A study released Wednesday shows that nearly three-quarters of small business owners are optimistic after the fallouts from the COVID-19 outbreak and believe they will be back to “business as normal” in the next six months.
Most small business owners also believe digital tools and services contributed to their resiliency throughout these unprecedented times. The report “Digitally Empowered: How Digital Tools Power Small Businesses Amid COVID-19” was released Wednesday by the Connected Commerce Council (C3) in partnership with Google and was conducted by LRW Greenberg. It found that nearly one-third of the businesses felt that without the use of digital tools they would have had to close all or part of their business during the COVID-19 crisis.
“They discovered that they were able to pivot from a Bricks and Mortar business to an online business, and that transition empowered them to survive,” said Jake Ward, President of C3 — a non-profit membership organization representing digitally empowered small businesses. “Many of these business owners feel like this has been a clarifying moment for them. The trend has been turning this way — with the use of digital tools — and this report shows that 80 percent of those surveyed want to learn more about it.”
“Access to affordable, scalable and secure tools is critical – now more than ever,” Ward continued. “Small businesses drive the American economy, and they will drive the American recovery with the support of their communities and digital tools.”
According to Ward, during the COVID crisis 76 percent of small businesses are relying more on digital tools than before.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting quarantine upended millions of American small businesses and put the future in jeopardy for many who were caught off-guard and unprepared. However, Ward reported that the data shows that digitally-empowered businesses were able to adapt and in some cases thrive through the use of digital tools.
Digital tools are categorized as enterprise-quality tools servicing small businesses. They include, among others, marketing and advertising tools like Instagram, YouTube, Google Ads and analytics; customer relationship management tools from Salesforce and Constant Contact; operations platforms from Quickbooks and Hubspot; and online marketplaces like Amazon, Shopify, and eBay.
The report also found that:
● Small businesses without a pre-existing e-commerce presence were twice as likely (31% vs. 15%) to have temporarily stopped operating during the crisis.
● Small businesses that were using e-commerce tools pre-crisis are 5.5 times (11% vs. 2%)
more likely to project increased revenue in 2020 compared to 2019.
● Women small business owners are substantially more likely to use digital tools than men, particularly social media (43% vs. 29%).
● Over 80% of small business owners are interested in learning more about how digital
tools can help their business in the future.
Ward said this was the first of several expected studies and reports. In the next few months, the data will be broken down further into regional reports to give comparisons among states and by industry. “Obviously, restaurants and retailers were the hardest hit,” he said.
According to Ward, the report is based on a survey of 502 U.S. small business owners.
