E-commerce Accessibility: How to Build an Inclusive Online Store

Online shopping is “easy” until you’re navigating with only a keyboard, relying on a screen reader, or needing higher contrast to read product details. Tiny UI decisions can then turn into significant barriers: a filter drawer that traps focus, unlabeled form fields, vague “Learn more” links, or error messages that don’t say what went wrong.

This guide breaks e-commerce accessibility into practical, high-impact fixes across the shopping journey (browse to product to cart to checkout), plus a workflow you can use to catch and ship accessibility improvements consistently.

TL;DR:

• Aim for WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA as your baseline accessibility standard – and treat it like product quality, not a one-time checkbox.
• Your biggest revenue leaks are usually keyboard navigation, low contrast, missing labels, and weak alt text on product images.
• Use both automated testing tools and manual testing (keyboard + assistive tech smoke tests) for real-world coverage.
• If you run multiple storefronts, brands, or markets, you need ongoing monitoring and a repeatable triage process to maintain accessibility over time.

E-commerce accessibility: what it is and why it’s necessary

E-commerce accessibility (or e-commerce website accessibility) means your online store can be browsed, understood, and purchased from by people using different assistive technologies – including screen reader users and people who rely solely on keyboard navigation.

There’s also the factor of changing legislation. From late June 2025, accessibility stopped being “nice to have” and became a legal requirement for many stores selling into the EU. Meanwhile, from April 2026, you must be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) if you're serving a population over 50,000, according to U.S. regulations.

The European Accessibility Act and the ADA regulations bring many private-sector e-commerce services into scope, meaning your core shopping journey (browse, product pages, cart, checkout) needs to meet accessibility requirements, and you may need to publish an accessibility statement with a clear way for customers to flag issues.

So, digital accessibility in plain terms is: the store serves users, not just devices.

The business impact is straightforward:

• Broader audience: You’re designing for a diverse audience, including people with visual impairments, mobility limitations, cognitive differences, and more.
• Customer satisfaction and retention: Fewer dead-ends in search, cart, and checkout means fewer abandoned sessions and more repeat customers.
• Fewer legal risks: Accessibility is often treated as a legal obligation (think ADA compliance and Americans with Disabilities Act expectations in the US, plus other accessibility requirements in different regions).
• Better UX and findability: Many accessibility features (clear structure, descriptive links, meaningful labels) also help usability and sometimes help search engines understand your pages.

E-commerce website accessibility: who it helps and what “accessible shopping” means

“Disability” isn’t one demographic. In e-commerce sites, you’re usually designing for three realities:

• Permanent: A shopper who is blind and uses a screen reader; a shopper with low vision who needs higher zoom and contrast; a shopper with limited dexterity who uses only a keyboard.
• Temporary: A broken wrist (no mouse), post-surgery motor limitations, eye strain.
• Situational: One-handed phone use, glare, a loud environment, low-quality display.

In practice, an accessible online store means shoppers can:

• Reach and operate interactive elements (menus, filters, carousels, size selectors, coupon fields) with keyboard, text-to-speech and assistive tech
• Understand page structure via headings and landmarks (critical for screen reader compatibility)
• Complete checkout even when forms are complex, dynamic, or localized across markets

Quick self-checks you can run today:

• Keyboard-only purchase: Can you browse, add to cart, apply a discount code, and pay without touching a mouse?
• Zoom to 200%: Is the layout still readable and usable without horizontal scrolling?
• Screen reader headings: Do headings and landmarks provide a logical flow, or is the page a flat wall of content?
• Promotion and cart test: Trigger a sitewide promo banner (or cookie modal), add an item to cart, then open the mini-cart and proceed to checkout using only a keyboard. Confirm focus doesn’t get lost behind overlays, and that any error messages (like invalid promo codes) are announced clearly for screen reader users.

Web accessibility e-commerce standards and compliance

Most teams use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines as the benchmark for web accessibility. WCAG is produced by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

A practical baseline is:

• Target WCAG 2.1/2.2 Level AA
• Build for consistency across templates (home, category, PDP, cart, checkout, account)

If you’re website isn’t accessible, you run the risk of a fine from a governing body (e.g., the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) or legal action. The cost even rises if you're found to repeatedly contravene the ADA, as you’ll get:

• A fine of up to a $75,000 penalty for the first violation
• Fines of up to $150,000 for each subsequent instance of violation.

Why WCAG 2.2 matters for e-commerce UX

WCAG 2.2 adds newer expectations around focus visibility, dragging alternatives, target sizes, consistent help, and accessible authentication (so shoppers aren’t blocked by “prove you’re human” patterns they can’t complete).

One more global note: the European Accessibility Act began applying on June 28, 2025, and can affect sellers serving EU customers. (Not legal advice – just a heads-up to talk to your counsel if you sell into the EU.)

The pros and cons of website accessibility

Still not convinced your website needs to be accessible? As you can see, the pros outweigh the cons:

The state of e-commerce accessibility: where stores fail

Here’s the reality: accessibility issues are still extremely common on modern digital platforms.

A few data points to ground this:

• WebAIM’s 2025 analysis of the top 1,000,000 home pages found an average of 51 detectable accessibility errors per page, and 94.8% of home pages had detected WCAG failures.
• The most common failures included low contrast text (79.1% of pages), missing alternative text (55.5%), missing form labels (48.2%), and empty links/buttons.

Here are some of the most common e-commerce website problems:

• Contrast that fails the minimum contrast ratio, making prices and CTAs hard to read
• Product galleries and interactive components that don’t work with keyboard or screen readers
• Checkout form fields with missing labels, unclear required fields, and unhelpful error states
• Links that aren’t descriptive link text (so screen reader users hear a list of “Learn more” with no context)

E-commerce site accessibility checklist: high-impact fixes across the shopping journey

This section is organized around the pages that drive revenue – and the accessibility barriers that block real transactions.

Navigation, search, and filters

Common failure mode: teams make the UI feel “slick,” but forget that many users can’t operate it.

Checklist:

A quick “only a keyboard” test:

1. Open the hamburger menu
2. Use search autocomplete
3. Apply a filter and remove it
4. Sort results

If any step requires a mouse, that’s a blocker.

Product listings and product detail pages

PDPs are where accessibility efforts either pay off or fall apart.

Checklist

Cart, checkout, and authentication

If your checkout isn’t accessible, nothing else matters, as this is the point at which your customers actually make a purchase.

Checklist:

‍

‍A Must-pass test: “keyboard-only checkout.” If someone can’t complete purchase with just their keyboard keys, you’ve got a conversion leak and an accessibility compliance risk.

For a more detailed review, use our ADA compliance checklist to make sure your site is accessible.

Designing accessible e-commerce components: POUR in practice

POUR, which stands for “Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust,” is the mental model that keeps accessibility solutions practical:

Perceivable: Can users perceive the content?

• Use sufficient contrast (meet the minimum contrast ratio)
• Don’t hide instructions in placeholder text
• Provide text alternatives for meaningful media
• Operable: Can users operate the UI?
  • Full keyboard support (no traps)
  • Clear focus indicators
  • Avoid interactions that require dragging without an alternative
• Understandable: Can users understand what’s happening?
  • Predictable navigation
  • Clear, human error messages
  • Consistent component behavior across templates
• Robust: Can assistive technologies interpret it?
  • Prefer semantic HTML first
  • Use ARIA only when needed
  • Keep a clean, consistent page structure

Mini “do this, not that” examples:

• Do: <button>Add to cart</button>
• Not that: clickable <div> with no role, no name, no keyboard support
• Do: visible label and hint text for “Phone number”
• Not that: placeholder-only labeling
• Do: “View order summary” link text
• Not that: “Click here”

Testing your store for accessibility: automated checks and real-world QA

Automation is necessary. It’s also incomplete.

Automated testing can catch a slice of issues fast (missing labels, contrast, broken ARIA patterns). But it won’t reliably tell you whether:

• A screen reader user can understand the product options
• A keyboard user can complete checkout without getting stuck
• Your dynamic content announcements make sense

That’s why the best programs combine:

• Automated tools, in CI and scheduled scans
• Manual testing, using repeatable scripts
• Assistive technology smoke tests, such as a screen reader and keyboard on key flows
• Occasional real world usability testing with disabled shoppers for valuable insights

A practical testing stack and cadence

Here’s a lightweight stack most e-commerce businesses can sustain:

Automated accessibility testing tools:

• CI scanning using an axe-style engine (common in dev workflows)
• Browser extension spot checks during QA
• Scheduled audits for key templates and journeys (home → category → PDP → cart → checkout)

Manual testing script (run on staging and production-like data):

1. Keyboard-only walkthrough of your core purchase journey
2. Screen reader spot check (headings, landmarks, form labels, buttons)
3. Zoom to 200% and reflow check
4. Contrast checks on key text and CTAs
5. Confirm focus indicators, modals, and dynamic updates behave

Cadence that works for multi-site organizations:

• Before launch: baseline scan and manual checkout script
• After major UI changes: full journey retest
• Monthly regression sweep: review top templates and top campaigns
• Ongoing monitoring: scheduled scans that catch regressions after deployments

Build an accessibility QA workflow with Marker.io

Most teams don’t struggle to find issues. They struggle to ship fixes consistently across fast-moving e-commerce sites.

Here’s a simple workflow you can adopt tomorrow:

1. Define “good” accessibility bug reports: steps to reproduce, expected vs. actual, impacted user group (e.g., screen reader users), and severity (blocker vs. annoyance).
2. Capture issues in context: annotate the UI, include the URL, page state, and what you interacted with.
3. Route issues into your backlog: ensure the ticket has the right fields for ownership and prioritization.
4. Retest and close the loop: verify fixes with the same keyboard and screen reader checks that found the bug.

Marker.io already supports capturing annotated screenshots and developer-ready context and sending it straight to tools like Jira, Trello, Asana, or GitHub, so teams can reproduce faster and reduce back-and-forth.

Coming soon: Marker.io is building an Accessibility Module designed to support automated accessibility testing as part of that same workflow – including scheduled audits, prioritized issues, and continuous monitoring across key user journeys. The goal is to detect common WCAG violations (like missing alt text, low contrast, broken keyboard navigation, and unlabeled inputs) and turn them into actionable tickets in your project management tool.

Collaborate to prevent regressions

Accessibility breaks in boring ways, but by collaborating across design, dev, and content teams you can prevent the following from impacting your site:

• Marketing swaps a hero image and forgets alt text
• A promo banner introduces low contrast
• A third-party app injects an inaccessible modal
• A redesign changes focus order on interactive elements

Here are some lightweight guardrails that will help to keep you compliant:

• A shared component library with accessibility rules baked in
• A definition of done that includes keyboard and screen reader smoke tests
• Accessibility notes in design files (focus order, error states, form labeling, etc.)
• A regression checklist for major UI releases
• A monitored feedback channel for assistive technology users

If you’re overwhelmed, prioritize your e-commerce accessibility in the following order:

1. Review checkout blockers first (forms, payments, errors, authentication)
2. Then check browse and product discovery (navigation, search, filters, PDP variants)
3. Then review the “nice-to-haves” (secondary flows, edge UI)

Accessibility KPIs you can actually track

Although you can definitely prioritize which pages and flows you review, you should always monitor the overall accessibility of your website. Here are some KPIs that you can use to help you stay compliant:

• The percentage of critical flows passing keyboard-only
• The percentage of high-severity issues open (and aging)
• Median time-to-fix for accessibility bugs
• Regression rate after releases
• Scheduled scan coverage across key templates (for multi-site teams)

This is how you turn accessibility requirements into an operating system, and how you prevent non-compliance creeping back in during busy release cycles.

Conclusion

Accessibility isn’t a “nice to have” for a select group of users; it’s product quality.

When you treat it that way, you provide better online shopping experiences, higher customer satisfaction, and fewer legal risks – and you build more resilient digital platforms that serve users in the real world.

Want to ship e-commerce accessibility fixes faster? Use Marker.io to capture accessibility issues with annotated screenshots and developer-ready context, then send them straight to your issue tracker for quicker fixes. And if you’re interested in automated accessibility testing tools that plug into your workflow, keep an eye out for Marker.io’s upcoming Accessibility Module.

E-commerce accessibility FAQs

What should I use to test keyboard navigation on storefronts?

Use:

• A repeatable “keyboard-only purchase” script (browse → filter → PDP → cart → checkout)
• Visible focus checks (ensure focus indicators are clear on every interactive element)
• Modal testing (filter drawers, size charts, sign-in prompts)
• Regression checks after releases (keyboard traps show up when UI changes fast)

The simplest rule: if you can’t buy something with only a keyboard, your storefront isn’t accessible.

What are the best tools for e-commerce accessibility audits?

A strong audit uses a mix of:

• Automated testing tools to find common WCAG failures at scale (contrast, labels, missing alt text, empty links/buttons)
• Accessibility testing tools for developers (CI checks, component-level checks)
• Manual testing to validate the shopping journey with only a keyboard and at least one screen reader
• Optional real-world usability testing with disabled shoppers for the “stuff tools can’t see”

If you’re running multiple brands/markets, prioritize tools that support ongoing monitoring, reporting, and workflow integration so issues don’t die in a spreadsheet.

What should global e-commerce accessibility tool features cover?

A useful checklist tool should cover:

• Template coverage (home, category, PDP, cart, checkout, account)
• Accessibility features that map to real UI patterns (dynamic content, interactive components, forms, error handling)
• WCAG mapping (so you can track your accessibility compliance efforts)
• Prioritization (start with the biggest blockers first – especially checkout)
• Recurring scans and ongoing monitoring so you can maintain accessibility over time

What are the best survey tools for accessibility feedback from shoppers?

Surveys won’t replace testing, but they’re a great “early warning system” for accessibility issues.

What works well:

• A short accessibility feedback link in your footer (“Accessibility feedback” with descriptive link text)
• Post-purchase survey question: “Did anything make checkout difficult to use?” (with an open text box)
• A lightweight on-site widget that lets shoppers report barriers (especially in checkout and account flows)
• A published accessibility statement with a contact path that’s actually monitored

This is how you catch problems that automated tools miss – and it signals sincere, ongoing accessibility efforts.