A small amount of text stored in the user's computer that is created by the website the user is visiting. By default, first-party cookies are allowed in every Web browser, although they may also allow third-party cookies. If first-party cookies were disabled, a merchant would not be able to identify a customer upon returning. A website could not track users' activities as they move from page to page. It would inhibit purchasing multiple products in the same session, because each time another item was added, the cart would treat it as a new order. See
cookie,
third-party cookie and
stateless.