25 nov 2024
For Small Business Saturday 2024, the award-winning app for scanning and managing documents, iScanner, conducted a survey of small business owners in the US. In November 2024, the survey collected 103 responses.
The results showed the challenges, priorities, and needs of small businesses in implementing eco-friendly initiatives and becoming more sustainable. Also, the triggers and values associated with digitalization and using mobile apps to streamline paperwork were appreciated. See some important insights from the report below, and get the full report here.
The first place of popularity among adopted eco-initiatives is reducing paper consumption. This answer was chosen by 57% of respondents. The second place (38%) occupies green habits that can be implemented by business owners and their employees. The third place (31%) is implementing energy saving measures that help to save not only natural resources but allows to decrease bills for household services. In contrast, choosing an eco-conscious partner or vendor remains the least popular action, with only 18% of respondents implementing this in the past 12 months.
The primary challenge in implementing eco-friendly initiatives in small businesses is the increase in costs of goods or services, as reported by 43% of respondents. Also, 27% of participants said that they saw customer indifference to eco-friendly initiatives. And a little more than 20% of respondents highlighted that they have limited availability of sustainable suppliers and lack of knowledge about eco-friendly business practices.
One of the survey goals was to understand what digital optimization strategies are more popular among small businesses. 45% of respondents said that they established or enhanced their business presence on social media, and 43% proved that they conducted business banking through online platforms or mobile applications. Only nearly 20% of respondents, however, have not introduced any digital optimization within the last year.
Continuing to the topic of digitalization and reducing paper consumption, the survey organizers tried to find what pushes small businesses to use more mobile applications in their workflow, especially mobile scanners. Small businesses are primarily prompted to use scanner apps because they need to back up documents for safety (23%), are just starting a business (18%), and want to reduce paper usage to be greener (10%).
The possible substitute for stationary scanners and printers by mobile scanning apps isn’t alone a benefit to use apps like iScanner for small businesses. Owners see the value in easy access from anywhere (67%), convenience and simplicity (63%), and decluttering from paper (38%). Only 22% of the respondents see the main value of a mobile scanning app as contributing to environmental protection.
Mobile scanner apps propose additional features that can be useful for small businesses. The respondents noted the most demanded features: signing PDF documents (52%), sharing straight to other apps (51%), and converting file formats (51%). Only 20% of the respondents consider AI chat for summarizing or explaining PDFs as the most valuable feature of a scanning app other than scanning.
The survey was conducted by iScanner of BP Mobile (AIBY Group). Over 40% of the iScanner users are small businesses. iScanner ensures that users without access to corporate software and hardware can rely on the app for professional-looking documentation.
iScanner is also a vital step towards reducing paper usage and creating paper-free workplaces. Starting in 2024, iScanner users can track their individual contributions to a paperless world and earn eco-badges within the app and lock-screen widgets.
