Digital Sales Give Small Businesses a Map for Growth

Digital channels gave small and medium-sized businesses more than reach in 2025. They gave those companies a measurable growth edge: Digital-led SMBs were 14 percentage points more likely than store-led peers to increase revenue.

“The SMB Growth Engine: How Digital Sales and Customer Tracking Drive Revenue,” a PYMNTS Intelligence report, found that U.S. SMB revenue grew an average of 9.5% in 2025, more than twice the 4.7% rise in nominal gross domestic product. Digital channels generated 57% of SMB sales on average, compared with 41% from physical channels. The strongest results came when businesses paired those channels with customer tracking. For a smaller company, a digital network can work like an extra storefront, widening its market without adding another lease. The report surveyed 526 SMB owners and senior executives in May. It examined sales, acquisition tracking and future channel investment plans.

Key Points:

Digital leads on growth. Fifty-six percent of digital-led SMBs increased revenue in 2025, compared with 42% of businesses that generated most sales through a physical store. Hybrid businesses landed between them at 51%. The data suggest that businesses can keep the value of a physical location while using digital channels to reach customers beyond local foot traffic.

Digital is the launch default. Seven in 10 SMBs opened with at least one digital sales channel. Nearly half, 47%, started with physical and digital channels already in place. That pattern suggests many founders now see websites, social media, apps and marketplaces as part of the opening toolkit instead of an upgrade to add later.

Tracking turns reach into results. Among SMBs whose planned investment differed from their current top source of customers, 58% of those with formal tracking grew revenue. Just 22% of businesses without a tracking mechanism grew. The finding suggests usable customer data can give owners the confidence to move money toward a promising channel rather than keep following habit.

Other findings reinforce the positive picture. Half of the 526 U.S. SMB owners and senior executives surveyed said their companies beat the GDP growth benchmark. Digital access alone didn’t guarantee stronger performance, yet it gave businesses more ways to sell, learn and adjust. That creates an opening for banks, payment providers and FinTechs to combine payment acceptance with simple analytics and customer-tracking tools.

When SMBs can see where customers arrive and where sales close, they can direct limited marketing dollars with greater precision and build on the channels already producing revenue.