BigCommerce Accessibility: Building Inclusive B2B Stores
Introduction
The B2B eCommerce landscape is evolving rapidly, and accessibility is no longer an optional enhancement—it’s a strategic necessity. For businesses using BigCommerce, ensuring digital accessibility is not just about avoiding legal risk. It’s about expanding your audience, building trust, and embracing inclusivity at every level of the user experience.
BigCommerce offers one of the most robust platforms for B2B merchants, but its accessibility depends greatly on how your store is designed, developed, and maintained. In this guide, we’ll explore how to build inclusive B2B stores on BigCommerce, what accessibility means in practical terms, what legal frameworks are involved, and how allyWay can support your efforts to reduce barriers and optimize your site for a wider audience.
Let’s dive into BigCommerce accessibility and explore how your business can benefit from a more inclusive digital presence.
Why Accessibility Matters for B2B eCommerce
B2B customers expect frictionless, user-friendly digital experiences—just like in B2C. But many B2B websites still overlook accessibility, unintentionally excluding customers with disabilities. Accessibility ensures that all visitors, including those with visual, auditory, cognitive, or motor impairments, can navigate and interact with your site.
Business Benefits of Accessible BigCommerce Stores
- Reach a wider B2B audience: Nearly 16% of the world's population lives with some form of disability.
- Improve user experience system-wide: Accessibility improves usability for everyone, including aging populations and mobile users.
- Enhance SEO performance: Accessible elements often align with SEO best practices (e.g., semantic HTML, image alt text).
- Mitigate legal risk: While tools don't guarantee compliance, accessible sites make progress toward meeting legal expectations.
- Boost brand reputation: Inclusive brands earn more trust, loyalty, and positive brand perception.
Understanding Digital Accessibility Standards
To implement accessibility on your BigCommerce store, it’s important to be familiar with international standards and guidelines.
WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines)
These globally accepted guidelines are developed by the W3C and form the basis for many accessibility laws. WCAG focuses on four main principles:
- Perceivable – Content must be presentable in ways users can perceive.
- Operable – Interface components must be usable.
- Understandable – Information and UI should be easy to comprehend.
- Robust – Content must work reliably across user agents and assistive technology.
The current standard, WCAG 2.1 (soon to evolve to 2.2), includes success criteria across three levels: A, AA, and AAA. For B2B websites, conforming to at least Level AA is widely recognized as a reasonable goal.
Global Accessibility Laws and Directives
- ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) in the US: Interpretations suggest that business websites should be accessible under Title III.
- Section 508 (US): Applies to federal agencies and contractors.
- EN 301 549: The European standard for digital accessibility; relevant for public-sector procurement, and often followed by private companies.
- EAA (European Accessibility Act): Beginning in 2025, eCommerce sites serving the EU will need to meet accessibility criteria.
- Other global standards: Canada’s AODA, Australia’s DDA, UK’s Equality Act, and more.
While exact requirements differ, WCAG serves as a widely applicable baseline across jurisdictions.
BigCommerce’s Role in Accessibility
BigCommerce is a feature-rich SaaS platform, designed with flexibility for both small and enterprise-scale merchants. However, accessibility isn’t built-in by default—it relies on your store's theme, third-party apps, content, and customizations.
What BigCommerce Offers
- Stenciling framework: Offers theme flexibility, which can be optimized for accessibility.
- Custom development capabilities: Developers can build and edit store components to better support WCAG.
- App ecosystem: Some apps prioritize accessibility, but others may introduce barriers.
Common Accessibility Challenges on BigCommerce Stores
Even with a strong platform foundation, these accessibility issues are common:
- Missing or incorrect alt text on product images
- Insufficient text contrast for readability
- Keyboard navigation conflicts in menus or carousels
- Inaccessible form elements (e.g., checkout, registration)
- Pop-ups and overlays not announced to screen readers
- Lack of focus indicators for navigation
Designing Inclusive BigCommerce B2B Stores
Whether you’re launching a new BigCommerce store or updating an existing one, accessibility needs to be part of every phase: design, development, content creation, and ongoing optimization.
1. Use Accessible BigCommerce Themes
Choose themes designed with accessibility in mind. Look for:
- Proper semantic HTML markup
- ARIA roles and landmarks
- Focused keyboard navigation
- Descriptive link and button labels
Your developer or agency should be able to audit and adjust the theme if needed.
2. Create Accessible Content
Content accessibility is essential, especially for B2B sites that rely on dense product catalogs, documentation, tables, and more.
Best practices include:
- Use proper heading levels for structure
- Add meaningful image alt text
- Write clear and concise link names
- Provide transcripts or captions for videos
- Use plain language when possible
3. Test and Audit Your Store
Regular audits help uncover issues that impact people using assistive technology (like screen readers or speech input). This is where solutions like allyWay shine.
✓ allyWay features AI-powered accessibility auditing and enhances BigCommerce store compliance processes with over 30 assistance tools.
How allyWay Supports Accessibility on BigCommerce
allyWay is a business-oriented accessibility platform designed to reduce barriers on websites and web apps—including BigCommerce stores. It empowers merchants to improve accessibility efficiently without deep technical expertise.
Here’s how allyWay aligns with your accessibility goals:
| Feature | Benefit for BigCommerce Stores |
|---|---|
| 30+ accessibility features | Assist users across vision, hearing, motor, and cognitive needs |
| 5 accessibility profiles | Preconfigured experiences tailored to disabilities |
| Over 35 language options | Supports global B2B audiences effectively |
| AI-powered auditing | Identifies issues and prioritizes fixes |
| Fast implementation | Does not require significant code refactoring |
| Customizable interface | Aligns with your store branding |
| Ongoing updates | Keeps pace with evolving accessibility standards |
This makes allyWay a smart choice for businesses who want to:
- Enhance accessibility without overhauling their site
- Support inclusivity for all users
- Streamline remediation and optimization efforts
- Offer a scalable solution as their eCommerce operation grows
How To Implement Accessibility Best Practices on BigCommerce
Here’s a step-by-step plan for leveling up your B2B store’s accessibility:
Step 1: Perform an Accessibility Audit
Start by understanding your store’s current accessibility status. Use manual evaluations, screen reader tests, and automated tools like allyWay's AI-powered audits.
Step 2: Prioritize Accessibility Fixes
Focus on high-impact areas:
- Navigation and menus
- Product search and filters
- Checkout process
- Forms and buttons
- Mobile interactions
List issues according to severity, user impact, and complexity to fix.
Step 3: Use Assistive Technologies to Test
Test your site with:
- Screen readers (NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver)
- Keyboard-only navigation
- Zoom/magnification tools
- Color contrast checkers
This gives insight into how diverse users experience your store.
Step 4: Enable Real-Time Accessibility Features
With allyWay, you can deploy real-time assistive tools across your B2B store. These include:
- Keyboard navigation and shortcuts
- Screen reader enhancements
- Focus indicators and text magnifiers
- Color adjustments and contrast modes
- Dyslexia-friendly font and reading guides
Step 5: Train Your Team
Accessibility is a shared responsibility. Make sure your developers, designers, content creators, and marketing teams are trained in principles of inclusive design.
Comparison: Manual WCAG Audits vs allyWay
| Manual Audits | allyWay | |
|---|---|---|
| Effort | High time investment | Minimal implementation effort |
| Expertise required | Significant | Designed for non-developers |
| Support for ongoing optimization | Limited | Continuous updates and monitoring |
| Cost | Developer hours, consulting fees | Scalable pricing plans |
| Visual customizations | None | Branding-compatible UI tools |
Conclusion: Manual audits can identify complex issues, but platforms like allyWay make accessibility practical, ongoing, and scalable—especially for non-technical teams.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
1. Does allyWay automatically make my BigCommerce store compliant with laws?
No. allyWay supports accessibility efforts and helps reduce barriers, but it does not guarantee legal compliance with accessibility laws or standards.
2. Can I use allyWay with custom BigCommerce themes?
Yes. allyWay is designed to be compatible with a wide range of themes and customizations across BigCommerce.
3. Is allyWay helpful for enterprise B2B stores?
Absolutely. allyWay is scalable and can support large inventories, multilingual audiences, and complex site structures common in B2B operations.
4. How quickly can I implement allyWay on my store?
Installation is straightforward and typically takes just a few steps. You can start seeing improvements almost immediately after setup.
5. Why is accessibility important for B2B websites, specifically?
Many decision-makers and users in B2B purchase pathways may have disabilities, and accessible sites provide smoother interactions, building trust and credibility.
Conclusion: Make Accessibility a Strategic Advantage
As digital experiences
