Drop in sessions after changing cookie consent banner

Topic summary

Multiple Shopify store owners report a significant drop in visitor and session counts (around 40%) after switching from Ultimate GDPR EU Cookie Bar to Pandectes cookie consent banner to implement Google Consent Mode V2.

Key findings:

  • Initial investigation suggested the old app may have been duplicating session counts
  • One user discovered that clicking the “X” (close button) instead of accepting/declining cookies resulted in sessions not being recorded
  • Removing the “X” option temporarily restored traffic levels to normal

Ongoing concerns:

  • The traffic increase after removing the “X” appears largely as “unattributed” or “unassigned” traffic in Shopify and Google Analytics
  • This unassigned traffic shows near 100% bounce rates, suggesting potential bot activity
  • Store owners now face uncertainty about data accuracy and year-over-year comparisons

Current status:
The issue remains unresolved with conflicting data quality concerns. One participant mentions switching to Ketch as an alternative solution with better results.

Summarized with AI on October 27. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.

I have done some further digging and it seems that if you now click the x and not dismiss or accept then nothing is recorded. I have removed the x so that one has to be selected and will see if that makes a difference.