Web Design Statistics 2026

67%

of leading ecommerce sites had mediocre or worse desktop usability·130+ sites, 2025
Two in three leading ecommerce sites fell below a decent usability rating. Good web design is not just how a site looks; it must help people navigate, understand, and complete tasks.
See the usability findings

At a glance

Key web design numbers

4 benchmarks

How Usable Are Leading Ecommerce Websites?

A current benchmark measures whether people can navigate, understand, and complete tasks easily.

Leading ecommerce sites rated mediocre or worse

67%

Published Mar. 6, 2025

Desktop website usability

Two in three leading ecommerce sites rated mediocre or worse

Baymard manually reviewed 50,000+ design elements across 130+ leading U.S. and European ecommerce sites.

67%
33%
Mediocre or worse

67%

Decent

33%

Good

0%

Siteefy Research · 2026

Baymard's 2025 benchmark rated 67% of 130+ leading U.S. and European ecommerce sites as mediocre or worse for desktop usability.

The remaining 33% were rated decent, and 0% earned a good overall rating. The benchmark covered the full browsing and buying experience, including navigation, product discovery, forms, and checkout.

What this tells us about web design

A website can look polished and still be hard to use. Good design helps people find information, understand their options, complete forms, and finish tasks without confusion.

How Common Are Website Accessibility Problems?

An automated test found accessibility problems on almost every leading home page.

Home pages with accessibility problems

95.9%

February 2026 analysis

Website accessibility

Almost every leading home page had accessibility problems

An automated test found at least one problem on 959,000 of the one million home pages checked.

Siteefy Research · 2026

WebAIM's automated test found accessibility problems on 95.9% of the top one million home pages in February 2026.

Only 4.1% finished the test with no problem found. That does not prove those pages were fully accessible, because an automated test cannot check everything a person may struggle with.

  • The study checked one million leading home pages after they fully loaded.
  • It found an average of 56.1 accessibility problems per page.
  • That average was 10.1% higher than in 2025.

Which Design Problems Appear Most Often?

Contrast, image text, form labels, and links account for many avoidable barriers.

Home pages with low-contrast text

83.9%

February 2026 analysis

Common failures

Four ordinary details cause widespread barriers

Each bar shows the share of tested home pages with that detected problem.

Siteefy Research · 2026

Low-contrast text appeared on 83.9% of the home pages, making it the most common detected problem.

  • 53.1% had images without descriptions for people who could not see them.
  • 51% had form inputs without proper labels.
  • 46.3% had links with no readable text.

These are basic design and content choices: readable text, useful image descriptions, clear form labels, and links that explain where they lead.

How Usable Are Ecommerce Checkouts?

Leading ecommerce sites still contain substantial friction at the point of purchase.

Mobile checkouts rated mediocre or worse

63%

Updated Nov. 25, 2025

Ecommerce UX

Most mobile checkouts still need work

Cart abandonment is context, not a claim that design caused every lost purchase.

Siteefy Research · 2026

Baymard's 2025 benchmark rated 63% of mobile checkout experiences as mediocre or worse. The desktop figure was 64%.

Across ecommerce more broadly, the tracked average cart abandonment rate was 70.19%. Not every abandoned cart is caused by design, but Baymard's user testing repeatedly found that checkout design and flow can prevent shoppers from completing a purchase.

What the benchmark measures

The checkout ratings come from Baymard's manual benchmarking of leading ecommerce sites against research-backed usability guidelines. They describe the checkout experience, not the visual quality of an entire website.

Sources

4 original research checks

Sources used throughout this statistics page
SectionData originSourceDateScope note
01AccessibilityOriginal sourceWebAIM: The WebAIM Million 2026February 2026 analysisAutomated WAVE analysis of the rendered home pages of one million influential websites.
02Desktop website usabilityOriginal sourceBaymard Institute: Desktop UX TrendsPublished Mar. 6, 2025Manual review of 50,000+ design elements across 130+ leading U.S. and European ecommerce sites.
03Checkout UX benchmarkOriginal sourceBaymard Institute: Checkout UX 2025Updated Nov. 25, 2025Manual checkout benchmarking against Baymard's research-backed usability guidelines.
04Cart abandonment contextOriginal sourceBaymard Institute: Cart and Checkout Usability ResearchCurrent benchmark, reviewed July 23, 2026Tracked global average, shown as ecommerce context rather than a design-only outcome.

Methodology

5 checks, manually maintained

01 - What the page measures

The page focuses on outcomes a web designer can influence: website usability, readability, accessibility, and checkout usability. It does not treat traffic volume, market size, or designer salaries as measures of design quality.

02 - How website usability is rated

Baymard manually reviewed 50,000+ design elements across 130+ leading U.S. and European ecommerce sites. The ratings summarize how easily people can browse, find products, use forms, and complete purchases.

03 - Where the 4.1% figure comes from

WebAIM's automated test found accessibility problems on 95.9% of the pages. The remaining 4.1% had no problem detected automatically. That does not prove those pages were fully accessible.

04 - How checkout data is used

The checkout ratings focus on the final purchase steps. Cart abandonment is included as business context, with a clear warning that people abandon carts for many reasons beyond design.

05 - How the page is maintained

These are code-owned metrics. A person checks each original source and updates the figures when a comparable new report is published. The page does not claim to update itself.