The retail sector in Brazil is wasting an important consumer share by not increasing accessibility levels, at least among the most used portals for online shopping. The finding is from a study conducted by the Bimob Institute, specialized in accessibility solutions and consulting for social projects of inclusion, diversity, and equity.
The entity assessed the condition of the main Brazilian marketplaces against the standards established by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1), a guide created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), to guide websites to comply with minimum digital accessibility standards. The result was an average of 6, with the scores ranging between 4.5 and 9.7.
The research evaluated the portals Magazine Luiza, OLX, Netshoes – Carrefour, Ponto Frio, Casas Bahia, Extra, Americanas, and Mercado Livre. Among them, the highest level of accessibility was presented by OLX, which scored 9.7. According to the report, the OLX website showed a total of 31 identified accessibility practices. Of these, 24 were classified as acceptable, 6 require additional manual verification, and only one was considered unacceptable, which is of AA level.
On the other hand, the most frequently found score was also the lowest, which corresponds to 4.5 applied to Ponto Frio, Casas Bahia, Extra, and Mercado Livre. The Americanas Stores website achieved the second-best score (7.5), closely followed by Magazine Luiza (7.0), Netshoes (6.7), and finally Carrefour (5.4).
| Marketplace | Scoring |
| OLX | 9.7 |
| American | 7.5 |
| Magazine Luiza | 7.0 |
| Netshoes | 6.7 |
| Carrefour | 5.4 |
| Cold Point | 4.5 |
| Bahia Houses | 4.5 |
| Extra | 4.5 |
| Free Market | 4.5 |
According to Biomob's COO, Valmir de Souza, the best news presented by the study was the finding that, despite being at different levels of implementation, it was possible to find in all marketplaces the concern to ensure accessibility in their shopping environments. "Some errors still hinder proper navigability for all audiences, but it is a fact that efforts are being made to achieve this goal," he says.
Among the portals that received the lowest scores, the specialist points out issues such as the fact that although they have a dedicated tab for sign language support and offer functions like a Sign Language Translator and assistive resources, these features were inactive during the research, displaying error messages. On the other hand, even among these sites with lower scores, it was possible to verify that all of them follow good accessibility practices regarding tabbed navigation, alternative texts, and programming standards.
In the evaluation of the top-ranked portals, positive points were identified, such as the fact that all images on the page have the necessary alternative text equivalent. Another positive aspect was the display of elements with banner semantics not being contained within any other elements with different semantics.
For the COO of Biomob, the fact that e-commerce sites are still not fully adapted to best accessibility practices results in a cycle of losses that affects everyone involved. He cites numbers like those from a recentresearch carried out by PROCON-SPThe agency detected that 69% of consumers with some type of physical disability have already faced barriers to online shopping, with 17% stating they always face difficulties and 52% sometimes do. "These people were frustrated because they couldn't complete the transactions they wanted, but the websites, portals, and marketplaces also lost revenue from these operations. What will be the extent of the loss for these companies if this trend continues during a mega promotion like Black Friday?" concludes.
