What are cookies?

A web cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website, when visited by you, asks your browser to store on your device. Cookies are used to remember information about you, such as your language preference, login details, or the items in your shopping basket. This helps websites function smoothly and provide a better user experience.

There are two main types of cookies:

1. First-party cookies: Set by the website you are visiting (e.g. to remember your login or shopping basket items).
2. Third-party cookies: Set by domains other than the website you are visiting. These are often used for advertising, analytics, or social media integration.

So what cookies do EH Smith Group of Companies (www.ehsmith.co.uk) use?

We use as few cookies as possible. Those that we do employ are primarily used for analytical review of the website's performance and to help improve our offerings. However, like others online, we do also use a select few cookies for advertising. This includes the use of third-party cookies.

Some cookies are required for our website to function. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website, cookies that allow you to add products to your basket and checkout, and cookies that help protect our website from malicious attacks. By using our website, you are agreeing for us to use these cookies. They are deemed as No-Consent Required cookies and are exempt from consent requirements.

We also employ cookies for the analytical reporting of our website. These are more commonly known as performance cookies and are entirely optional. These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies, we will not know when you have visited our site and will not be able to monitor its performance.

Third-party cookies can include cookies from social media and advertising partners that we work with. These cookies are also optional, unlike our other cookies that enhance user experience on our website. They allow us to build a better idea of our audience online and inform marketing decisions.

Cookies Active on our Website

Necessary Cookies

Required for our website to function and cannot be switched off. Usually only set in response to actions made by you when you request information on our website. You can set your browser to block these cookies, but some parts of our website will then not work. These cookies do not store personally identifiable information.

Cookie Name	Domain	Description	Duration
PHPSESSID	.ehsmith.co.uk	This cookie is native to PHP applications. The cookie is used to store and identify a users' unique session ID for the purpose of managing user session on the website. The cookie is a session cookie and is deleted when all the browser windows are closed.	Session

Analytics Cookies

These cookies help us understand how you use our website. They collect aggregated and anonymous data about your browsing activity to improve user experience and site performance. We use tools like Google Analytics to track this information.

Cookie Name	Domain	Description	Duration
_ga	.ehsmith.co.uk	The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognise unique visitors.	1 year 1 month 4 days

We also use Microsoft Clarity, a behavioural analytics tool that records session replays, heatmaps and user interaction data such as mouse movements and clicks. This helps us understand how users navigate and interact with our website so we can improve the experience. Data collected by Clarity is processed by Microsoft in accordance with their privacy policy, which can be found at microsoft.com/en-gb/privacy.

Cookie Name	Domain	Description	Duration
_clck	.ehsmith.co.uk	Installed by Microsoft Clarity. Persists the Clarity User ID and preferences, unique to that site, on the browser. This ensures that behaviour in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID.	1 year
_clsk	.ehsmith.co.uk	Installed by Microsoft Clarity. Connects multiple page views by a user into a single Clarity session recording.	1 day

Advertisement Cookies

These cookies are used to deliver advertisements that are more relevant to your interests. They help us build a better idea of our audience online and inform marketing decisions.

Cookie Name	Domain	Description	Duration
_fbp	.ehsmith.co.uk	Facebook sets this cookie to store and track interactions anonymously. It goes across websites for marketing, ad delivery, and analytics. It stores a unique identifier for browsers, allowing Meta to link user behaviour back to Facebook ad campaigns, typically expiring after 90 days.	3 months

Functional Cookies

These cookies enable enhanced functionality and personalisation, such as remembering your settings or preferences. They help provide a more tailored user experience.

Cookie Name	Domain	Description	Duration
mage-cache-storage	.ehsmith.co.uk	Our website sets this cookie for local storage of visitor-specific content that enables e-commerce functions.	7 days

Other Cookies

These cookies do not fall into the above categories and may be used for tracking, security, or other purposes not specified above.

Cookie Name	Domain	Description	Duration
searchReport-log	.ehsmith.co.uk	This cookie is used for tracking the search queries made by you on our website.	Session

Your Rights

• You have the right to accept or reject cookies (except for necessary cookies).
• You can withdraw your consent at any time by adjusting your browser settings.
• For more information on how we use your data, please see our Privacy Policy.

Record of Consent

We keep an anonymised record of when and how our users consented to the use of cookies on our website. This is required by law to prove that we obtained valid consent for non-essential cookies (such as analytics or advertising).

What we record:

• The date and time you gave consent, anonymised
• The types of cookies you agreed to (e.g. analytics, advertising)

What we do not do:

• We do not link this record to your browsing activity or personal data, consent records are entirely anonymous.
• Consent records are stored separately from analytical data and are not linked, they are only used for compliance purposes.

This ensures we meet legal requirements without compromising the anonymity of your website data.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The latest version will always be available on our website.

Last Updated: 09/09/2026