How to add a cookie consent banner to a WooCommerce store

Where to paste the snippet on a WooCommerce store

The install is the same as on any WordPress site, covered in detail in the WordPress guide. In short: install the free WPCode plugin, go to Code Snippets, then Header & Footer, paste the snippet at the top of the Header box and click Save Changes. If you prefer code, hook wp_head at priority 0 in a child theme so the snippet prints before the tags other plugins add:

html
<script src="https://cookiequiet.com/cq.js" data-site="YOUR_SITE_KEY" data-consent-mode="1" data-auto-block="1" defer></script>

The header prints on shop, product, cart, checkout and account pages alike, including the block-based Cart and Checkout. Purge your page cache afterwards and exclude cq.js from script delay or aggregation features (WP Rocket, LiteSpeed Cache, Autoptimize).

Which WooCommerce cookies need consent?

WooCommerce documents its own cookies, and the core ones need no consent because the shop cannot work without them:

Order attribution is different. Since WooCommerce added it, the store sets seven sbjs_ cookies (sbjs_session, sbjs_first, sbjs_current and others, session-length) on every visit to record which campaign or referrer brought the customer, and saves that to the order. WooCommerce says the feature is compatible with the WP Consent API, which is how a consent tool tells WordPress plugins what the visitor allowed. You have two clean options:

1. Turn it off if you do not use the Origin column in your orders: WooCommerce, then Settings, then Advanced, then Features, untick Order Attribution.
2. Keep it and pass consent. Install the WP Consent API plugin and add this bridge in WPCode's Footer box. It tells WordPress the site is opt-in and translates every Cookiequiet choice into the API's categories:

html
<script>
  window.wp_consent_type = 'optin';
  document.dispatchEvent(new Event('wp_consent_type_defined'));
  window.addEventListener('cq:consent', function (e) {
    if (typeof window.wp_set_consent !== 'function') return;
    var c = e.detail.categories;
    var v = function (on) { return on ? 'allow' : 'deny'; };
    wp_set_consent('statistics', v(c.indexOf('analytics') >= 0));
    wp_set_consent('statistics-anonymous', v(c.indexOf('analytics') >= 0));
    wp_set_consent('marketing', v(c.indexOf('marketing') >= 0));
    wp_set_consent('preferences', v(c.indexOf('functional') >= 0));
  });
</script>

The same bridge serves every other plugin that reads the WP Consent API.

How do Google Analytics and the other store tags follow the choice?

• Google Analytics for WooCommerce (the official extension) has no banner of its own. It sends Google's default consent state when the tag initialises, and WooCommerce asks that your consent tool update it after the visitor chooses. Cookiequiet does that with gtag('consent', 'update', ...), so purchases and page views are measured in full only after analytics or marketing is granted. The extension is also integrated with the WP Consent API, which the bridge above feeds.
• Pixels you pasted. Mark them: <script type="text/plain" data-cq-category="marketing"> for the Meta Pixel or TikTok, analytics for Hotjar or Clarity.
• Marketing plugins that inject their pixel with JavaScript. With data-auto-block="1", Cookiequiet holds the scripts and iframes of about 80 known trackers until consent.

Deactivate any other consent plugin (Complianz, CookieYes, Cookie Notice) so the store has one banner and one consent log.

How to test

1. Open the store in a private window and click Reject all.
2. Add a product to the cart and open the checkout: the cart must keep its contents, because WooCommerce's own cookies are necessary.
3. In the developer tools, check that no _ga, _fbp or sbjs_ cookie is set (if you kept order attribution, the bridge must be in place).
4. Clear the cookies, click Accept all, reload: the tags run. Check the consent log in the dashboard.

What does it cost compared with WordPress plugins?

Yearly WordPress plugins can cost less once you run several shops: Borlabs Cookie lists €49 a year for one website, €79 for 3 and €109 for 5 (excluding VAT). See how they compare in Cookiequiet vs Borlabs Cookie and Cookiequiet vs Complianz. Cookiequiet is free for one store with geo-targeting included, and Starter, which removes the Cookiequiet link, is €3 per website per month or €29 a year. Three stores on Starter come to €87 a year and five to €145, against €79 and €109 for Borlabs Cookie, so the plugin costs less there. The Agency plan is €190 a year for 10 Pro websites and 5 team seats, €19 per website. No plan has a pageview limit, and Cookiequiet works on any platform, so the setup stays the same if a store moves off WordPress.