Northland businesses are underperforming in social media and lagging behind other regions in online activity, according to a report on the region's digital maturity.
The survey of about 750 Northland businesses showed that, compared to the national average of 45% digital maturity, Northland lagged behind at 39%.
Of those surveyed in the region, 80% had a website (85% nationally) but only 37% (42% nationally) used a website to sell products or services.
Only 53% (59% nationally) of businesses had a mobile-friendly website and just 50% (52% nationally) had businesses that were integrated with social media.
Meanwhile, just 25% said they found value in using social media.
A total of 39% of the 750 businesses advertised online (41% nationally), while just 35% (37% nationally) advertised on Facebook.
A whopping 72% of businesses (71% nationally) used social media to engage with customers but only 25% (22% nationally) felt it was of great value to the business.
There was also a low uptake of cloud computing, with just 29% (43% nationally) using software for storage and backup, 38% (46% nationally) for finance and accounting, 16% (16% nationally) using instant messenger and just 25% (34% nationally) having the ability to operate anyway, anytime in the case of a disaster.
The survey was conducted online in 2015 and 2016 by Digital Journey, a social enterprise sponsored by Chorus, Google, MBIE and Spark.
Digital Journey's general manager, Stuart Dillon-Roberts said the Digital Health Checks were compiled for Northland, Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago.
He said the health check featured mostly tourism, retail and service industries from the Northland region.
``Given that Kiwis spent $4.7 billion online last year, this is a missed opportunity for the Northland businesses without e-commerce,'' he said in the report.
Northland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Tony Collins said businesses should make it easy for customers to do business with them but rural businesses differed to urban.
``Regional areas tend to have stronger person-to-person networks too.''
He said cloud-based software could help increase productivity. The Chamber, through the Regional Business Partnership, provided support and marketing training.
He said that compared with the October 2014 State of the Digital Nation, a MYOB business monitor special report, the results were positive.
That report stated that just 9% of Northland businesses had a website, 4% had a social media site only and 29% had both.
Whangarei-based social media expert Philippa Mannagh had noticed some hesitation from businesses around having an online presence.
``There seems to be a scepticism and a do-it-yourself attitude that ... sadly we do see many businesses left behind in a world that is growing too fast for them to get their heads around.''
``A local farming company once told me that being online wouldn't work for them and after two weeks with a Facebook business page, they landed one of their biggest contracts from a group in the South Island, who found their page and contact details.''
