SHORT ANSWER
Work through the store the way a reviewer reads it, field by field. WooCommerce spreads product copy across titles, slugs, two description fields, categories, tags, attributes, image alt text, SEO meta, and cross-sell blocks, and a theme adds hero copy, sliders, and popups on top. A claim in any one of those surfaces is part of the presentation a processor or regulator sees.
This material is general educational information as of the “last reviewed” date. It is not legal advice and may not reflect later developments or facts specific to your business. Links are provided so readers can inspect the primary or official sources.
01 / WHY THE PLATFORM MATTERS
WooCommerce stores copy in more places than you can see at once
The general storefront checklist covers what a reviewer looks for. This guide is about where those things live in a WooCommerce install, because the platform scatters product text across many fields and a theme or page builder adds its own layer on top.
WooCommerce’s own product documentation frames setup as a set of decisions: which categories to use, what attributes variations need, and whether to allow reviews site-wide, per product, or not at all. Each of those decisions leaves text on the public site. The review question is whether that text describes a research reagent or an effect in a person.
Everything below is a recommended control. It describes where to look and what to record, not a rule that makes a store lawful or a processor willing.
02 / PRODUCT DATA
The product record has at least nine text surfaces
Open one product in the WordPress admin and count the places copy can sit. Each one renders somewhere on the public site, and each one is captured by a crawl.
- Product title: the name on the listing, the cart, and the order email. Outcome words and brand comparisons here travel everywhere.
- Permalink slug: often generated from an old title and never updated, so a renamed product can keep a URL that still names a result.
- Short description: shown beside the price on the product page, above the fold, and in some themes on category cards.
- Long description: the tab or block below the fold where benefit lists, dosing tables, and “studies show” paragraphs usually accumulate.
- Categories and tags: a category named for a goal (weight, recovery, sleep) labels every product inside it, and tags appear in tag clouds and archive pages.
- Attributes and variations: an attribute value like a dose or a “stack” name is rendered in dropdowns and variation tables.
- Image alt text and file names: indexed by search engines and captured with the page; injection imagery or before-and-after photos carry meaning even without a caption.
- SEO plugin meta title and description: set once, forgotten, and shown in search results; FDA has cited metatags as evidence of intended use in the RUO Clear corpus (2 letters).
- Upsells, cross-sells, and related-product blocks: a syringe or bacteriostatic water offered beside a peptide is a bundle whether or not you call it one.
03 / THEME AND PAGE BUILDER
Copy outside the product record
Themes and page builders store text in widgets, template parts, and reusable blocks that do not appear in the product list at all. A reviewer reads the rendered page, so these count the same as product copy.
- Homepage hero, sliders, and banners: the first sentence a visitor sees, and the one most likely to promise an outcome
- Header and footer text, including any tagline set in Site Identity
- Popups, announcement bars, and exit-intent overlays, which are easy to forget because they only fire once per visitor
- Reusable blocks and template parts reused across many pages; a fix in one place may not reach the others
- Category and shop page descriptions, which many themes render above the product grid
- Blog posts and “education” pages, which FDA cited in 8 letters in the corpus as evidence of intended use
A site-wide search of post content, widgets, and options for outcome terms (weight, fat, muscle, recovery, sleep, heal, inject, dose) finds copy a visual pass misses. Many installs have a search-and-replace tool already available to an administrator.
04 / REVIEWS AND RATINGS
Reviews are claims the store publishes
WooCommerce ships with product reviews on by default, and review plugins add star ratings, photos, and imported reviews from other platforms. Once a customer writes that a product helped them lose weight, that sentence is on your domain, under your product, with your rating widget around it.
FDA quoted customer testimonials as efficacy evidence in 7 letters in the RUO Clear corpus, and the FTC treats endorsements a seller displays as claims the seller is making. The decision WooCommerce’s documentation asks you to make, whether to allow reviews at all, is a claim-discipline decision.
- Decide whether reviews are on, per product or site-wide, and record the decision
- If reviews stay on, moderate before publishing and remove any that describe use in a person
- Check imported reviews from a review plugin the same way; the source does not change what the page says
- Look at star-rating schema the plugin emits; it can surface review text in search results
05 / CART AND CHECKOUT
Checkout fields, the terms checkbox, and what it records
WooCommerce supports a terms-and-conditions checkbox at checkout, in both the classic checkout and the Checkout Block. Many peptide stores use it as a research-use attestation. That is a legitimate control, with a narrow job: it records that the buyer assented to specific text at a specific time.
It does not change what the product page said, and it is only useful as a record if the record exists. Confirm what your install actually stores when the box is ticked: the version of the text shown, the time, and the order it attaches to. If the answer is “nothing beyond the order status,” the control is a checkbox, not a record.
- The terms text itself: accurate boundary language, no promises in either direction
- Checkout field labels and placeholder text, which can carry copy nobody reviews
- Order confirmation emails and thank-you page copy, which repeat product names and any custom message
- Quantity limits and account-required purchasing, if used, documented as controls
06 / POLICY PAGES
The pages a provider looks for
Processor applications and later reviews usually ask for the same set of public pages. Missing pages slow a review; pages that contradict the product copy do worse. WooCommerce creates some of these at install and leaves them as placeholders.
- Privacy policy, updated for any plugin that sends data off-site (WordPress can suggest text through its privacy API)
- Refund and returns policy, including what happens with a temperature-sensitive or opened product
- Shipping policy, with the countries you ship to and any you do not
- Terms of sale, consistent with the checkout checkbox text
- A contact page with a working address, email, and phone; providers and networks look for a reachable business
- About page copy, which often carries the oldest and least reviewed claims on the site
07 / EXPORT BEFORE YOU APPLY
What to export so you can show what changed
A review goes faster when you can show what the store said, what you changed, and when. WooCommerce and WordPress can both export enough to document that without any extra tooling.
- A product CSV export from WooCommerce, before and after edits, so title, slug, descriptions, categories, tags, and attributes are on record
- A list of published pages and posts with their URLs, so a reviewer can see the whole public surface
- The exact terms text shown at checkout and the date it went live
- Screenshots or captures of the homepage, a category page, one product page, cart, and checkout, dated
- A note of which plugins render public copy (SEO, reviews, popups, page builder), since each is a place copy can reappear after an update
The point of the export is the change history. Deleting the old copy without a record leaves you unable to show that a finding was fixed, which is the thing a later review asks about.
08 / WHAT THE CONNECTOR READS
What a RUO Clear WordPress connection would sync
RUO Clear’s WordPress connector is planned and not yet available for production installation. Its published design is a read-only scanning and inventory connection: it syncs products, variations, categories, tags, descriptions, media references, pages, posts, menus, and relevant configuration through public APIs and hooks, and emits signed change events so a scan can re-run when copy changes.
It does not read orders, customers, addresses, payment records, or authentication data. The install flow requires an authenticated administrator, a plain-language disclosure of exactly what leaves the site, and explicit consent before any request is made. Everything in this checklist is something you can do today without it; the connector’s job is to keep the inventory current afterward.
QUESTIONS
Related questions
If I fix the product pages, do I still need to check the theme?
Yes. A reviewer reads the rendered page, and a hero banner, popup, or footer tagline is on that page whether or not it lives in the product record. Themes and builders are where old outcome copy most often survives a cleanup.
Should I turn reviews off entirely?
That is a decision, not a rule. Reviews on means every published review is text on your domain that describes your product, and it needs the same review as your own copy. Reviews off removes that surface. Either way, record the decision and moderate anything that stays.
Does the checkout terms checkbox make the sale research-use?
No. It records that a buyer assented to specific text. FDA reads intended use from the whole presentation, and the FTC reads net impression the same way. The checkbox is a control worth keeping, with a record behind it, alongside product copy that says the same thing.
Will WooPayments process a peptide store once the checklist is done?
WooPayments’ published policy lists peptides and other research chemicals among prohibited products, and nothing on this checklist changes that policy. The checklist prepares the store for whatever gateway you apply to; each gateway’s own policy decides the rest.
SOURCES
Sources cited
Each source is listed with its class so government authority, agency guidance, enforcement examples, and private policy are never blended into one rule.
Lists “Peptides and other research chemicals” among prohibited products for the WooPayments gateway. Read September 3, 2026.
Frames product setup as decisions about categories, attributes, variations, and whether to allow reviews. Read September 3, 2026.
Net impression, clear and conspicuous disclosures, and endorsements a seller displays treated as the seller’s own claims.
Objective intent shown by labeling, advertising, written statements, and circumstances of distribution.