New Contentsquare Foundation Report Reveals 94% of Ecommerce Sites Have Inaccessible Checkout Journeys

Paris, November 19, 2025 – The Contentsquare Foundation, an organization dedicated to promoting digital accessibility and online inclusion, released its new Ecommerce Accessibility: 2025 Readiness Snapshot report.

As the European Accessibility Act (EAA) takes full effect, making accessibility a legal requirement for online commerce, this new report provides a critical reality check for the industry. The findings are stark: despite the new regulations, the vast majority of online shopping experiences remain inaccessible to millions of users.

To assess the sector's readiness, the Foundation audited 250 pages across the most visited ecommerce websites in 5 key European markets: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK. The audit focused on the end-to-end shopping journey—from product discovery to payment—evaluating each step against 15 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 criteria.

Key findings: a sector unprepared

The report highlights a massive gap between legal requirements and on-site reality. Among the key insights:

• 94% of ecommerce sites have inaccessible checkout journeys: the vast majority of sites scored below 7.5/10 on accessibility criteria, meaning most users with disabilities face significant barriers when trying to buy online.

• Zero countries are EAA-ready: not a single European market achieved even 50% compliance across the audited sites. Germany led slightly with a score of 4.7/10, while Italy trailed at 3.0/10.

• The "invisible" checkout: the most common technical failure is "invisibility." 84% of checkout pages failed to properly label buttons and form fields (criterion 4.1.2 name, role, value). This renders them functionally invisible to screen readers—users might hear "button" instead of "Place Order," making it impossible to complete a purchase.

• Barriers start early: surprisingly, the weakest links in the consumer journey aren’t checkout pages, but Product Pages (scoring just 3.5/10 on average). This means many users are blocked before they can even add an item to their cart.

The business and legal reality

With the EAA now in force, digital inaccessibility is no longer just an ethical oversight; it is a direct business risk.

The report outlines a "triple threat" for non-compliant businesses:

1. Financial: inaccessible journeys lead directly to abandoned carts and lost revenue from the 27% of EU adults living with a disability.

2. Legal: non-compliance now carries the risk of sanctions and fines under EU law.

3. Reputational: in an era of corporate responsibility, excluding millions of consumers damages brand trust.

"If users can’t complete a purchase, companies can’t make the sale. Behind digital accessibility lies not only a human imperative of inclusion, but also one of economic performance. Digital exclusion isn’t a marginal bug: it is a major barrier to growth and confidence."

Marion Ranvier,

Executive Director of the Contentsquare Foundation

Universal barriers need universal solutions

While the data is alarming, the report also finds that the barriers are systemic and universal across all markets—which means the solutions are, too.

Simple fixes can have a massive impact. For instance, ensuring form fields have visible labels and error messages are text-based (not just color-coded) can resolve 68% of form-related failures. Similarly, adding "alt text" to product images and proper labels to buttons can immediately make the experience more accessible to assistive technology users.

The report also notes a positive trend: websites that published an accessibility statement scored, on average, 8 points higher than those that did not, suggesting that governance and transparency drive better results.

Methodology

The 2025 Ecommerce Accessibility Snapshot analyzed 250 pages from the 50 most visited ecommerce websites across France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK, as well as major global marketplaces. The audit evaluated five key stages of the user journey (Product Listing Page, Product Detail Page, Cart, Delivery, Payment) against 15 WCAG 2.2 criteria grouped by user impact (Screen Reader Compatibility, Forms, Keyboard Navigation, and Visual Accessibility).