Digital capability of New Zealand businesses in 2021
The New Zealand Digital Business Index provides a comprehensive and representative overview of NZ businesses’ digital adoption, capability, and potential future adaptability. It captures digital capability attributes in a way that enables us to monitor businesses’ digital progress over time – including by business size and industry.
On this page
New Zealand Digital Business Digital Index
The Better for Business Digital Index 2021 shows that New Zealand businesses have taken a digital leap forward over the past 12 months. Our latest research found that:
- Uptake of internal and external tools has increased in 2021 compared to 2020
- There is definitely still a need for support: 88% of businesses can identify at least one barrier to further digital enablement and a third can identify at least one critical barrier.
- Most NZ businesses are now ‘visible’ or ‘discoverable’ online, but many have a passive rather than an active presence and are not using digital tools or channels to promote themselves.
- The largest barriers to digital enablement are concerns around security and fraud, the difficulty of choosing the right tools, lack of skills, and affordability.
The digital capability of New Zealand businesses in 2021 [PDF, 1.4 MB](external link)
NZ Digital Landscape factsheet - December 2021 [PDF, 151 KB] [PDF, 150 KB]
Published: March 2022, based on data collected during November 2021
New Zealand Digital Business Index – Benchmark 2020
The Digital Index Benchmark 2020 was based on research conducted with 2,280 businesses in late 2020.
The Digital Index was baselined at 51/100 (as at December 2020) and is being used as a key metric to measure progress against various digital enablement initiatives across government. The methodology is based on similar frameworks used by the OECD and by Lloyd’s Bank in the UK. Our reporting includes some new analysis contributed by BNZ, revealing changes in business purchase behaviour over time.
Understanding the digital capability of New Zealand businesses [PDF, 1.7 MB](external link)
Date published: September 2021 — based on data collected during September – October
NZ Business Digital Landscape – December 2020 [PDF, 103 KB](external link)
Date published: February 2021 — Based on data collected during September – October 2020