If you sell into the EU on Shopify or WooCommerce, you are almost certainly running a paid theme, three or four apps, and a checkout flow nobody has touched since launch. That combination is exactly where accessibility problems accumulate quietly, and it is exactly the surface the European Accessibility Act (EAA) now expects online stores to have covered.
We have already covered the EAA's scope and deadlines and the specific BFSG warning letter risk in Germany. This article is the practical follow-up: what to actually check and fix inside a real Shopify or WooCommerce store, section by section, without needing a full custom rebuild.
Why Platform Stores Are Not "Automatically Fine"
A common assumption among store owners is that using a major platform means accessibility is handled for you. It is not. Shopify and WooCommerce core provide reasonably solid HTML foundations, but almost everything a customer actually interacts with, your specific theme, your specific apps, and your specific checkout customizations, sits on top of that foundation and is where the real failures live. A theme that looks polished can still be built with divs styled to look like buttons, color-only sale badges, and JavaScript-driven menus with no keyboard support.
Theme-Level Fixes
Contrast and Sale Badges
Trendy themes frequently use low-contrast gray text for prices, shipping notes, and stock warnings, and rely on color alone (a red badge, a strikethrough) to signal a sale or "out of stock" state. Check every text and badge color against the WCAG contrast minimums in our color contrast guide, and add a text label ("Sale," "Out of stock") alongside any color-only signal.
Navigation and Mega Menus
Many premium Shopify and WooCommerce themes ship mega menus and mobile hamburger menus built with hover-only or click-only JavaScript that never receives focus properly. Test your main navigation with the mouse unplugged: Tab through every top-level item, confirm submenus open with Enter or Space, and confirm you can always Tab back out. Pair this with our keyboard navigation and visible focus guide, since a missing focus outline is one of the most common theme customizations that accidentally breaks accessibility (many themes strip the default focus ring for looks and never replace it with a visible one).
Image Alt Text at Scale
Product images uploaded in bulk through a CSV import almost never get meaningful alt text, and default to a blank string or the filename. For an EU storefront under EAA scrutiny, every product image needs a real, specific alt description, not "IMG_4021.jpg" or a repeated generic label like "product photo." If you manage a large catalog, prioritize your top-selling and highest-traffic SKUs first, then work down the list.
App and Plugin Fixes
Review and Star Rating Widgets
Third-party review apps (Judge.me, Yotpo, common WooCommerce review plugins) frequently render star ratings as a row of styled icons with no text alternative, so a screen reader either announces nothing or announces "image, image, image, image, image." Choose or configure a review app that outputs a real text equivalent like "4.5 out of 5 stars" alongside the icons.
Live Chat and Popup Apps
Chat widgets and promotional popups (discount wheels, email capture modals) are a leading source of keyboard traps on platform stores, because they are added as a third-party script with its own JavaScript that was never tested for focus management. If a popup traps focus and cannot be closed with the Escape key or Tab, some visitors are functionally locked out of the entire store until they reload the page. Test every third-party popup and chat widget the same way you test your own navigation: keyboard only, mouse unplugged.
Size and Variant Selectors
Swatch and variant-picker apps commonly render color or size options as small clickable squares with no visible label and no accessible name, so a screen reader announces "button" with no indication of which color or size it represents. Confirm each swatch has a proper accessible name (an aria-label or visually hidden text) that states the actual option, not just its color.
Checkout-Specific Fixes
The checkout is the highest-stakes screen in your store, and the one an EU regulator or a determined plaintiff is most likely to test first. We go deeper on the full checkout flow in our ecommerce checkout accessibility guide, but the fastest wins specific to Shopify and WooCommerce checkouts are:
- Address and payment fields must have real labels, not placeholder text alone. Placeholder-only labels disappear the moment a customer starts typing, and many screen readers do not reliably announce placeholder text at all.
- Form error messages must be programmatically linked to their field. A red border with no text, or an error banner floated far from the actual field, leaves screen reader users unable to find what needs fixing.
- Express payment buttons (Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal) must be keyboard reachable and properly labeled, not just visually distinct buttons dropped into the DOM by a payment app with no accessible name.
- Shipping and payment method radio groups need a real fieldset and legend so a screen reader announces the group's purpose, not just a series of unlabeled radio buttons.
A Fast Self-Audit for EU Sellers
- Tab through your entire homepage, product page, cart, and checkout with the mouse unplugged. Note every place focus disappears or gets stuck.
- Check contrast on prices, badges, and footer text using an automated contrast checker.
- Spot-check 10 to 15 product image alt tags across your catalog.
- Open your review widget and any chat or popup app with a screen reader and confirm they announce meaningful content.
- Confirm every checkout field has a real label and every error is announced, not just shown in red.
Get a Real Read on Your Store
Platform themes and apps change constantly, and a fix that worked last year can silently break with a theme or app update. Run our free accessibility checklist for a quick gut check, or request a free audit and we will test your actual live storefront and checkout with real assistive technology, not just an automated scanner, and hand you a prioritized fix list mapped to the EAA and WCAG. Email us directly at experts@wcag.world if you want a straight answer on where your specific store stands before a warning letter, not after one.