In this month’s Retail Insight, Jonathan Hassell, CEO at Hassell Inclusion spends sometime discussing how digital accessibility is something that the retail industry should embrace.
The ongoing cost-of-living crisis, along with rising inflation, supply chain issues and high energy bills, means that the UK’s high streets are facing increasingly challenging times. With many businesses struggling to recover to pre-Covid levels of footfall, having a well-functioning digital estate is more important than ever.
In fact, figures from Statista show that in the UK over 80 per cent of the population are digital buyers. Online shopping will only continue to grow, with the analyst predicting that 9 in 10 of the country’s consumers will be buying products online by 2025.
Against this backdrop, it would be sensible to assume that a retailer’s digital products – websites, apps and other marketing and communications channels – are fully accessible to all.
However, while many retailers are getting digital accessibility right, there are still a significant number that aren’t. Our recent research report, ‘An Immature Response? Why organisations are failing to build digitally accessible products and services’, reveals that many organisations, including those in the retail sector, are failing in their obligation to provide an accessible experience for all users.
As a result, they could be inadvertently alienating a raft of potential customers who have digital accessibility needs, including sight and hearing impairment, reading or cognitive difficulties, fine motor difficulties – which makes it harder to control a mouse – or more general impairments associated with ageing.
So, how can retailers and their digital teams ensure their online estate is fit for purpose?
Firstly, it’s important to look at what we mean by ‘digital accessibility’. We define it as enabling inclusive web, technology and app experiences for everyone, by focusing on the user journey, i.e. how people use the technology, not just the technology itself.
In terms of what the need looks like, a conservative estimate suggests that four out of 10 people require digital solutions to be accessible. And yet, at most 20 per cent of websites and mobile apps are accessible to everyone, which leaves millions of people excluded from digital services and tools that don’t adequately cater to their requirements.
What data shows is that there are often major gaps throughout the process of designing digital products. Over a third (35 per cent) of organisations involved in our research said they would launch digital products with known accessibility issues, while just 14 per cent check that digital products created for them by external suppliers meet accessibility requirements.
This makes little commercial and reputational sense – digital accessibility can help retailers increase revenue through welcoming more customers through their virtual doors.
Too often, digital accessibility is an afterthought that requires a product to be retro-fixed, when it would have been much more effective to ensure it was embedded right at the beginning of the design process.
For us, there are several key steps that retailers can take to make sure their digital environment is ‘open to all’:
Recognise the value
The report reveals that most (62 per cent) organisations don’t understand the benefits of accessibility, or aren’t measuring the return on investment it is bringing if they’re investing in it. From increased customers to a more loyal workforce, the benefits are significant. Measurement and tracking progress is key – it will drive success.
Adopt a strategic approach
Being great at digital accessibility is about the whole user journey. This requires a strategic approach to ensure that accessibility is ‘baked in’ to your processes so it is not seen as a tactical add-on. Otherwise, you will always find yourselves having to retro-fix elements of your services that don’t meet accessibility requirements, which is inefficient.
Define responsibility and get senior buy in
It is also important to have a champion at a senior level. Having a digital accessibility programme manager who can lead a project team to own, run and report progress against your strategic plan is really important. This could be spearheaded by your digital team or sit within your HR or marketing operation. You should also ensure your plan includes adequate training and the creation and communication of policies and processes to embed digital accessibility into your organisation’s DNA.
Embed accessibility across your organisation and with all stakeholders
Great accessibility is only possible if the whole company is aware of it and actively ensures it is part of the design and creation of any digital product or communication. Key to this will be taking your wider supply chain – your external digital suppliers – on this journey with you, by ensuring digital accessibility is a key part of your procurement process. It’s worth doing an inventory of what can and can’t be controlled, to build a picture of what you can and can’t influence and change supplier to a more accessible one if you can. Asking the right accessibility questions before purchase is key.
Focus on user experience across all digital channels
Digital accessibility can mean different things for different people across multiple user touchpoints. When looking at the retail sector, customers will come into contact with a company through digital adverts, websites, emails and online vouchers and then through digital touchpoints in the store itself, such as kiosks and self-checkouts. All of these things need to be accessible to ensure a smooth end-to-end user experience.
Design for accessibility throughout your development process
The research shows that there is often an ad-hoc approach to accessibility in the development of digital products. Retailers need to ensure it is embedded throughout the development process of all products, from websites to apps to social media and PDFs and that their accessibility is regularly monitored, checked and fixed after launch. In short, make things inclusive by design, across each product’s lifecycle.
Differentiating through digital accessibility
As well as the potential for higher customer revenue and access to a wider pool of talent to recruit from, demonstrating maturity in digital accessibility is the mark of a company with an innovative and trailblazing approach to diversity, equality and inclusion.
As such, it can increase customer and employee loyalty and improve your company’s reputation. Embedding digital accessibility demonstrates you align with the values of potential customers, employees and other stakeholders.
Before too long it will be expected of everyone. Which begs the question, can your business afford to get left behind?
