At The Smiling Willow, we believe in the magic of handmade pottery and the importance of your privacy. This policy outlines how we collect, use, and protect your personal information when you visit our website, www.thesmilingwillow.com.

What Information We Collect

When you interact with The Smiling Willow website, we may collect the following types of information:

Personal Identification Information: This includes your name, email address, shipping address, billing address, and phone number when you make a purchase or sign up for our newsletter.

Payment Information: We collect payment details (like credit card numbers) to process your orders. Please note that we do not store sensitive payment information on our servers; it is securely processed by our third-party payment processors.

Browse Information: We automatically collect certain information about your device and how you interact with our website. This includes your IP address, browser type, operating system, referring URLs, pages viewed, and the dates/times of your visits. This helps us understand how our site is used and improve your experience.

How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for various magical purposes, including:

Fulfilling Your Orders: To process your purchases, ship your beautiful pottery, and communicate with you about your order status.

Improving Your Experience: To personalize your shopping experience, understand your preferences, and show you products that might spark your interest.

Communication: To send you order confirmations, shipping updates, and, if you've opted in, our newsletter with news from The Smiling Willow, special offers, and new product announcements.

Website Analytics: To analyze website traffic, understand user behavior, and improve the functionality and content of our website.

Security and Fraud Prevention: To protect our website and customers from fraudulent transactions and other unlawful activities.

How We Share Your Information

We value your trust and will not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer your personal identification information to outside parties without your consent, except in the following limited circumstances:

Service Providers: We may share your information with trusted third-party service providers who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or serving you (e.g., payment processors, shipping companies, email marketing services). These parties are bound by confidentiality agreements and are only permitted to use your information for the specific services they provide to us.

Legal Requirements: We may disclose your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others' rights, property, or safety.

Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Like many websites, The Smiling Willow uses "cookies" and similar tracking technologies to enhance your experience. Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer's hard drive through your web browser (if you allow) that enables the site's or service provider's systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information.

We use cookies to:

Help remember and process the items in your shopping cart.

Understand and save your preferences for future visits.

Compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future.

You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies through your browser settings. If you turn cookies off, some features of our website may not function properly.

Your Choices and Rights

You have certain rights regarding your personal information:

Access and Correction: You can request to access or correct any personal information we hold about you.

Opt-Out: You can opt-out of receiving marketing emails from us by following the unsubscribe instructions included in each email.

Data Deletion: You may request that we delete your personal information, subject to certain legal obligations.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the information provided below.

Data Security

We implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your personal information when you place an order or enter, submit, or access your personal information. We use secure servers and encryption technology (SSL) to protect your sensitive data.

Third-Party Links

Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include or offer third-party products or services on our website. These third-party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about these sites.

Children's Privacy

The Smiling Willow website is not intended for children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us, and we will take steps to remove that information.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. Any changes will be posted on this page, and the "last updated" date at the bottom will be revised. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

Contacting Us

If you have any questions regarding this privacy policy, you may contact us using the information below:

The Smiling Willow