These days, data protection and privacy have shifted from being a "nice-to-have" to an absolute necessity. So, you've most likely looked up the Magento GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and cookie compliance when setting up your store.
Meeting those legal requirements takes a few steps and starts with the Magento 2 cookie notice.
So, in this guide, you'll learn what makes an effective cookie notice in Magento and how to configure it the right way to stay compliant and user-friendly.
What is Magento 2 Cookie Notice?
Magento 2 cookie notice is a message that informs visitors about your store collecting cookies and includes buttons to accept, reject, or customise which cookies to allow.
It can appear in different formats, depending on your store design. Most commonly, it shows as a pop-up in the centre of the screen or as a banner at the top or bottom of the page.
Example of a cookie consent popup in the Magefan Cookie Consent extension
Regardless of formats, a cookie notice is much more than just a message.
Why Cookie Notice Matters in Magento?
The main purpose of the cookie notice is to help you avoid GDPR fines and other legal issues arising from regional data protection regulations. However, there are several other reasons when a cookie notice might come in handy.
It helps you build customers' trust by showing that you take their privacy seriously. Cookie notice allows you to communicate clearly how customers' data is used, and customers — to choose which cookies to allow.
This improves the user experience and makes your brand look professional and trustworthy.
What Makes an Effective Magento 2 Cookie Notice?
To begin with, every Magento 2 cookie notice should be clear, informative, and intuitive. But to truly get the most out of it, your cookie notice should cover the following.
- High visibility and accessibility. Place a cookie notice where your customers can easily see it. A popup is usually the most effective option for that.
- Clear consent choices. Give your users straightforward and clear options to accept, reject, or manage cookies, to ensure transparency and GDPR compliance.
- Cookie grouping by type. Group cookies into the following categories: essential, marketing, analytics, and advertising. It will help your visitors understand the purpose of each cookie type before giving consent.
- Automatic blocking of non-essential cookies. To keep your store compliant, make sure the cookies, like analytics or advertising ones, don't load before the user gives their consent.
- Multi-language and multi-store support. If you manage a Magento multi-language store, make sure your cookie notice shows in multiple languages across different store views.
- Easy consent review and management. Allow your users to revisit their cookie preferences at any time through a “Cookie Settings” link in the footer, for example.
- Integration with Google Consent Mode or Tag Manager. Integrate your Magento cookie notice with Google Consent Mode or Tag Manager. This helps to adjust the Google Tag behaviour to still collect some vital insights when consent is denied.
- Responsive, mobile-friendly design. Make your cookie popup or banner work well on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.
All of these will make your Magento 2 cookie notice not only GDPR compliant but user-friendly. However, Magento default functionality is not enough to achieve all these features.
Therefore, many store owners turn to a third-party solution. This gives them an easier way to create and manage the Magento GDPR cookie notice directly from the admin panel.
Benefits of Cookie Consent Extension
Although there is a default Magento cookies option, it doesn't come fully GDPR-compliant.
The standard cookie notice merely informs visitors that a store uses cookies. It offers only the "Allow Cookies" option, which fails to comply with GDPR.
Magento default cookie notice
So if you want to make your Magento store fully compliant, the extension is a must.
It's designed to display a Magento cookie notice as a pop-up and give visitors full control over the collected data. That is, accept, reject, choose specific, or delete cookies at any time. All customizable for every store view and language.
The extension also lets you group cookies by type (e.g., essential, analytics, or marketing) and provide a clear explanation for each.
Non-essential cookies are automatically blocked by the extension unless visitors give explicit consent.
On top of that it's fully compatible with all major Magento themes, including Hyvä, supports Google Consent Mode v2, and gathers cookies for Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics 4, and Google Ads.
In short, the Magento Cookie Consent extension checks every box for creating a clear, professional, compliant, and user-friendly cookie consent popup.
How to Configure Magento 2 Cookie Notice?
The process of configuring a cookie consent popup with the extension is both simple and straightforward.
Step 1. Customize cookie notice popup
To control what users see on the frontend, go to the Cookie Consent Bar options (Stores > Configuration > Magefan Extension > Cookie Consent). Here you can customise the cookie notice bar title, button labels, and the description text to explain why your site uses cookies and how users can manage their preferences.
Once finish and save the settings, the cookie consent pop-up will appear on the storefront for every user visiting your store for the first time.
Step 2. Group cookies by type
One of the most important GDPR requirements is to allow users to see what type of cookies you are collecting and to get their consent to each category (group).
The Magefan Cookie Consent Extension already covers the most important cookies. You can just edit he description, change requirements, and add new groups if necessary.
Step 3. Collect and track cookie consent
After your guests consent to cookies, you get all these consents stored in one grid automatically. This record is essential for auditing and ensures you are GDPR compliant.
Step 4. Configure consent log lifetime
Once collected, cookie consents will be stored indefinitely, unless you set the limits. To delete logs after a certain period, go to Stores > Configuration > Magefan Extensions > Cookie Consent > Cookie Consent Log > Log Lifetime and set the time (for example, 12 months).
Magento cookie consent log lifetime settings
This ensures you don't keep consent records for longer than necessary.
Step 5. Allow users to change their cookie preferences
Another GDPR requirement is to allow your users to change their cookie preferences anytime. For that, add a Consent Settings link in the footer, which users can revisit to change their cookie choices.
Once configured, Magento cookie notice will not only ensure compliance but show your visitors that you value their privacy.
Step 6: Customize regional and language preferences
If you have a multi-language store, you can localise your cookie notice for each store view and specify the region where you want to show the cookie pop-up.
GeoIP setting for the Magefan Cookie Notice Extension
Best Practices for Magento 2 Cookie Notice
You can set up a cookie notice, and still don't see it perform as expected. So, to make the most out of it you should follow some best practices.
- Keep it simple. Explain how your store uses cookies with simple words. Don't confuse your visitors with legal terms.
- Provide detailed information. Along with describing each cookie type, mention how long cookies stay active and include a link to your full Cookie Policy page for more details.
- Update regularly. Review your cookie list on a regular basis to avoid any inconsistencies and remove cookies you no longer use.
- Test on all devices. Check whether the cookie popup or banner displays and works as expected across all devices before going live to ensure the best experience for all users.
- Maintain consent logs and reports. Keep a record of given or changed consent, since it's important for providing GDPR compliance.
- Localize your cookie notice. Translate your cookie notice into all the languages available in your store. Customers are more likely to give consent when they fully understand your message.
At the end of the day, an effective Magento 2 cookie notice helps you become GDPR-compliant and boosts trust in your business.
However, in marketing terms, it prevents you from getting comprehensive reports on customers' behaviour if they don't comply. So, if you want to be transparent about the cookies but still get valid analytics data, consider enabling Magento server-side tracking.
FAQs
It also lets you display the consent popup for all or selected countries and supports Google Consent Mode v2. Plus, it integrates smoothly with Google Tag Manager, GA4, and Google Ads.
