Imagine being able to see exactly how often your customers shop in your WooCommerce shop - without any cookie banners and fully GDPR-compliant. Sounds like the future? With modern tracking solutions like Trackboxx this is already possible today.
The reality: traditional cookie tracking is increasingly disappearing. Browsers are blocking third-party cookies, users are regularly deleting their data and the approval rate for cookie banners is just around 38 %. For shop operators, this means that valuable customer data is lost - and especially Returning buyers are crucial for sales.
In this article, you will find out which cookie-free alternatives are available for WooCommerce and how you can make your customer loyalty measurable with Trackboxx - without legal risks.
Why cookie-based tracking in WooCommerce is dying out
- Safari has blocked third-party cookies since 2020, Firefox since 2021, Chrome will follow suit in 2025.
- Over 40 % of German internet users use ad blockers that remove tracking cookies at the same time.
- You are not allowed to set cookies without consent - and most visitors refuse them.
The result: a loyal regular customer appears in the system as many different new customers. Retargeting becomes unreliable, customer lifetime value hardly predictable.
GDPR-compliant alternatives: tracking without consent
The solution lies in Tracking methods that do not store any personal data. Trackboxx uses a strict principle of data minimisation:
- No cookies
- Immediate anonymisation of IP addresses
- Aggregated analyses without individual user profiles
This allows you to measure all important shop metrics - completely without banners and consents.
How Trackboxx recognises returning customers
1. e-mail hash for login and checkout
As soon as a customer logs in or enters their email address at checkout, Trackboxx automatically creates an encrypted hash (e.g. with SHA-256).
- The real e-mail is never stored or transmitted.
- The hash cannot be recalculated and is therefore GDPR-compliant.
- Returning customers can be reliably recognised - even across multiple devices.
2. event and shopping basket tracking
Trackboxx shows you which products have been viewed, added to the shopping basket or cancelled. How to recognise patterns in Purchase cancellations and can take targeted measures for optimisation.
3. time and cohort analyses
Instead of saving individual profiles, Trackboxx analyses the data aggregated from:
- Repurchase rates after 30/60/90 days
- Cohort analyses (e.g. customers who made their first purchase in January)
- Share of sales from existing customers
This gives you a clear picture of the importance of returning buyers - without having to reconstruct individual customer journeys.
Integration in WooCommerce: simple & fast
Trackboxx offers a ready-to-use WordPress pluginwhich you can install in just a few minutes.
- No complex infrastructure
- Instant WooCommerce events (purchases, shopping basket promotions, logins)
- Data available in real time
Important: Even if consent is not required, you should mention data processing in your privacy policy.
Which KPIs are really relevant?
With Trackboxx you can measure the most important key figures for regular customers:
- Repurchase rate: Proportion of first-time buyers who order again within 60 days
- Average order frequency: How often does a customer buy per year?
- Sales share of repeat customers: What percentage of your turnover comes from existing customers?
- Cancellation rates: Where in the shopping basket process do customers bounce?
Avoid common mistakes
- Parallel operation with Google Analytics: leads to contradictory data.
- Lack of training: Aggregated data must be interpreted differently than classic user profiles.
- Unrealistic expectations: The aim is not to identify individuals, but to create clear, clean trends for your business.
Conclusion: Future-proof WooCommerce tracking
The cookie era is over - but this is your chance. With trackboxx you can track returning customers in compliance with GDPR, without banners and with clear insights for your business.
- Easy to integrate
- Better data quality
- More trust from your customers
? Test Trackboxx in your WooCommerce shop and see for yourself how transparent and uncomplicated modern analytics can be.
