we have not enabled the Google features that would allow it to.
| Cookie | Purpose | Lasts |
|---|---|---|
_ga | Distinguishes one visitor from another, using a randomly generated number | 2 years |
_ga_* | Keeps track of the current visit for Google Analytics 4 | 2 years |
We retain analytics information for up to 14 months, after which Google deletes it. We have switched off Google Signals and advertising personalisation, which means this information is not combined with Google’s advertising profiles and is not used to build audiences for adverts.
Conversion measurement cookies — optional
Where we advertise our products, we need to know whether an advert actually led to a sale — otherwise we are paying for advertising blind. This is measurement of an advert we already paid for. It is not profiling of you, and it is not used to target you with further adverts.
| Cookie | Purpose | Lasts |
|---|---|---|
_gcl_au | Records that you arrived from a Google advert, so that a later purchase can be attributed to it | 90 days |
We are being deliberately plain about this one, because _gcl_au is set by Google’s advertising system and you may see it described elsewhere as an advertising cookie. On this site it is used for conversion measurement only. We have not enabled remarketing, audience building or advertising personalisation, and we do not upload customer lists to Google.
Cookies set when you pay
When you pay, you are taken to Payfast to enter your card details. Payfast sets its own cookies on its own pages, for security and fraud prevention, under its own privacy policy. We do not control them and we never receive your card details.
Your choices
On this site. Use the cookie preferences control on this page to switch analytics and conversion measurement off. Your choice is remembered, and the site works exactly as before without them. You do not need to give a reason, and nothing is withheld from you as a result.
In your browser. Every major browser lets you block or delete cookies, in its privacy or security settings. Blocking necessary cookies will stop the basket and checkout from working.
Through Google. Google publishes a browser add-on that opts you out of Google Analytics on every site, not only this one.
A standing objection. Section 11(3) of POPIA gives you the right to object to processing we base on legitimate interest, which includes our analytics. You may object at any time by writing to our Information Officer at alette@lowerland.co.za, and we will apply it without asking you to justify it.
Why we do not ask you to accept cookies before you can enter
You may be used to a banner that blocks a website until you press “accept”. That comes from European law, which does not apply to a South African shop selling to South African customers. POPIA requires us to tell you what we collect and to let you object — which is what this page and the preferences control do. It does not require us to hold the site hostage until you click something. We think you would rather read about the farm.
Changes
If we add a cookie, we add it to this page before it starts being set. If we ever changed our position on remarketing, we would say so here and in our Terms of Use before anything changed.
Questions
Write to our Information Officer, Alette de Beer, at alette@lowerland.co.za. Our full Privacy Policy explains everything else we do with personal information.