For institutions
A programme can see what businesses still have to set up online
It can use the Bahamas Digital Readiness Index, a public look at 2,600 Bahamian businesses in 2026 on four places customers check: the Four Digital Doors.
Most businesses have made a start but still have expected doors to open
Where businesses stand differs by island and by industry.
68.5%
of the 2,600 businesses in the 2026 index are in the Doors Opening stage
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Grand Bahama leads on Google, trails on WhatsApp
Share of businesses with each door open, by island, in the 2026 index Door Grand Bahama Nassau and Paradise Island Google Business Profile open 68.6% 59.3% WhatsApp open 8.4% 24.0% Based on 239 businesses on Grand Bahama and 2,325 in Nassau and Paradise Island; 36 more are on smaller islands.
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Doors Opening share by industry
The lowest and highest Doors Opening share among the industries with their own figures, in the 2026 index Rank Industry Doors Opening Lowest Home Services 57.3% Highest Restaurants 74.7% Industries with 50 or more businesses get their own figures: seven of eight do, all but Creative Services.
The 2026 index
All four stages, with their counts
| Stage | Businesses | Share |
|---|---|---|
| No Doors Open | 552 | 21.2% |
| Doors Opening | 1,781 | 68.5% |
| Expected Doors Open | 155 | 6.0% |
| All Doors Open | 112 | 4.3% |
Each business is placed by open doors against what its industry’s customers expect
From 1 February to 13 July 2026, DDigiLeads, the digital-growth firm that publishes the index, read each business’s four doors as a customer finds them: in public sources only, never the owner’s word or internal systems. The businesses fall into eight industries. A door is open when a customer can find it and it works.
These readings make up the 2026 edition, which is locked: its figures stay as published. Later readings are dated and kept apart. Every figure here is from the edition unless dated otherwise.
The index sets, for each industry, the doors its customers expect: its expected doors, the ones the Methodology webpage calls Required. For restaurants, these are a Google Business Profile, a Facebook Page (the business page, not a personal profile) and WhatsApp. The index counts a business’s open doors against them to place it in one of four stages, and separately scores it out of 100 for how many of its doors are open and how well each is set up.
The four stages
- No Doors Open
- None of the four doors found open.
- Doors Opening
- At least one door open, but not every expected door.
- Expected Doors Open
- All of its expected doors open, but not all four.
- All Doors Open
- All four doors open, expected or not.
The expected doors for all eight industries
| Industry | Expected doors |
|---|---|
| Auto Services |
|
| Creative Services |
|
| Home Services |
|
| Professional Services |
|
| Restaurants |
|
| Retail |
|
| Salons and Beauty |
|
| Tourism |
|
The work left on doors the index found falls into three groups, by who acts
Door work is the work left on doors the index found. A door either does not work for a customer, so it counts as not open, or works but is unfinished: not fully set up, such as a Google Business Profile the owner has not claimed, or WhatsApp on a personal account. Claiming means the owner takes control of the listing Google already shows, the Google Business Profile, and Google then checks the claim. The site’s guide to each of the four doors shows how to open a missing one.
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Work that waits on Google
37.6%
of Google listings whose claim status could be read are not claimed by the owner
Work on WhatsApp, the website and the Facebook Page can go ahead during Google’s check.
The 2026 index
How an owner claims a Google listing -
Work that waits on nobody
47.3%
of businesses with WhatsApp open use a personal account rather than WhatsApp Business, the app for businesses.
Only the owner has to act, with the phone that holds the business’s WhatsApp number.
The 2026 index
How an owner sets up WhatsApp Business -
Work that starts with finding the logins
364
web addresses the index found do not reach a working website
A former web designer, a relative or a staff member may hold the website or Facebook Page logins.
The 2026 index
Getting a web address loading again
Unclaimed Google listings come first, because Google’s check takes days
Of the 1,571 Google listings whose claim status the index could read, most were claimed and 590 were not. The owner claims from a Google account the business controls, then waits days to a week or more for Google’s check. Halving the unclaimed count is one aim a programme could set.
Share of Google listings claimed at each stage, with the number unclaimed beneath
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58.3%
Doors Opening
549 unclaimed
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78.3%
Expected Doors Open
31 unclaimed
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91.1%
All Doors Open
10 unclaimed
The 2026 index · Google listings whose claim status the index could read Google Business Profile guide
A possible aim, worked out, and Google’s wait
In the 2026 index, 981 of the 1,571 listings were claimed, 62.4%. Halving the 590 unclaimed would leave 295, and 1,276 of the 1,571 would then be claimed, about 81.2%. The index sets no target.
Google chooses how each claim is verified, based on the type of business, public information about it, its region or its hours. It may ask for a video recording or send a code by postcard. Google says its review takes up to 5 business days, on rare occasions longer, and that a postcard code mostly arrives within 14 days. Sources: Verify your business on Google and Verify your business with a video recording, accessed 25 September 2026.
The locked 2026 edition is a starting line for work with Bahamian businesses
The Bahamas Digital Readiness Index, published by DDigiLeads, read 2,600 Bahamian businesses in 2026 on what customers can find in public sources. A programme can use it to choose which industries, islands and doors to start with.
Because the edition is locked, a programme can cite its figures later to show what changed. This webpage gives totals, not a list of businesses. To record where the businesses it works with start, a programme can look each one up under Check your score: its score webpage gives that business’s stage and score in the 2026 edition.
The index does not measure a business’s size, revenue or internal systems, and it is not a count of every Bahamian business.
The Bahamas Digital Readiness Index is produced and maintained by DDigiLeads, which helps Bahamian businesses act on their results. The index carries no commercial recommendations.
- Businesses read
- 2,600
- Industries
- 8
- The Four Digital Doors
- Google Business Profile
- Website
- Facebook Page
- Reading window
- 1 February to 13 July 2026
- Edition
- 2026, locked
- Islands with their own figures
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- Nassau and Paradise Island 2,325
- Grand Bahama 239
- Google listings
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- Found 1,574
- Claim status read 1,571
- WhatsApp numbers open
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- On a personal account 279
- On WhatsApp Business 311
- Web addresses found
- 1,357
- Facebook links
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- Found 1,101
- Facebook Pages open 862
- Not opening a Page 169
- Not read 70
- Publisher
- DDigiLeads
- Outside business or institution
- None commissioned it or was consulted on the results
How to cite this index
The reference date is the last day of the reading window.
DDigiLeads. Bahamas Digital Readiness Index, 2026 edition, reference date 13 July 2026. https://bdri.bs
Readings since the 2026 edition
After the edition, DDigiLeads read some businesses again. The largest of these later readings, in September 2026, went back to every Google listing found in the edition. Each business’s result shows on its score webpage. One total from it, the number of those listings with no opening hours, is in the full guide to this door work, linked under the three cards above. These later readings do not change a published score or any figure on this webpage.
Ask for a conversation about the findings
A briefing looks at how a programme could use the findings: with its members, in its training, in reaching businesses, or on one industry, island or question. DDigiLeads, which publishes the index, replies by email. You can name the industry, island or question you have in mind when you write back.
DDigiLeads uses this form’s details to reply, and keeps a record of the request and the reply, as the privacy notice explains. To ask where a figure comes from, or if the form fails, email contact@bdri.bs.