How to fix missing dmarc on WooCommerce

Steps for WooCommerce

1. WooCommerce runs on WordPress hosted on your own server — DNS is managed at your domain registrar or hosting provider (e.g. GoDaddy, Namecheap, SiteGround, WP Engine, Cloudflare).
2. Log into your domain registrar or DNS provider's control panel. Navigate to DNS Management / DNS Zone Editor.
3. Add a new TXT record: Name/Host = '_dmarc', TTL = 3600 (or default), Value = v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc@yourdomain.com
4. WooCommerce stores typically send email via WordPress (wp_mail using PHPMailer) or a plugin like WP Mail SMTP. In your WordPress admin, go to the WP Mail SMTP plugin → Settings and ensure you are sending via an authenticated SMTP provider (e.g. SendGrid, Mailgun, Amazon SES) with SPF and DKIM set up for your domain — this is required for DMARC alignment.
5. Install a free plugin like 'Check Email' (WP Mail SMTP) to send a test email and verify headers show DKIM and SPF passing before escalating DMARC to p=quarantine or p=reject.

; DNS TXT record — hostname: _dmarc.yourdomain.com
; Phase 1 – monitoring only (safe starting point)
v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc@yourdomain.com

; Phase 2 – enforcement (after confirming all legitimate mail passes)
v=DMARC1; p=quarantine; rua=mailto:dmarc@yourdomain.com; pct=100

; Phase 3 – strictest (recommended long-term goal)
v=DMARC1; p=reject; rua=mailto:dmarc@yourdomain.com; pct=100

What is missing dmarc?

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) is a free email authentication standard you publish as a DNS record. It tells the world's email providers — Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and others — what to do when someone sends an email that pretends to be from your domain but fails authentication checks. Without a DMARC record, anyone can forge your store's "From" address and send convincing phishing or spam emails that appear to come from you. The record lives at a specific DNS address (_dmarc.yourdomain.com) and takes effect within 24–48 hours of being added.

Without DMARC, criminals can send emails that look exactly like they came from your store — order confirmations, password resets, or fake promotions — tricking your customers into handing over payment details or passwords. This directly damages customer trust, can result in your domain being blacklisted by mail providers (destroying your legitimate email deliverability), and exposes you to legal and reputational liability under consumer-protection and data-privacy laws. OWASP classifies this as a Security Misconfiguration (A05:2021) — one of the most common and impactful categories of web security failures. Fixing it is free and takes under 30 minutes yet closes a major attack vector immediately.

See the complete Missing dmarc guide for every platform and the full background.