WooCommerce should be an E-CMSS

WordPress is widely considered a CMS — a content management system. Clean, simple, makes sense.
But what exactly is WooCommerce then?

At Checkout Summit 2026, I asked James Kemp a straightforward question: “Why don’t we have a VAT number field in WooCommerce core?”

There is a company name field. So a customer fills in their company name and half a second later they’re desperately hunting for a VAT number field that simply doesn’t exist. Brilliant.

James’s answer: “We’re working on it, but VAT verification differs between Europe and the US.”

And there it is. Verifying VAT numbers is a service. Standardizing data points is Core’s job. Sure, you can code a VAT field yourself in five minutes via a snippet or plugin. But you shouldn’t have to.

Then Peppol showed up — European legislation pushing all B2B transactions through a tracking system with one unique identifier at its core. Go on, guess which one. The VAT number!

The lack of data standardization suddenly became a very real headache for connecting WooCommerce to Peppol intermediaries and invoicing tools. Some tools handed over a list of 20 accepted VAT field names. Got a different one? Figure it out yourself, mate.

You’d think WooCommerce would have learned from the EAN field debacle — arriving fashionably late while Google Shopping was already massive. So everyone just used the SKU field instead. At least product feeds are more flexible than Peppol.

E-CMSS = Ecommerce Content Management Standardized System

WooCommerce should be an E-CMSS — an ecommerce standardized data system. Catchy, right?

WooCommerce should standardize every important possible data point.

Imagine every popular tool connecting to WooCommerce effortlessly OUT OF THE BOX. Every plugin builder working from the same standardized data points. Less chaos, more commerce. This was basically the idea behind “More in Core” — but honestly, E-CMSS sells it better.

WooCommerce isn’t an island.
The more data standardization, the better it plays with others.

What’s striking is how many of these missing data points sit on the B2B side. Smaller market than B2C, sure — but bigger transactions and higher conversion rates. Opportunity knocking for Woo, especially since payments is the main income source for them. (hint hint)

A few obvious wins that could live in core — deactivated by default, ready when needed:

• VAT number field at checkout
• PO number at checkout
• B2B wholesale price + sales price

Let plugin builders build on top of those foundations. That’s where the ecosystem gets interesting. And you probably have other data points for products and orders that could also be standardized in WooCommerce. Let us know!