Privacy policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Dogtropolis® Ltd ("Dogtropolis®", "we", "us", or "our") collects, uses, stores and protects your personal information when you visit or use www.dogtropolis.co.uk ("the Website").

Dogtropolis® Ltd is the Data Controller for the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal information lawfully, fairly and transparently.

This Privacy Policy should be read alongside our Terms and Conditions and our Cookie Policy.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully before using our Website.

1. Definitions

In this Privacy Policy:

Data means any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual ("personal data") that you provide to us or that we collect through your use of our Website.

Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit a website. They help websites function correctly, remember your preferences and improve your browsing experience.

Data Protection Laws means all applicable UK data protection legislation, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), together with any amendments or replacement legislation.

Dogtropolis® Ltd, we, us or our means Dogtropolis® Ltd, the owner and operator of this Website.

User, you or your means any person accessing or using this Website.

Website means www.dogtropolis.co.uk together with any associated sub-domains unless those sub-domains have their own separate terms and privacy policy.

2. Information We Collect

We collect personal information to process your orders, provide customer support, improve our Website and deliver the products and services you request.

Some information is provided directly by you, while other information is collected automatically when you use our Website.

Information You Provide

This may include:

• Your name.
• Billing address.
• Delivery address.
• Email address.
• Telephone or mobile number.
• Account details if you create an account.
• Customer service enquiries and correspondence.
• Product reviews or other content you choose to submit.
• Marketing preferences.

Order and Transaction Information

When you place an order, we may collect information relating to:

• Products purchased.
• Order history.
• Delivery information.
• Payment status.
• Returns and refunds.
• Communications relating to your order.

For your security, we do not store or have access to your full payment card details. Payments are processed securely by our authorised payment providers.

Information Collected Automatically

When you visit our Website, we may automatically collect information including:

• Your IP address.
• Browser type and version.
• Device type.
• Operating system.
• Time zone.
• Pages viewed.
• Products viewed.
• Search terms.
• Time spent on pages.
• Referring websites.
• Shopping basket activity.
• Website interactions.
• Cookie identifiers.
• Approximate location derived from your IP address.

This information helps us improve our Website, detect fraudulent activity, analyse performance and personalise your experience where you have provided consent.

3. How We Collect Your Information

We collect personal information when you:

• Create an account.
• Place an order.
• Subscribe to our email or SMS marketing.
• Contact us by email, telephone or through our contact form.
• Leave a product review.
• Enter competitions or promotions.
• Browse our Website.
• Accept cookies through our cookie consent banner.
• Interact with our advertisements on Google, Meta or other advertising platforms.

Some information is collected automatically through cookies and similar technologies once you have given your consent where required by law.

4. How We Use Your Information

We only process your personal information where we have a lawful basis under UK data protection law.

We use your information to:

• Process and deliver your orders.
• Manage your customer account.
• Provide customer support.
• Process returns and refunds.
• Respond to your enquiries.
• Prevent fraud and protect our business.
• Improve our Website, products and services.
• Analyse Website performance.
• Personalise your shopping experience where appropriate.
• Send marketing communications where you have given consent or where we are otherwise legally permitted to do so.
• Comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

We may also use your personal information to detect and prevent fraud, verify customer accounts and transactions, improve the security of our Website, personalise your shopping experience and better understand the products and services that may be of interest to you. This may include analysing previous purchases, browsing behaviour and interactions with our Website and marketing communications.

We do not make decisions based solely on automated processing that produce legal or similarly significant effects on you.

5. Lawful Basis for Processing

We only process your personal information where the law allows us to do so.

This includes processing that is necessary to fulfil a contract with you, such as processing and delivering your order, providing customer support and managing returns or refunds.

We also process certain information where it is necessary to comply with our legal obligations, including accounting, taxation and fraud prevention requirements.

Where appropriate, we process information because it is in our legitimate interests to operate, improve and secure our Website, protect our business, understand how customers use our services and enhance the overall customer experience. Whenever we rely on legitimate interests, we carefully balance those interests against your rights and freedoms.

Where required by law, we will ask for your consent before processing your personal information. This includes the use of non-essential cookies, personalised advertising, analytics technologies, email marketing and SMS marketing. You can withdraw your consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.

6. Cookies and Similar Technologies

6.1 What Are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer, smartphone or other device when you visit a website. They allow websites to recognise your device, remember your preferences and improve your browsing experience.

Some cookies are essential for the Website to function correctly, while others help us understand how visitors use our Website or allow us to provide personalised advertising.

Cookies cannot access information stored elsewhere on your device and cannot install software or viruses.

You can change or withdraw your cookie preferences at any time by selecting the Cookie Settings link available on our Website. Please note that disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality and performance of some parts of the Website

6.2 How We Use Cookies

We use cookies and similar technologies to:

• Enable essential Website functionality.
• Keep your shopping basket and checkout secure.
• Remember your preferences.
• Recognise you when you return to our Website.
• Improve the performance and usability of our Website.
• Analyse visitor behaviour and Website performance.
• Detect fraudulent activity and maintain Website security.
• Measure the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns.
• Display advertising that is more relevant to your interests where you have provided consent.

6.3 Types of Cookies We Use

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are essential for the operation of our Website. They enable features such as secure login, shopping basket functionality, checkout, fraud prevention and Website security.

Because these cookies are necessary for the Website to function, they cannot be disabled through our cookie settings.

Analytics Cookies

Analytics cookies help us understand how visitors use our Website by collecting information such as pages visited, time spent on the Website, navigation patterns and any errors encountered.

This information is collected in an aggregated form wherever possible and helps us improve the performance and usability of our Website.

Analytics cookies are only placed with your consent.

Functional Cookies

These cookies remember choices you make, such as your preferred language, region or other settings, helping us provide a more personalised browsing experience.

Functional cookies are only used where appropriate and, where required by law, with your consent.

Advertising and Targeting Cookies

Advertising cookies allow us and our advertising partners to show you advertisements that are more relevant to your interests.

These cookies may track your browsing activity across different websites and help us measure the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns.

Advertising cookies are only used after you have given your consent.

7. Google Services

We use services provided by Google, which may include Google Analytics, Google Ads and other Google technologies to help us understand how visitors use our Website and improve our services.

Where you have provided consent, Google may collect information including:

• Cookie identifiers.
• Device information.
• Browser information.
• IP address (which may be shortened or anonymised where appropriate).
• Pages visited.
• Website interactions.

Google may use this information in accordance with its own Privacy Policy.

You can learn more about how Google processes data by visiting Google's Privacy Policy and Google's information about how it uses information from sites and apps that use its services.

8. Meta Pixel

Where you consent to advertising cookies, we use Meta Pixel and related technologies to understand how visitors interact with our Website.

This allows us to:

• Measure the effectiveness of our advertising.
• Improve future advertising campaigns.
• Show you more relevant advertisements on Meta platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.
• Create audiences for advertising purposes.
• Measure conversions resulting from advertising campaigns.

You can withdraw your consent for advertising cookies at any time by updating your Cookie Preferences.

9. Email Marketing

Where you have given your consent, or where we are otherwise permitted by law, we may send you marketing emails about our products, promotions, events and special offers.

Marketing emails may also include personalised recommendations based on your previous purchases, browsing history or interests.

You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time by:

• Clicking the unsubscribe link contained in any marketing email.
• Contacting us directly using the contact details provided in this Privacy Policy.

Choosing not to receive marketing communications will not prevent us from sending important service-related communications, such as order confirmations, dispatch notifications, product safety information or responses to customer service enquiries.

10. SMS Marketing

Where you have given your consent, we may send marketing messages by SMS.

These messages may include:

• Promotions.
• Exclusive offers.
• Product launches.
• Cart reminders.
• Checkout reminders.
• Product recommendations based on your interaction with our Website.

You may withdraw your consent at any time by following the unsubscribe instructions included within the SMS message or by contacting us directly.

Your SMS marketing preferences will be respected as quickly as reasonably practicable.

We do not sell your SMS consent information to third parties.

11. Abandoned Basket and Browsing Reminders

Where you have consented to the relevant cookies and marketing communications, we may use information about your browsing activity, products viewed, shopping basket and checkout activity to send reminders by email or SMS if you leave our Website before completing a purchase.

These reminders are intended to help you continue your shopping experience and may also include recommendations for products that may be of interest to you.

You can withdraw your consent to these reminders at any time by updating your marketing preferences or unsubscribing from future marketing communications.

12. Sharing Your Personal Information

We treat your personal information with care and will never sell your personal information to third parties.

We may share your personal information where necessary to operate our business, fulfil your orders or comply with legal obligations. Any third parties we work with are required to protect your information and only process it on our instructions or where they are legally entitled to do so.

We may share your information with:

• Payment service providers who securely process payments made through our Website.
• Delivery companies and couriers who deliver your orders.
• Website hosting providers and cloud service providers.
• Email and SMS marketing providers.
• Analytics and advertising providers, where you have given the appropriate consent.
• IT support providers and security service providers.
• Professional advisers including accountants, auditors, insurers and legal advisers.
• Government bodies, regulators or law enforcement agencies where we are required to do so by law.

We only share the information necessary for the relevant service to be provided.

We may also disclose personal information where required to comply with applicable laws, court orders or lawful requests from government authorities, regulators or law enforcement agencies. We may also disclose information where necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims, enforce our Terms and Conditions, investigate suspected fraud or protect the rights, property or safety of Dogtropolis®, our customers or others.

If Dogtropolis® Ltd undergoes a merger, acquisition, restructuring, sale of assets or other business reorganisation, your personal information may be transferred as part of that transaction. Any successor organisation will continue to protect your personal information in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

13. Payment Information

Payments made through our Website are processed by trusted third-party payment providers.

We do not receive or store your full payment card details. Payment information is transmitted securely using encrypted connections and is handled in accordance with the payment provider's own privacy policy and security standards.

14. How We Protect Your Information

We take the security of your personal information seriously and use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect it against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration or disclosure.

These measures include, where appropriate:

• Secure SSL/TLS encrypted connections.
• Secure hosting environments.
• Password-protected systems.
• Restricted staff access to personal information.
• Regular monitoring of our systems.
• Fraud prevention measures.
• Secure storage of customer information.

Although we work hard to protect your information, no method of transmitting information over the internet or storing information electronically can ever be guaranteed to be completely secure.

15. International Transfers

Some of the companies that provide services on our behalf may process personal information outside the United Kingdom.

Where personal information is transferred internationally, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your information in accordance with UK data protection law. These safeguards may include the use of approved contractual clauses, adequacy regulations or other legally recognised transfer mechanisms.

16. How Long We Keep Your Information

We only keep your personal information for as long as it is reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including satisfying legal, regulatory, accounting and reporting requirements.

For example:

• Order and financial records are generally retained for at least six years to comply with UK tax and accounting requirements.
• Customer service correspondence is retained for as long as reasonably necessary to resolve enquiries and maintain appropriate business records.
• Marketing information is retained until you unsubscribe, withdraw your consent or your information is no longer required.
• Cookie information is retained in accordance with the settings of the individual cookies and your consent preferences.

Where it is not possible to specify a precise retention period, we will determine an appropriate retention period based on the nature of the personal information, the purposes for which it was collected, our legal obligations and our legitimate business interests. Once personal information is no longer required, it will be securely deleted or anonymised.

17. Your Rights

Under UK data protection law, you have a number of rights regarding your personal information.

These include the right to:

• Request access to the personal information we hold about you.
• Request that inaccurate or incomplete information is corrected.
• Request the deletion of your personal information where applicable.
• Request that we restrict the way we process your information in certain circumstances.
• Receive a copy of your personal information in a portable format where applicable.
• Object to certain types of processing, including direct marketing.
• Withdraw your consent at any time where processing is based on your consent.
• Request human review of certain automated decisions where applicable.
• Lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

We will respond to requests concerning your personal information in accordance with applicable data protection law.

18. Updating Your Information

If any of your personal information changes, or if you believe the information we hold about you is inaccurate, please contact us.

Keeping your information accurate helps us provide the best possible service and ensures your orders can be processed correctly.

19. Complaints

If you have any questions or concerns about how we use your personal information, we encourage you to contact us first so that we have the opportunity to resolve your concerns.

If you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's independent authority responsible for data protection.

More information can be found on the ICO website.

20. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our business, legal obligations or the way we process personal information.

Any changes will be published on this page together with the updated effective date.

Where appropriate, we may also notify you of significant changes by email or by displaying a notice on our Website.

We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to remain informed about how we protect your personal information.

This Privacy Policy was last reviewed on 23/07/2026. We recommend checking this page periodically to ensure you remain informed about how we collect, use and protect your personal information.

21. Shopify Hosting

Our Website is hosted by Shopify Inc., which provides the e-commerce platform that enables us to sell our products and services online.

When you visit or make a purchase from our Website, Shopify processes certain personal information on our behalf to provide services such as website hosting, order processing, payment processing, fraud prevention, security, analytics and platform functionality.

Shopify stores your information on secure servers protected by industry-standard security measures. Some of this information may be processed outside the United Kingdom where appropriate safeguards are in place in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

For more information about how Shopify processes personal information, please refer to Shopify's Privacy Policy.

22. Shopify Network Intelligence

We participate in Shopify's Network Intelligence features.

This allows Shopify to process certain information about customer activity across merchants using the Shopify platform. The information may include browsing behaviour, purchasing patterns, device information and other technical information that helps identify fraudulent activity, improve platform security, enhance performance and provide better services to Shopify merchants.

This processing helps us maintain a secure shopping experience and detect fraudulent transactions.

Where required under applicable data protection law, this processing is carried out on the basis of our legitimate interests in protecting our Website, our customers and our business from fraud and abuse.

You can learn more about Shopify's privacy practices and your available privacy choices by visiting Shopify's Privacy Policy and Privacy Portal.

23. Third-Party Websites

Our Website may contain links to third-party websites, applications or services that are not operated or controlled by Dogtropolis®.

If you choose to visit a third-party website, you do so at your own discretion. We are not responsible for the content, security or privacy practices of those websites.

We encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit before providing any personal information.

24. Social Media

We maintain official social media pages on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and other social media services.

If you choose to interact with us through social media, such as by commenting on our posts, sending us a message, entering a competition or promotion, or following our pages, we may process the information you choose to make available to us.

Information you post publicly on social media may be visible to other users according to your own privacy settings on those platforms.

Your use of social media platforms is governed by the privacy policies and terms of the relevant platform providers.

25. User-Generated Content

Our Website may allow you to submit reviews, comments, photographs or other content.

Any information that you choose to publish publicly may be visible to other visitors to our Website.

Please avoid including personal information that you would not wish to become publicly available.

We reserve the right to remove content that breaches our Terms and Conditions or applicable law.

26. Children's Privacy

Our Website and services are intended for adults purchasing products for their pets.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13.

If you believe that a child has provided us with personal information without appropriate parental consent, please contact us and we will take reasonable steps to delete the information where required.

27. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we process your personal information, please contact us.

Dogtropolis® Ltd

Address:
1 Barrowfield Mews
London Road
Sevenoaks
Kent
TN15 6EU

Telephone: 01474 396302

Email: info@dogtropolis.co.uk

You may also contact us using the contact form available on our Website.

We will do our best to respond to all privacy-related enquiries promptly and in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

 

Privacy Policy Version: 2.0

Effective Date: 23/07/2026

Last Reviewed: 23/07/2026