Small business owners embracing digital technology say it has made them more profitable, found them new customers, and made them more productive or efficient.
However, insights from our engagement with small business showed digital literacy and capability still need to be built up, and adoption of advanced digital technologies is low with 67% of survey respondents not adopting any new or advanced technologies.
Further, the MYOB Business Monitor surveyed 1000 Australian small and medium-sized businesses and found just under a third (31%) still don’t have any online presence; 26% had a website; 15% only used social media; and 22% had both a website and used social media.
For those that do have a website, the top benefits they found were a more professional brand image, more new customer inquiries or leads and ease of customers to do business with them. For social media, the top gains were all the above plus an increasing appeal to younger customers.
Every small business from every industry and sector can benefit from using basic digital tools including:
- software to keep track of your transactions
- social media to promote your products or services to new customers
- e-invoicing to save you time and money and improve your record-keeping
- e-commerce website to make sales 24/7.
To effectively run a small business today, it is crucial to have a basic understanding of digital literacy - this is an umbrella term used to describe the skills and tools you need to communicate and access information via technology such as internet platforms, social media and mobile devices. It is more than just knowing how to create a document on a computer and save it to a folder or surfing the internet.
