Guides

E-commerce Accessibility: Why It Impacts Your Sales

Alexander Xrayd

Accessibility Expert

Read time

5 min

Published

Nov 28, 2025

E-commerce is one of the areas most clearly covered by the EU's new accessibility directive. From June 2025, your webshop must meet WCAG 2.1 AA – or risk fines and market bans.

But the law shouldn't be the main reason to act. Inaccessible e-commerce costs you money every day. Customers who can't use your site buy elsewhere.

In this guide, we cover why accessibility is business-critical for e-commerce, which parts are most important to fix, and how to ensure your checkout works for everyone.

The business case for accessible e-commerce

Let's talk numbers:

Market reach:

•15-20% of the population has some disability

•Older users (65+) are a growing and affluent demographic

•Situational limitations (mobile in sunlight, multitasking) affect everyone

Lost revenue:

If 15% of visitors have difficulty using your site, and half of them leave – that's 7.5% lost sales. For a webshop with €1M in revenue, that's €75,000 per year.

Competitive advantage:

Many competitors still ignore accessibility. Being accessible is a differentiator. Reviews from satisfied users with disabilities spread in their networks.

Correlation with quality:

Accessible sites tend to be faster, better structured, and more mobile-friendly. That helps all users and SEO.

Accessibility is not a cost – it's missed revenue if you don't do it.

Legal requirements from 2025

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) comes into full force on June 28, 2025. For e-commerce, this means:

What's covered:

•The entire purchase journey – from product description to payment

•Login and account management

•Customer service (chat, forms)

•Mobile app if one exists

Technical standard:

WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the benchmark. Requirements for contrast, keyboard navigation, form labels, error handling, and more.

Sanctions:

•Warning with deadline

•Fines up to €10M or percentage of revenue

•Market ban – your site can be forced to close until issues are fixed

Enforcement:

National consumer protection authorities oversee compliance and can act on their own initiative or after complaints.

Critical areas to fix

Focus on the parts that affect the purchase journey most:

1. Product pages

•Images must have descriptive alt texts ('Blue cotton t-shirt, size M' – not just 'Product image')

•Price information must be accessible, not just visually marked

•Size and color selectors must work with keyboard

2. Search and filters

•Search results should be navigable

•Filter changes should be announced to screen readers

•Active filters should be visible and removable

3. Shopping cart

•Changes (add, remove, update quantity) should be confirmed

•Total should update clearly

•Button to checkout must be clear and keyboard accessible

4. Account creation and login

•Form fields must have labels

•Password requirements should be clearly explained

•Error messages should point to specific field

•Alternative login methods (OAuth, etc.) help

Accessible checkout

Checkout is where money is made or lost. An inaccessible checkout is catastrophic.

Form design:

•Every field should have a visible label (not just placeholder)

•Use correct input types (email, tel) for right keyboard on mobile

•Group related fields (shipping address, payment) with fieldset

•Mark required fields clearly and explain what * means

Error handling:

•Show errors inline at the field, not just at top

•Describe how to fix the error ('Enter email as name@domain.com')

•Move focus to first error after submit

•Preserve entered data on error

Payment:

•Third-party payments (Klarna, Stripe) often have their own accessibility issues – test them

•Allow copying of card numbers (password managers)

•Confirm successful payment clearly

Order confirmation:

•Focus should land on confirmation message

•Order details should be readable, not just in image

A study showed 72% of users with disabilities abandoned checkout due to accessibility issues. Every fix increases your conversion.

ROI on accessibility

Investment in accessibility pays off in multiple ways:

Direct gains:

•Increased conversion (20-30% reported in studies)

•Larger audience (15% of population)

•Reduced customer service tickets (users help themselves)

Risk reduction:

•Avoid fines (up to €10M)

•Avoid market ban

•Protect brand from negative PR

Indirect benefits:

•Better SEO (structured, accessible code ranks better)

•Faster site (optimization helps everyone)

•Better codebase (cleaner, more maintainable)

Example calculation:

A webshop with €1M revenue that increases conversion by 10% through accessibility improvements earns €100K extra per year. Initial investment of €20-50K pays back in under a year.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Do accessibility requirements apply to all webshops?+

From June 2025, the EU's European Accessibility Act applies to e-commerce selling to consumers. Micro-enterprises (under 10 employees and under €2M revenue) are exempt, but it's still good practice to be accessible.

Does inaccessibility affect conversion rate?+

Yes, significantly. Studies show accessibility improvements can increase conversion by 20-30%, because they often improve user experience for everyone – not just people with disabilities.