It’s easy to think of digital accessibility as a box-ticking exercise, but this element of web development can also provide dramatic commercial benefits.
By extending your digital reach, increasing conversion rates, and encouraging return visits, an accessible website can generate a significant return on investment over time.
Here’s how:
Maximising audience reach
Across the world, roughly one in six people experience some form of disability. In the EU alone, this equates to over 87 million people. By building a more accessible digital platform, you allow this large pool of users to engage with and understand your business. In turn, you significantly increase the size of your commercial audience, and maximise your top-of-funnel engagement.
This expansion of reach also occurs amongst customers who do not have permanent or long-term disabilities. Consider a user with a sprained wrist, or one using their phone in direct sunlight. These are temporary or situational disabilities, but they are also resolved by holistic inclusive design.
Streamlining conversion pipelines
An accessible website not only welcomes more users, but also converts them at higher rates. A commitment to inclusive design will make it easier for each visitor to accomplish their tasks and objectives, allowing each customer to find relevant information and contact your team with minimal friction.
As we love to say at Kooba, good design is accessible design. Both ultimately accomplish the same outcome; a satisfied customer who has received the most efficient experience possible.
Encouraging repeat visits
But what if a user doesn't want to start the purchase process immediately? After all, most users of your website won’t be able to convert now, even if they may be able to at a future date.
In this case, it is crucial for your site to create an experience that is welcoming, engaging, and informative, and which encourages visitors to return in the future. Again, accessibility plays a key role in this, ensuring that each action a user takes on your site provides a predictable and useful response.
Where to begin
The commercial benefits of an inclusive website are easier to reach than you may imagine. To get a free analysis of your current platform, and to discuss some potential improvements, just reach out to our team today. We’d be delighted to talk!
