davedavies.dev March 11th Why site navigation needs to follow standard interaction patterns. Hi again 👋 Navigation is one of the most commercially important parts of any online store. If customers cannot browse categories easily, they never reach the product pages where the sale actually happens. And yet it’s surprisingly common to see navigation that looks polished, but breaks down the moment someone tries to use it without a mouse. This week’s video shows a good example of how that happens....
2 months ago • 2 min read
Hi again 👋 Research repeatedly shows that UK businesses collectively lose around £17.1 billion a year because shoppers hit accessibility barriers and abandon their purchase. That’s not a niche problem. It’s a huge sum of money. Roughly 1 in 5 people in the UK live with a disability. A significant percentage use assistive technology or need websites to behave clearly and predictably to complete a purchase. Even more rely on accessibility features, and would not necessarily identify as having a...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Hi again đź‘‹ Browser zoom is one of the most commonly used accessibility features on the web. It is relied on by older customers, people with reduced vision, and anyone who needs larger text to read comfortably, to name just a few. In other words, it is not a niche behaviour. It is a normal way people adapt websites so they can read and buy comfortably. When someone zooms the page, they are not just making things bigger. You are changing how the layout behaves. That is often where problems...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Hi again 👋 Most businesses use analytics tools on their store, and automated accessibility scanners to test their site. That’s good standard practice, and it’s exactly what I’d expect. But unless you're actively manually testing your product pages - there's a very good chance you're in the 94% of stores with accessibility barriers. This week: Here are four ways you can check your own store, for free, and without specialist tools. Try buying something using only the keyboard Put the mouse...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Hi again 👋 Last week's email looked at how AI wants to change how you shop - and why accessible product pages plays a large role in what gets surfaced. I had some good replies - particularly around one question: If accessibility helps AI agents understand our products, is this mainly about future-proofing? It’s a good question, but it slightly misses what’s actually going on. This isn’t really about the future, or what protocol or platform is going to dominate AI sales (Blackberry, anyone?)...
4 months ago • 1 min read
Hi again 👋 I’ve been reading a lot lately about how AI is starting to shape online shopping. Not in a hype-driven “AI will change everything” way, but in a much more practical everyday sense. If you follow even a little tech news, you’ll have noticed the biggest platforms are pushing beyond product recommendations, and starting to experiment with keeping the entire shopping experience in their apps. Amazon has already been experimenting with this (with mixed results), and companies like...
4 months ago • 1 min read
Hi again 👋 Imagine two coffee shops on the same street. They're both highly rated, sell great coffee, at the same prices, to the same people. One has steps at the entrance. The other doesn’t. If you use a wheelchair, there’s no decision to make. You go to the coffee shop you can actually get into. But that's not the end of the story. That coffee shop may have got the sale, but it's also the one you’ll go back to next time. And the one you’ll suggest when meeting family. And the one you’ll...
5 months ago • 1 min read
Hi again 👋 Someone replied to last week’s email with a fair question (shared with permission). “Does it really matter if some people can’t buy from you?” It’s a reasonable challenge, but I’ve never come across a business that intentionally excludes customers who are actively trying to buy. People don’t complete purchases for lots of reasons, every day. Maybe the price isn’t right, they are comparing options or they get distracted. But when a business has already spent time, effort, and money...
5 months ago • 1 min read
Hi again 👋 This week businesses are celebrating their record Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) week sales. But the number almost no one is talking about... is how much was lost because some customers simply couldn’t complete their purchase. Salesforce reports that shoppers spent roughly $336.6 billion online globally over BFCM this year. That is huge! However - based on the best research we have, around 12 percent of online spend is lost because customers with access needs hit barriers...
5 months ago • 1 min read