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As rural areas around the world continue to grapple with depopulation trends, disinvestment, and lack of economic opportunities, many have turned to digital technologies to address those challenges.
China has focused on improving information and communication technologies in the countryside, leveraging it to produce sales and improve communication between farmers and manufacturers, according to Built In. The Australian government has worked to modernize outdated rural infrastructures by financially supporting solar power system installations. In India, leaders have focused on increasing internet access and digital literacy.
In the US, companies like Rural King, a Mattoon, Illinois-based company that offers general merchandising essentials to its customers, have capitalized on the digital opportunity by implementing self-checkout and mobile pay systems in the rural areas they serve. According to a report by the US Chamber of Commerce and Amazon that surveyed 5,300 businesses in rural America, those kinds of efforts can have a huge payoff.
Increased adoption of online tools and digital services for rural businesses could create more than 360,000 jobs and could add $47 billion to the US GDP per year, the 2019 report found. The report also called on leaders from the public and private sector to expand access to digital tools and training that allow businesses to scale, to increase the talent pipeline of candidates trained in digital skills, and to increase digital connectivity in rural areas.
Here are some of the other key findings:
One-in-five rural businesses are already digital.
Nearly 20 percent of rural small businesses in America generate the vast majority of their revenue by selling their products and services online.
Technology is boosting rural business revenue.
Rural businesses say adoption of digital technologies are important for their future. Around 55 percent of them agree that e-commerce helps them grow their customer base and a similar percentage say that online tools had a positive impact on their revenue in the past three years.
Online services help rural businesses reach customers out of state and overseas.
Almost 40 percent of these small business owners say that digital technology has allowed them to sell beyond their state and 16 percent of them said they are selling internationally due to their access to digital tools. Thirty-three percent sell their products using their own websites, 12.7 percent use a third-party online sales site, and 35.7% use online marketing, including social media.
Digital tools and technology help purchasing and cut costs.
Twenty-nine percent of rural businesses said that online tools reduce purchasing costs of products and materials.
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