UK Retail Websites - progress in making their websites accessible

09 Jun 2020 | Index | Accessibility

Adam Turner
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At Sitemorse we published our 2020 Q2 UK Retail 500INDEX this week. The INDEX has been published quarterly since 2010 and ranks the websites of over 350 UK Retailers, based on User Experience, Search Engine Optimisation and Governance, Risk and Compliance.

Our Q2 2020 INDEX was compiled following over 830 million tests checks and measures across over 2.5 million URLs.

Congratulations to Asda for taking first place. Also, congratulations are due to Oddbins for being the most improved, rising an impressive 301 place.

No retailers within the UK Retail 500 passed Level A and AA on all of their pages.

If we focus purely on Accessibility, Coop and Toymaster should be congratulated for taking the lead in this sector. Summarising accessibility scores we see that:

  • Only 2 retailer websites scored 7 or higher
  • 95% of retailers scored 4 or less
  • 65% actually scored zero

Comparing results with last quarter, 33 retailers improved their accessibility score from the last quarter, while 25 scored lower. 104 retailers failed all of the WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA tests on every single page, which is an increase of 5.

Making a website accessible comes under the Equalities Act 2000. We’ve already seen that in the US that lawsuits alleging web sites discriminating against people with disabilities are increasingly common and there is no reason that the UK won’t face the similar lawsuits.

Top ten websites

  1. Asda
  2. W Boyes & Co
  3. Roys (Wroxham)
  4. Greggs
  5. Coop Online
  6. Jane Shilton
  7. Squire's Garden Centres
  8. Paydens Chemists
  9. Fenwick
  10. Tuffins

Five Most improved websites

  • Oddbins
  • JH Haskins & Sons
  • Rohan Designs
  • Rowlands Pharmacy
  • Tripp Luggage (Greenwich Group)

The full 2020 Q2 UK Retail 500Websitesresults can be found here: Sitemorse UK Retail 500 INDEX