Privacy Policy

1. Data Controller

Mercia Research Limited
Company Number: 17189709
Registered Office: 5th Floor, 167–169 Great Portland Street, London W1W 5PF, United Kingdom
Email: info@merciaresearch.com

2. Personal Data We Collect

Depending on how you interact with the Website, we may collect:

• Identity Information: Full name, billing name
• Contact Information: Email address, telephone number, billing and delivery address
• Order Information: Products purchased, order history, transaction references, delivery information
• Technical Information: IP address, browser type and version, device information, operating system, referring website, website usage information
• Analytics and Advertising Information: pages viewed, how you arrived at the Website (including advertising campaign details and click identifiers), actions such as adding a product to your cart, and identifiers set by cookies and similar technologies where you have accepted them. See section 7.
• Marketing Information: Marketing preferences, newsletter subscription status, communication preferences
• Correspondence Information: Customer support enquiries, emails, contact form submissions, feedback and reviews

We do not intentionally collect special category personal data.

3. How We Use Personal Data

• Order Fulfilment: Processing orders, arranging delivery, providing customer support, managing returns and refunds
• Website Administration: Maintaining Website functionality, troubleshooting, preventing abuse and fraud, improving performance
• Analytics and Advertising Measurement: Understanding how the Website is used and measuring which of our adverts lead to visits and orders, as described in section 7
• Marketing Communications: Where you have provided consent, we may send newsletters, product updates, and educational content. You may unsubscribe at any time.
• Legal and Regulatory Compliance: Complying with legal obligations, maintaining accounting records, preventing fraud, responding to lawful requests from authorities

4. Lawful Bases for Processing

• Contract - to fulfil your order and provide requested services.
• Legal Obligation - to keep commercial records for the period required by HMRC and other UK statutes.
• Legitimate Interests - to operate the Website, improve services, maintain security, and prevent misuse.
• Consent - for the newsletter subscription, and for optional cookies and similar technologies (analytics and advertising). You may withdraw consent at any time, using Cookie settings in the footer of the Website for cookies.

5. Marketing Communications

If you subscribe to receive marketing communications, we may send information regarding company updates, new products, research and educational content, and promotions. Marketing communications will only be sent where permitted by law. You may unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in marketing emails or contacting us directly.

6. Sharing Personal Data

We do not sell personal data. We may share personal data with trusted service providers where necessary:

• Payment provider (Invco) - to process card payments securely
• Delivery providers (Royal Mail) - to fulfil and deliver orders
• Website and hosting providers (including Railway) - to operate and secure the Website
• Email marketing provider (Email Octopus) - to send newsletters and order-related emails where you have subscribed
• Internal messaging services (Telegram) - to notify our team of new orders
• Analytics and advertising providers, as described in section 7
• Professional advisers - including accountants, legal advisers, insurers, and compliance consultants
• Regulatory authorities - where disclosure is required by law

Where a processor is outside the UK, we ensure transfers are covered by adequacy regulations or the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

7. Analytics and Advertising Measurement

Analytics. Where you accept optional cookies, we use PostHog (hosted in the European Union), Microsoft Clarity and Google Analytics to understand how visitors use the Website. These may collect pages viewed, how you arrived at the Website, session duration, interactions with pages, device and browser information, and approximate location. PostHog is configured so that it does not record clicks, keystrokes or the contents of forms, and does not build profiles of individual visitors.

Advertising measurement. We advertise on third-party platforms. Where you accept optional cookies, the Meta Pixel, the TikTok Pixel, Google Ads conversion tracking, the Taboola Pixel and a visitor-identification service (Leadpipe) run on the Website so that we can measure which adverts lead to visits and orders and show our adverts to relevant audiences. The platforms may also use this information for their own purposes under their own privacy policies.

Information sent from our servers. Separately from cookies, when you place an order we send details of the purchase (such as the order reference, value and products) to Meta, TikTok and Google so that they can match it to an advertisement you may have seen and so that we can measure our advertising. To allow matching, this may include your email address, telephone number, IP address and browser type. This is done when an order is placed and does not depend on cookies. You can object to it at any time by contacting us at info@merciaresearch.com.

You can control optional cookies and similar technologies using Cookie settings in the footer of the Website. See our Cookie Policy for details.

8. Data Retention

• Order records: 6 years from the date of the order, to meet UK accounting/HMRC requirements.
• Contact-form messages: 24 months from receipt, then deleted.
• Newsletter subscriptions: until you unsubscribe.
• Server logs: 30 days for security-monitoring purposes.

9. Data Security

We implement reasonable technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal data against unauthorised access, disclosure, loss, misuse, alteration, or destruction. Despite our efforts, no system is completely secure; please notify us immediately at info@merciaresearch.com if you suspect a breach.

10. Your Rights Under UK GDPR

• Right of access - request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Right to rectification - ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information
• Right to erasure - ask us to delete your data subject to legal retention requirements
• Right to restrict or object to processing
• Right to data portability - receive your data in a machine-readable format
• Right to withdraw consent (e.g. from the newsletter or optional cookies) at any time
• Right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk

To exercise any right, email orders@merciaresearch.com from the email address associated with your record. We will respond within one calendar month.

11. Complaints

If you have concerns about how we handle personal data, we encourage you to contact us first. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or telephone 0303 123 1113.

12. International Data Transfers

Some service providers used by Mercia Research may process data outside the United Kingdom, including our advertising and analytics providers and our hosting provider. PostHog data is hosted in the European Union. Where personal data is transferred internationally, we will take appropriate measures designed to ensure an adequate level of protection in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

13. Cookies

We use strictly necessary cookies and browser storage to run the Website: a secure session cookie when you sign in to your customer account (or, for our team, the admin area), and browser storage that keeps your shopping cart, your age and terms confirmation, and your cookie choice. We set analytics and advertising cookies and similar technologies only if you accept optional cookies, and you can change your choice at any time using Cookie settings in the footer. Please see our Cookie Policy for full details.

14. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top of the page records when changes were made. Material changes will be highlighted at the top of the page for at least 30 days.

15. Contact

For any privacy enquiry email info@merciaresearch.com or write to us at: Mercia Research Limited, 5th Floor, 167–169 Great Portland Street, London W1W 5PF, United Kingdom.