Peer benchmarking and digital upgrading: Field experiments on business websites

Can low-cost comparative information trigger firms to improve the performance of a digital asset they already own? Using two large-scale randomised controlled trials with approximately 7000 UK firms in the distilling and retail sectors, we study whether peer benchmarking of website performance prompts measurable improvement. Firms receiving benchmarked website metrics and targeted recommendations exhibit modest average improvements, with more favourable effects among initially underperforming firms, consistent with partial convergence towards the industry frontier. The catch-up dynamic is strongest on mobile metrics, including as a spillover in the first experiment, in which reports contained desktop metrics only, a pattern consistent with firms focusing improvement efforts where performance gaps are greatest. Treated firms also show suggestive report-aligned increases in the adoption of mobile-optimisation and content-delivery technologies. These patterns are consistent with comparative performance information helping firms identify and respond to performance shortfalls. The findings position peer benchmarking as a scalable, low-cost instrument for narrowing the digital divide among SMEs: informational aspiration cues generate more favourable responses among firms furthest behind than among firms nearer the frontier.