Small Business Saturday 2025: Accessibility Lessons for Shopify and Small Online Stores
When the holiday shopping season begins, national chains and big retail brands dominate the conversation about Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Small online businesses also participate with their own discounts, deals, and shopping perks. To highlight these businesses and draw attention away from the enormous digital presence of big-box ecommerce, many people recognize the Saturday after Black Friday as Small Business Saturday.
Like many shoppers, I try to support at least one small business on this day. This year, I purchased holiday décor from a small online retailer to replace some broken items.
In this post, I walk through the stages of that shopping journey and describe what worked and what didn't from an accessibility perspective.
From what I have seen, accessibility on small online shopping sites is inconsistent. Sometimes the simplicity of a small business site makes it easier to support customers who rely on assistive technology. At other times, limited budgets and a lack of awareness lead to serious accessibility barriers that break essential parts of the experience for customers with disabilities.
Many of these small businesses run their storefronts on Shopify or Shopify Plus. The platform makes it easy to launch an online store, but it does not guarantee an accessible experience for people using screen readers or other assistive technologies. The issues I describe here are the same types of barriers I often encounter on small e-commerce sites, including sites that run on Shopify.
I hope this commentary helps web developers and small business owners who are new to accessibility and have begun reviewing a digital storefront for basic accessibility issues.
Healthy Homepage: A Simple Layout That Mostly Works
Because I had never used this site before, I started by exploring the homepage to understand the layout and structure. To my pleasant surprise, I found the page relatively easy to understand and navigate with a screen reader.
At the top of the page, a short text blurb described the current thirty percent discount. Below that, I encountered a set of product categories. Each category included an image and a text title that also served as a link. The structure here was easy to follow.
One detail stood out. The images included alternative text descriptions, but the text was an exact copy of the category titles. This approach is not technically correct, and it creates redundant speech for a screen reader. In this case, the duplication was a minor annoyance rather than a complete barrier.
I found the product category I needed and activated the link. The next page displayed a list of products. Each listing included an image, a text title, a price, and an unlabeled button announced only as “Button.” I suspected that this unlabeled button controlled the “Add to cart” function, but because it lacked an accessible name, I could not confirm that assumption with my screen reader. The same duplicated image text issue from the homepage appeared on this product listing page.
If you are working on a retail homepage and want more practical examples, we cover common issues and better patterns in this blog on retail homepage accessibility and the European Accessibility Act
Product Page Issues: Missing Text and Broken Details
Once I located one of the items I wanted, I activated the product to open its detail page. Several accessibility problems appeared immediately.
First, the main product image had no usable alternative text. Instead of a descriptive phrase, the image was announced as an arbitrary string that sounded like raw code. For a customer who relies on a screen reader, this removes an important source of product information.
Second, the “Add to cart” button on the product page was again completely unlabeled. I could guess its function based on its position on the page, but the lack of a proper accessible name is still a serious problem. Customers should not have to guess what a control does, especially when it affects a purchase.
The most frustrating issue appeared a bit farther down the page. I encountered three collapsed sections labeled Product Details, Specifications, and Shipping Information. I needed the information in these sections to confirm the electrical ratings and measurements before completing the purchase.
The sections were announced as “Collapsed,” so I activated the first option to expand the content. Nothing changed. I tried several more times with different activation methods, but the sections did not expand. The information inside these collapsed sections remained completely inaccessible.
This kind of failure is daunting for a customer who cannot see the screen. The product details are essential when someone makes a purchasing decision. With no way to verify the specifications, I had to rely on prior experience and the product titles. I added the three items I needed to the cart and moved on.
Cart Search: When the Cart Icon Becomes a Puzzle
With my items selected, I was ready to complete the purchase. I moved the focus to the top of the screen and searched for the site navigation. I found the navigation and began moving across it until I reached an element labeled “Icon, image.” I believe this was a decorative image of the company logo.
At that point, I ran into what felt like a keyboard trap. I could not advance focus past the unlabeled element. To try a different approach, I returned to the top of the page and set my screen reader to filter only buttons. That search did not reveal anything helpful.
Next, I repeated the process with links. The third option in the navigation sequence was a link announced only as “Three, link.” At first, I ignored it because that label did not make sense without visual context. After more unsuccessful attempts to locate the shopping cart, I returned to this mysterious link and activated it.
That guess finally worked. I landed on the cart page. The cart icon itself lacked an accessible label, but the small number indicating how many items are in the cart was recognized by the screen reader. As a result, the number three became my only way to reach the cart.
Once I reached the cart, the experience improved. The page content was clear and consistent, and I was happy to see that the site supported a third-party payment option. I used that option to avoid additional checkout issues and ensure this Small Business Saturday purchase succeeded.
What This Experience Means for Small Online Stores
From my perspective as a blind customer, none of these problems felt unusual. I encounter the same patterns on many small business sites, including stores that run on Shopify and similar platforms. The issues often come from common theme patterns and apps that were never tested with a screen reader.
Unlabeled cart icons, missing image descriptions, and collapsed sections that never open are basic accessibility defects. They do not require advanced accessibility expertise. They need clear expectations, careful attention to the way controls are labeled, and a willingness to test with assistive technology. When store owners listen to what a screen reader announces and move through each step with a keyboard, it becomes much easier to spot barriers.
f you want structured help identifying issues like these on your own ecommerce site, you can choose the accessibility demo that best fits your goals and walk through how an accessibility review surfaces the same types of barriers I encountered here.
Takeaways for Shopify and Small Online Retailers
If you manage a Shopify or Shopify Plus store and recognize some of these issues on your own site, this may be a valuable time to review your storefront for accessibility barriers before the next busy season. A simple site with a limited development budget can still support customers with disabilities when you address a few critical areas and test with assistive technology rather than assuming a theme or app handles accessibility correctly.
You can also explore web accessibility resources for Shopify to see how teams approach accessibility on the platform and how to create a better experience for customers who rely on assistive technology.
If you have not watched the October 2025 webinar, A Screen Reader Demo of Good vs Poor Accessibility, you can register to watch the full recording. Hearing Joe use his screen reader on real pages while you keep these issues in mind is a powerful way to understand what truly helps and what gets in the way for customers who depend on assistive technology.
This is a guest post from our marketing contributor, Michael Taylor. It reflects his opinions and experiences. Read more about Michael and some other posts on his experience online here.
