Best Practices: Shop

Here you can find best practices on the topic of Shop.

plentyShop LTS

This page is aimed at users of the new shop. If you are looking for best practices for its predecessor plentyShop LTS, you can find them on this manual page.

1. Adjustments regarding the German Accessibility Improvement Act (BFSG)

On 25 June 2025, the German Accessibility Improvement Act (BFSG) will come into effect. This serves to realise the European Accessibility Act in Germany.

This brings with it a number of requirements for online sellers with regard to the design of their shops. Online shops must be designed in such a way that they can also be used by people with visual, motor or auditory impairments.

This best practice gives you an overview of the measures you need to implement for your shop so that it meets the upcoming requirements.

1.1. Who is this for?

Who is affected by the law?
The BFSG currently only applies to the B2C sector. The requirements of the BFSG do not apply to B2B shops. It should be noted that the B2B shop must be clearly designed and designated as such. However, if consumers even have the option of using the service, it is an e-commerce service to consumers and the BFSG applies.

Who is not affected by the law?
Micro-enterprises (i.e. companies with fewer than ten employees and an annual turnover or annual balance sheet total of no more than EUR 2 million that offer or provide services) are not covered by the BFSG in accordance with Section 3 (3) BFSG.

Disclaimer:
The information provided does not constitute legal advice and is no substitute for individual legal advice from a suitably qualified professional. All content is for general information purposes only. No liability is assumed for the accuracy, completeness and topicality of the content. If you have specific legal questions or concerns, please contact a licensed lawyer.

1.2. WAVE Accessibility Plugin

To check whether your shop has potential for improving accessibility, we recommend using the WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool. You can install WAVE as a browser extension and use it to check whether alternative texts are missing from images or whether text is difficult to read due to a lack of contrast with the background.

1.3. High contrast colours

In order to provide users who are visually impaired with a fully functional shopping experience in you shop, it is necessary for text and background colours to have a high contrast ratio.
The EU Accessibility Act is based on the recommendations of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

To meet the requirements of the German Accessibility Improvement Act, texts and background colours should have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1. For larger text and embedded graphics, a contrast ratio of 3:1 is sufficient.

To check the contrast ratios of the colours you use in your shop, you can use external tools such as WebAim. Enter a hexadecimal code for your text colour in the left Foreground field and a hexadecimal code for your background colour in the Background field to the right. The contrast ratio (Contrast Ratio) is then displayed below.

In the area below, you can see analyses of the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) grade your contrast ratio would receive: AA is sufficient to meet the requirements of the BFSG; AAA exceeds these requirements.

1.4. Alternative texts

In order to make the visual content of your shop usable for people with visual impairments via tools such as screen readers, the German Accessibility Improvement Act requires that you provide images in your shop with alternative texts. Alternative texts should be short and concise and not exceed 80-100 characters in length.

You have to maintain alternative texts in two different places for your shop: For item images in the new Item UI and for static content, such as banners or logos, in the Webspace. There are 3 different methods available for adding alternative texts for item images: manually, item import or via API.

Adding alternative texts to item images:

  1. Go to the Item » Item (Test phase) menu.

  2. Search for an item for which you want to create alternative text.
    → The items that correspond to the search term(s) are listed.

  3. Click on an item to open it.

  4. Click on Images in the side navigation to expand the image settings.

  5. Click on Tanslations.

  6. Select a language from the drop-down list.

  7. Enter the text you want to use as alternative text in the Alternative text input field.

  8. Repeat this process for other images of this item or for other languages.

  9. Save (save) the settings.

You can also use item import to avoid manually adding an alternative text to each image.
Proceed as follows to add alternative texts to images that are not item images:

Add alternative texts for images in the web space:

  1. Go to the Shop » Webspace menu.

  2. In the list of files, click on the image file for which you want to store an alternative text. → A preview image opens on the right-hand side.

  3. Enter the text you want to use as alternative text for this image in the Alternative text input field below the preview image.

  4. Save (save) the settings.

1.4.1. Adding alternative texts for item images via API

To handle a large amount of alternative texts, you can use the API to set the image names and alternative texts. The route for this is:

/rest/items/{id}/images/{imageId}/names

{
    "imageId": 1000,
    "lang": "en",
    "name": "Image name",
    "alternate": "Alternative text"
  }

1.5. Accessibility statement

As part of the new BFSG requirements, a static page will be added to the shop to display the Accessibility Statement. The accessibility statement contains comprehensive and accessible information about which content on the website is accessible and which is not yet accessible. It also contains contact details so that users know who to contact if they encounter barriers that have not been idetnified and labelled.

A new entry will be created for the shop in the Setup » Shop » [Select client] » Legal menu.

Adding the accessibility statement:

  1. Go to the Setup » Shop » [Select client] » Legal menu.

  2. Expand the Accessibility statement section by clicking on it.

  3. Enter the text of your accessibility statement.

  4. If you want to enter your accessibility statement as HTML instead, make sure that HTML is selected as Output type above and that the code (code view) is activated in the editor.

  5. Save (save) the settings.

1.6. Third party themes

If you are using a third-party theme, the adherence to the German Accessibility Improvement Act are the responsibility of the respective provider. Please contact your theme provider if you have any questions about the accessibility of your theme.

1.7. Implemented accessibility improvements

In addition to the aspects detailed above, further accessibility improvements have already been implemented for the shop:

  • The shop can be fully operated via keyboard inputs.

  • Input fields for users are labelled so that screen readers can regognise them.

  • Shop uses ARIA-Labels, to improve accessibility.