What Is a Cookie? How Does It Help E-Commerce Websites

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Examlex · Accepted Answer

The Answer is A cookie is a small text file left on a website visitor's hard drive that is used to personalize the site for the visitor, or track web activities. The file typically contains a unique ID and information such as date and time, or the pages visited. The cookie can also store information the visitor provides, such as the zip code for a city the visitor intends to visit on a weather site. When the visitor returns, the site can immediately display that city's weather.
E-commerce sites rely on cookies to keep track of the products a customer places in a shopping cart. As a customer collects items, the web server retrieves his or her unique ID and stores it with the item number in its own database. If the customer leaves the site and returns later, the software can retrieve the ID and refill his or her shopping cart. The site can also deliver targeted ads and recommendations, without asking the customer to log in, by retrieving the cookie and checking to see what that ID has viewed in the past.

What Is a Cookie? How Does It Help E-Commerce Websites

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