Bridging the Digital Gap: A Qualitative Analysis of Online Marketing Challenges for Rural Women Entrepreneurs in Malaysia

The rise of digital platforms has profoundly transformed global business landscapes, offering unprecedented opportunities for entrepreneurs to access wider markets and reduce operational costs. For rural women entrepreneurs in Malaysia, social media and online marketing present significant avenues to expand income sources and foster community development. However, a persistent digital divide creates barriers to their full participation in the digital economy. This article adopts a qualitative, desktop-based approach to examine the online marketing challenges faced by rural women entrepreneurs in Malaysia. Utilizing secondary sources from academic literature, government reports, and NGO publications between 2010 and 2025, data were thematically analyzed to identify recurring issues. Findings reveal four major challenges: limited digital literacy, inconsistent internet infrastructure, financial and technological barriers, and socio-cultural constraints affecting online engagement. While initiatives like the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint (My DIGITAL) and Rural Digital Economy Strategy (REDES) have been introduced, structural gaps persist. The paper argues that bridging the digital gap requires integrated policies combining digital skills training, improved rural connectivity, gender-sensitive entrepreneurship support, and stronger social capital networks. These findings contribute to ongoing debates on rural development, gender empowerment, and inclusive digital transformation in Malaysia.