Richard Saunders

It’s easy to see why social media has become the ‘front of house’ for small businesses in recent years – almost literally in the case of many independent restaurants and cafés.

Free, fast and convenient, these channels offer a multitude of functions for businesses, enabling staff to share information and content and respond to enquiries on the go.

Similarly, customers naturally gravitate towards social media because they don’t need to type in a web address, create an account or fill in a form but simply use an app already on their phone. They don’t have to contend with laggy or difficult-to-navigate websites either.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that online retailers are losing out on billions of dollars in revenue because their websites don’t meet the needs of disabled shoppers. Unsurprisingly, more than two-thirds of disabled online customers click away from sites they find difficult to use, despite the total spending power of this market in the UK hitting £17.1bn [$23.3 billion USD].

This isn’t something that will just automatically improve as technology advances. In fact, the problem has become worse in recent years, as businesses shift to digital it exacerbates the difficulties that many people have.