Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Rural consumers are increasingly shop online, with46 percent of internet users engaged in online shopping activities.

This was revealed in an annual report on consumer behaviour, consumption ofmedia, brand usage and awareness of consumers in rural and suburban areas of Vietnam,which was produced by Facebook and GroupM Vietnam.

Rural and suburban areas are potential areas for businesses to drive growth.Rural areas currently account for 63 percent of the population, and 60 percentof the country's gross domestic product.

It is estimated that the monthly cost of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) inrural areas will increase by 7 percent on average annually from 2020-2025,faster than in class-1 urban areas (4 percent).

Compared to class-1 urban areas, over 70 percent of industries still have theopportunity to boost the number of consumers.

The survey also showed that consumers in rural areas are very proficient inusing technology products and digital services. Up to 92 percent of ruralresidents have used smartphones, a sharp increase compared to 2 years ago with84 percent.

Accordingly, consumers in rural areas are using the internet more thantraditional means for shopping and the number is rapidly increasing from 2018(84 percent) to this year (91 percent).

Not only the number of people, daily internet usage continues to increase (149minutes) and nearly double TV time (87 minutes). Among consumers watching TV,up to 47 percent use phones in parallel to chat or access social networks.

Using social media is the most popular internet activity with 92 percent ofparticipants and Facebook is the most widely used social network with 97 percent.

It can be seen that the habits and behaviour ofonline consumers in rural areas have changed drastically. A Google report onthis issue last year also pointed to the rise of rural digital consumers.

Google said that, although urban areas continue to dominate on "onlinemaps" of spending, Vietnamese rural areas were a key market for growth. Itis home to more than half of the country's population, an untapped market withincreasing internet penetration.

If businesses can attract users in these areas, the potential for growth in thefuture is huge.

Experts affirmed that the online sales channel would be an opportunity toincrease product presence in many rural areas, especially when the traditionaldistribution channel has not reached, or met demand of today's busy consumers.

The VnEconomy online newspapers quoted Khoi Le, head of business group ofFacebook in the Vietnamese market, emphasising that attracting more newconsumers was always a problem that many managers were looking for answers.

As the number of new users in big cities was dwindling and the competitionamong brands was becoming saturated, the attraction of users in the class-2 andclass-3 satellite cities and the rural areas was becoming increasinglyimportant, noted Khoi./.