WooCommerce captures email, name, phone, and address on every order—complete customer identification that works regardless of cookie status. While the marketing world obsesses over cookie deprecation, WooCommerce store owners already have four identification methods that most never think about.

The cookie debate misses something fundamental: ecommerce checkout provides deterministic customer identification that beats probabilistic cookie matching every time. Here’s what you actually have and how to use it.

The Four User Identification Methods in WooCommerce#

Every WooCommerce store has access to these identification methods right now. Most owners only use one—cookies—while ignoring three more reliable alternatives.

Method 1: First-Party Cookies

First-party cookies set by your own domain still work in all browsers. The death of cookies is about third-party cookies—tracking pixels from Facebook, Google, and other external domains. Your own cookies remain functional.

Safari’s 7-day limit applies only to JavaScript-set cookies. Cookies set via HTTP Set-Cookie header from your server can persist up to 400 days in Chrome and 13 months with proper server-side implementation in Safari.

The key distinction: cookies set from your server on a first-party domain bypass most browser restrictions that kill client-side tracking cookies.

You may be interested in: First-Party Cookie Countdown 2026: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly for WordPress Store Owners

Method 2: WordPress User IDs

Every registered user in WordPress receives a unique, permanent identifier. This ID exists independently of any cookie—it’s stored in your database and persists forever as long as the account exists.

WordPress user ID provides cross-session, cross-device identification for logged-in customers without relying on cookies at all.

According to MonsterInsights documentation: “If a customer finds your website on mobile but comes back on desktop, User ID tracking can track that as one user across browsers.” This is more accurate than cookie-based client IDs because it’s tied to the actual customer account.

GA4 uses User ID tracking to recognize the same customer across devices when logged in—making it the gold standard for known customer attribution.

Method 3: Email Hash Identification

Here’s what the cookie panic overlooks: when someone completes a purchase, you collect their email address. That email—hashed with SHA-256—is accepted directly by ad platforms for conversion matching.

Facebook CAPI and Google Enhanced Conversions accept hashed email addresses directly. No cookie required for conversion matching.

The email is collected at checkout, so identification happens through deterministic customer data rather than probabilistic cookie matching. This method works for guest checkout too—no account creation necessary.

Server-side tracking solutions hash the email on your server and send it to ad platforms through their conversion APIs. The platform matches the hash against their user database and attributes the conversion—completely independent of any browser-based tracking.

You may be interested in: Universal IDs and Hashed Emails: The Cookie Alternatives Big Ad Tech Uses

Method 4: Complete Order Data

WooCommerce order objects contain a wealth of customer identification data beyond email. According to Users Insights documentation: “Once you have access to the WooCommerce order object you can get many customer details including email, phone, names, addresses, and user ID.”

This includes:

• Email address: Primary identifier for conversion matching
• Phone number: Secondary identifier accepted by Facebook CAPI and Google Enhanced Conversions
• Name (first and last): Additional matching signal for ad platforms
• Billing address: Geographic and identity verification data
• Shipping address: Additional location data for enhanced matching

WooCommerce stores have email, name, phone, and address on every order—complete customer identification without cookies.

For guest checkout, all this data is still collected at purchase. For registered customers, it’s linked to their permanent WordPress user ID. Either way, you have deterministic identification that requires no browser-based tracking.

Why Deterministic Data Beats Cookie Matching#

Cookie-based tracking is probabilistic. It guesses that the person with cookie ID abc123 is probably the same person who clicked the ad. When cookies get blocked, expire, or reset, that guess fails.

Order data is deterministic. The person who entered email address dummy-to-hell@gotohell.com at checkout is definitively the same person associated with that email in Facebook’s or Google’s user database. No guessing required.

31.5% of users globally run ad blockers that break cookie-based tracking. Order-based identification works for 100% of completed purchases.

This is why ad platforms built their Conversions APIs in the first place. They know cookies are unreliable. They want the deterministic data that ecommerce checkout naturally collects.

Using All Four Methods Together#

The smartest approach isn’t choosing one identification method—it’s using all four in a hierarchy:

1. First-party cookies for session tracking and returning visitor recognition
2. WordPress user ID when customers are logged in
3. Email hash when customers complete checkout (regardless of login status)
4. Complete order data for maximum matching accuracy with ad platforms

When cookies work, use them. When they don’t, fall back to authenticated data. When the customer completes a purchase, send deterministic order data to ad platforms through their server-side APIs.

Redundant identification means no single point of failure. The cookie crisis becomes a non-issue.

How Server-Side Tracking Uses All Four Methods#

Transmute Engine™ is a first-party Node.js server that runs on your subdomain (e.g., data.yourstore.com) and uses all four identification methods automatically. The inPIPE WordPress plugin captures events and order data, sending them via API to your Transmute Engine server—which formats, hashes, and routes them simultaneously to GA4, Facebook CAPI, Google Enhanced Conversions, and BigQuery.

First-party cookies when available. WordPress user IDs for logged-in customers. Hashed order data for conversion matching. Complete coverage without dependence on any single method.

Key Takeaways#

• WooCommerce stores have four user identification methods: first-party cookies, WordPress user IDs, email hashes, and complete order data
• First-party cookies still work: The 7-day Safari limit applies only to JavaScript-set cookies, not server-set first-party cookies
• Email hashes don’t require cookies: Facebook CAPI and Google Enhanced Conversions accept hashed emails directly for conversion matching
• Order data is deterministic: Customer information collected at checkout beats probabilistic cookie matching for attribution accuracy
• Using all four methods together eliminates single points of failure in your tracking infrastructure

Stop worrying about cookies alone. Explore how first-party tracking captures all four identification methods.