Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Opas (Southern) Ltd collects, uses, shares and protects personal information when you visit our website, place an Order, open a trade account or otherwise deal with us. It also explains how we use cookies.

We keep things simple. We only use personal information to run our business, supply Goods and look after our Customers. We do not sell personal information.

1. Who we are

Opas (Southern) Ltd is the controller of the personal information described in this Privacy Policy. This means we decide how and why it is used, and we are responsible for looking after it under UK data protection law, including the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Company: Opas (Southern) Ltd, trading as Opas

Registered company number: 01838862

Registered office: 2 Station Road, West Oxted, Surrey RH8 9EP, United Kingdom

Email: sales@opas.co.uk

Telephone: 01903 239955

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we use your information, please contact us using the details above.

2. Information we collect

2.1 Information you give us

We collect information you provide when you place an Order, create an account, apply for a trade account, sign up to our newsletter, or contact us by email, telephone, our website or in person. This may include:

• your name, job title and company name;
• billing and delivery addresses;
• email address and telephone number;
• Order details, including the Goods you buy, prices, delivery preferences and any notes you add;
• account login details (passwords are stored securely by Shopify and we cannot see them);
• trade account information, such as business details, VAT number, trade references and credit information;
• the content of messages, enquiries, complaints and returns requests; and
• your marketing preferences.

2.2 Payment information

Card and other online payments are handled by Shopify and the payment providers shown at checkout. We do not see or store your full card details. We receive limited information such as the payment method type, the last four digits of a card and whether the payment was successful.

If you pay by bank transfer or on a trade account, we keep the payment and invoice records needed to run your account.

2.3 Information collected automatically

When you use our website, some information is collected automatically. This may include your IP address, device and browser type, approximate location, the pages you view, how you arrived at our website and actions such as adding items to your basket.

Some of this is needed for the website to work and to keep it secure. Other information is only collected if you agree to analytics or marketing cookies. See Section 9.

2.4 Information from other sources

We may receive information about you from:

• online marketplaces such as eBay or Amazon, when you buy from us through them;
• delivery companies, for example delivery confirmations or problems;
• credit reference agencies and trade referees, when you apply for trade credit; and
• publicly available sources, such as Companies House, for business Customers.

3. How and why we use your information

UK data protection law says we must have a lawful reason (a “lawful basis”) for each way we use personal information. The table below explains what we do and why.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have considered your interests and rights and believe they are not overridden by ours. You can object at any time. See Section 8.

If you do not provide information we need to supply an Order or run an account, we may not be able to do so.

We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects. Shopify’s fraud tools may flag an Order for review, but a person at Opas makes the final decision.

4. Who we share information with

We only share personal information where it is needed for the purposes above. We do not sell personal information. We may share it with:

• Shopify, which provides our website, online checkout, customer accounts, order management and email notifications;
• payment providers, including Shopify Payments and any other payment option you choose at checkout;
• delivery and courier companies, so they can deliver your Order;
• Sami Wholesale (Samita), the Shopify app we use to manage trade accounts and trade pricing;
• hCaptcha, which helps protect our website forms from spam and automated abuse;
• Meta Platforms (Facebook and Instagram), only if you accept marketing cookies. See Section 9;
• online marketplaces such as eBay or Amazon, where you have bought from us through them;
• credit reference agencies, if you apply for trade credit;
• professional advisers, such as our accountants, auditors, lawyers and insurers;
• debt recovery agencies, if a trade account is overdue;
• HMRC, law enforcement and other authorities, where required by law; and
• a buyer or successor, if all or part of our business is sold or restructured.

Our service providers may only use your information to provide services to us, and must keep it secure.

When you buy through a marketplace, that marketplace also uses your information under its own privacy policy.

5. International transfers

Some of our service providers, including Shopify and Meta, may store or process personal information outside the United Kingdom, for example in the European Economic Area, Canada or the United States.

Where this happens, we make sure appropriate protections are in place as required by UK law. These may include countries the UK recognises as providing adequate protection, the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, or approved contract terms such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum.

6. How long we keep information

We only keep personal information for as long as we need it. As a general guide:

• Orders, invoices and payment records: 6 years after the end of the financial year they relate to, to meet tax and accounting rules;
• trade account information: while the account is open, then 6 years after it closes;
• website accounts: until you ask us to close the account, subject to the Order records above;
• enquiries and correspondence not linked to an Order: up to 2 years;
• newsletter subscriptions: until you unsubscribe. We keep a record of the unsubscribe so we do not contact you again; and
• cookies: for the periods shown in Section 9.

We may keep information for longer where needed to deal with a complaint, legal claim or legal requirement.

7. Keeping information secure

We take appropriate technical and organisational steps to protect personal information from loss, misuse and unauthorised access. Our website and checkout are hosted by Shopify, which is certified to the PCI DSS standard for handling payment card data. Access to customer information within Opas is limited to people who need it for their work.

No method of sending information over the internet is completely secure, but we work hard to protect your information once we receive it.

8. Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

• access the personal information we hold about you;
• correct information that is wrong or incomplete;
• delete your information, in some circumstances;
• restrict how we use your information, in some circumstances;
• object to us using your information where we rely on legitimate interests, and to direct marketing at any time;
• data portability, which means receiving information you gave us in a commonly used electronic format, in some circumstances; and
• withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent. This does not affect anything we did before you withdrew it.

To use any of these rights, contact us at sales@opas.co.uk. We may need to confirm your identity first. We will normally respond within one month, and there is usually no charge.

Some rights have exceptions. For example, we may need to keep Order records to meet our legal obligations even if you ask us to delete them. If so, we will explain why.

9. Cookies

9.1 What cookies are

Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit a website. Similar technologies, such as pixels and local storage, work in a similar way. In this Privacy Policy, we call them all “cookies”.

9.2 How we use cookies

We use three types of cookie:

• Strictly necessary cookies make the website work, for example your basket, checkout, account login, security and remembering your cookie choices. They do not need your consent and cannot be switched off.
• Analytics cookies help us understand how visitors use the website so we can improve it. We only use them if you agree.
• Marketing cookies are used by Meta (Facebook and Instagram) to measure and improve our advertising, and may be used to show you Opas adverts on those platforms. We only use them if you agree.

When you first visit our website, a cookie banner asks whether you accept analytics and marketing cookies. Nothing other than strictly necessary cookies is used unless you agree.

9.3 Cookies we use

Our website runs on Shopify. The main cookies are listed below. Shopify may update cookie names from time to time. Its full, current list is available at shopify.com/legal/cookies.

9.4 Meta Pixel

If you accept marketing cookies, our website uses the Meta Pixel. It shares information about your visit with Meta, such as pages viewed, items added to your basket and completed purchases. It may include limited contact details from an Order (such as your email address), which are scrambled (“hashed”) before sending. Meta uses this to measure our adverts and help show them to relevant people. Meta’s own use of this information is covered by its privacy policy at facebook.com/privacy/policy.

9.5 Changing your cookie choices

You can change your mind at any time. Clear the cookies for our website in your browser settings and the cookie banner will appear again on your next visit. Most browsers also let you block or delete cookies. If you block strictly necessary cookies, parts of the website, such as the basket and checkout, will not work.

10. Children

Our website and services are not aimed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

11. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, for example if we change how we use personal information or the services we use. The latest version will always be on our website, with the date it was last updated at the top.

12. Contact us and complaints

If you have a question or concern about how we use your personal information, please contact us first so we can try to help:

Email: sales@opas.co.uk
Telephone: 01903 239955
Post: Opas (Southern) Ltd, 2 Station Road, West Oxted, Surrey RH8 9EP, United Kingdom

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK data protection regulator:

Website: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
Telephone: 0303 123 1113