What the heck are cookies?

Cookies can be a bit confusing, so we’ll try and keep it simple.
Cookies can be used as a kind of ID card for an online customer.
Basically, they let our website know when someone comes back to us, and therefore allows us to display the most relevant information for that customer.

They also make it easier and faster for users to interact with our website. Without cookies, filling up a basket or remembering the specifics of someone’s details or preferences would be monumentally difficult. We use cookies to make it as easy as possible for you to move around the website, shop for the gear you need and add items to your basket, without you having to log in every time you click.

What cookies are not is a longer list than what they are. They’re not computer programs so they can’t read information stored on your computer. They can’t be hijacked to spread viruses either, so they can’t hack you or get your email details. Cookies can only ever contain and transfer information to our website that you the user have disclosed. Not happy with that arrangement? You can turn off your cookies any time using your browser’s settings but bear in mind that this means you won’t be able to shop on our website, as a lot of the functionality is supported by cookies. Remember that cookies are specific to the computer you are using and if you access any site with another device, the settings on that device will be the ones that are applied.

We know cookies can be a bit complicated so if you still feel like you need to learn more, visit www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies to answer any of your cookie-related questions.

When you land on the our website, the cookies you’ll get will come directly from us or from one of our business partners. There are a few different types, so here’s a quick run-down:

Essential cookies: The clue is in the name. Essential cookies are the ones that allow you to access our website, browse products, order and navigate through pages with ease. Without them, you simply won’t be able to use our site.

Performance cookies: These help us understand how you’re using our site. Performance cookies help us to analyse information like numbers of visitors to our website, measure usage and assess how well our advertising is working. We’ll use this information to tweak the performance of our website and improve the customer experience when shopping with us.

Functionality cookies: These cookies help us to offer extra functionality on our website. These are not strictly needed to be able to use the website, however they do enable features that will make it far easier to navigate and shop with us.

Targeting cookies: We use some cookies to track the interest our visitors have in our products. We sometimes use this to understand what our customers are really interested in, so we can make sure we’re offering the right things. This means we can use browsing behaviour to create the most relevant banner adverts, only showing you products that you have already viewed or are similar to what you have already seen on our website. These banner adverts are displayed across a variety of other website that customers may visit. This is called behavioural advertising and is tailored to each individual user, however cookie data is always anonymised and only stored temporarily. These banners will always feature an “i” icon which will supply information on the advertising network used and information on how to opt out if you wish.