The JKB Marketing Blog

I am located in our office in the Endless Mountains of Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is most definitely a rural area. Hitwise has just released a report which will be of special interest to businesses located in rural areas.

According to the report, rural shoopers make up the largest online shopping segment:
Rural - 44% of all e-commerce traffic
Suburbanites - 24%
Small City - 16%
Urban - 15%

And here's the best news for local rural businesses: they favor visiting stores and brands which they are familiar with. Though they can choose to shop from any store in the world, they predominantly shop at those with a local presence.

As an example, 66% of the traffic to Dick's Clothing and Sporting Goods' website comes from rural shoppers.

Rural businesses will want to leverage this trend by promoting their sites through their offline marketing campaigns.