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    GDPR: General Data Protection Regulation

    Updated 25 July 2023

    GDPR: General Data Protection Regulation

    GDPR came into effect on May 25th, 2018 with a statement that non-complaint companies will be liable to heavy forfeits.

    What is GDPR?

    A general data protection regulation to give data control to the individuals.

    The GDPR is documentation comprising 14 points on the safety & privacy of online users. Letting the customers aware of how and where their personal data is being used and stored.

    GDPR basically aims at larger organizations that store enormous personal data such as Amazon & Facebook. But, even small organizations need to take note of a few things in their accounts.

    So, whether you are a large organization or a small one, you need to define how you collect, store and use the data of your customers. And by data, I mean details like one’s identification number, IP address, media like pictures and videos, email address, social media accounts, location and other personal details like name, number & residential information.

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    Why do you need to be compliant?

    If your website uses cookies, logs IP addresses, linked with social media profiles then the data you collect is legislated in the EU (European Union). In other words, if your online store is available in Europe, you need to be GDPR Compliant.

    Being an online retailer, you are considered a Data Controller. Thus, you are responsible for the data that you are collecting in your online store from your customers.

    That’s another thing that currently, this compliance is not applicable for every online store. But, for the matter of fact, it is good to be compliant because sooner or later, GDPR will going to be applicable globally.

    According to Statista, Europe has a quarter of total online revenue. That says, how big is the eCommerce industry in the EU. So, if you still aren’t retailing to Europian countries, you might be lacking a lot. Concluding, to sell in the EU, you need to be compliant!

    Quoting the fact by Statista:

    Approximately 311.4 million consumers are currently active in the e-commerce market. Of those online shoppers, over 41 million were e-commerce users from the United Kingdom, the most developed e-commerce market in Europe. 

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    Hence, if you are not compliant, you may face a forfeit of up to 4% of annual global turnover.

    Steps to being a responsible retailer

    • Collect Only What You Need:
      Try to limit the areas you require data and the amount of it. Don’t ask your customers to provide you unnecessary information which is actually of no use to you. Whether it’s on the checkout page, payment page or the signup page!
    checkout information
    • Get Your Terms & Conditions Straight:
      Make sure to include each and every point regarding customer’s data protection like what measures you are taking and how and where the information they are sharing is being used. This is a good step to let your customers know that you are a concerned organization.
    • Easy Unsubscription:
      Don’t hide that unsubscribe button. I know you don’t want your customers to unsubscribe but you can’t bind them. Give them the authority they have and make the unsubscribe button easily visible. If they want to stay they will.

    Over to you!

    If nothing else, GDPR is a really basic norm about respecting your customer’s privacy. Don’t hesitate in investing in protecting their data because eventually, it will pay you off.

    Help yourself out by going through the following documentation: Responsibilities of Organisations under the General Data Protection Regulation.

    Moreover, if you are a Shopify store owner, here is the Shopify GDPR Whitepaper! and for Magento Adobe Commerce store owners, please use Magento 2 GDPR extension.

    🔍 Need Help?

    You can drop your query at [email protected] or raise a ticket at Webkul UV Desk.

    Until next time. 👋

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