November 28, 2025
Accessibility Is the Biggest Conversion Problem Costing Europe Millions
Europe’s online retail sector has a conversion problem few brands want to talk about.
The real issue sits much earlier in the website journey: most e-commerce sites still can’t be used properly by the people who rely on assistive technologies. That failure carries a financial, legal, and reputational price tag.
A new study from the Contentsquare Foundation examined the 50 most visited e-commerce sites across five major European markets and found that 94% of online shopping journeys remain inaccessible. This is happening at the exact moment the European Accessibility Act comes into force, making accessible purchase and payment paths a legal requirement for any business operating in the EU.
That gap leaves tens of millions of Europeans locked out of everyday transactions. It also leaves retailers with a drain on sales. If a customer cannot browse products, fill in a form, or reach the “place order” button, the purchase doesn’t happen, no matter how strong the brand, the offer, or the marketing spend behind it.
Where Journeys Fall Apart
The audit reveals that exclusion begins at the very start of the journey. Product listing and product detail pages, which are the gateway to any purchase, are the weakest performers, scoring just 3.6 and 3.4 out of 10 on accessibility criteria. Low contrast text, missing descriptions, and broken screen-reader labels make core information unreadable or invisible.
Forms, which should be routine, are often worse. Almost 70% fail because labels are missing, autofill is disabled, or error messages don’t appear in a usable way. This is where many shoppers already end their journey.
Payment pages fare slightly better but still fall short of what the law now demands. A third of payment flows rely on colour alone to show errors, instantly excluding colourblind users, while more than half use text that blends into the background.
A Risk that Compounds
What makes the findings more significant is the scale of the impact. Europe’s online shopping market is heavily reliant on returning visitors, and conversion rates rarely rise above 3%. Every blocked journey therefore removes a sizeable share of potential sales. The Contentsquare Foundation estimates that the financial impact runs into the millions each year, entirely preventable losses.
Alongside lost revenue, companies also face the added weight of regulation. The EAA requires accessible journeys as standard. Failure to comply can trigger fines, collective legal action, and exclusion from public tenders. Public perception is changing as well, since inaccessibility is increasingly seen as a design choice rather than an oversight.
Why the Problem Persists
Most accessibility failures begin in the code, not the visual design. Buttons without labels, input fields that assistive tools can’t read, and pop-ups that trap users all stem from structural issues built into the page long before launch. These problems don’t show up in glossy redesigns, yet they dictate whether someone can complete even a basic task.
Screen-reader compatibility fails on 75% of audited sites. Keyboard navigation breaks on more than 40%. These block entire customer segments from completing transactions.
However, more websites are publishing accessibility statements, and those that do tend to score better overall. A few global marketplaces, mostly US–based, show what fully accessible journeys can look like in practice, scoring close to nine out of ten. Their example demonstrates that scale and accessibility can coexist.
Accessibility has become a central conversion issue, a regulatory obligation, and a test of brand credibility. As more customers expect inclusive design by default, inaccessible sites will become irrelevant.
