Shopware accessibility: what to check in the Storefront and plugins

Is your Shopware shop covered?

Selling to consumers online is an e-commerce service. Since 28 June 2025, the European Accessibility Act, in Germany the BFSG, applies to it. Only microenterprises with fewer than ten employees and no more than €2 million in annual turnover or balance sheet total are exempt.

Many Shopware shops are run by mid-sized retailers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Most of them are clearly covered.

What we find in Shopware shops

In test scans of Shopware shops, the same errors came up again and again:

• Footer columns that fold open on phones. The Storefront folds the footer into sections on small screens. Customised versions often carry invalid ARIA attributes, so screen readers announce the sections wrongly.
• Icon links and buttons without a name. Social media icons and the button that closes a notice say only "link" or "button".
• A visible label that differs from the name. Banners and links whose visible text is not part of their accessible name. People who control the computer by voice say what they see, and nothing happens.
• Text that is too pale. Small print, badges and prices in light grey.

Keep Shopware up to date

Shopware has been working on the accessibility of the standard Storefront, and updates bring improvements. A shop on an old version, or with a theme that overrides large parts of the Storefront, does not get them. Check with your agency which templates your theme overrides.

Most errors sit in the theme and plugins

Header, navigation, listing, product page and footer come from the theme and appear on every page. Plugins for filters, reviews, chat and cookie consent add their own code. Fix an error in the template and it is gone everywhere. Luentis groups findings by template, so you see where to fix them.

What the scan does not cover

We check public pages. The customer account and the checkout after the cart are behind a login or a session and are not part of the scan. Whether an alt text makes sense, or whether filters work with the keyboard, takes a person to judge. Our guided check helps you with that.

How to go about it

1. Check your homepage for free and see which errors the automatic rules find.
2. With the single audit, we check up to 250 pages and show which errors sit in the theme, with the code to fix them.
3. Give the report to your agency. The fixes belong in the theme and the plugins.
4. Answer the guided check and publish your accessibility statement.

More on what shops have to check is in the guide to online shops.