This is another recent study with important ramifications for local businesses. It was a study on local search by comScore, Neustar Localeze and 15 Miles, surveying about 5,000 U.S. adults in December 2013.

The study focused on people who did local business searches over the previous 12 months, examining search behavior across search engines, yellow pages and local directory sites and portals.

There’s a lot of various data in the study, but the big takeaway is that 78 percent of local searches on mobile devices turned into purchases from local businesses, with nearly 90 percent of those purchases being in a physical store (73 percent) or on the phone (16 percent) vs. online (11 percent).

More than three-fourths (76 percent) of those purchases happened the same day, and most (63 percent) occurred within a few hours. In general, it’s an important reminder that brick-and-mortar businesses need to embrace mobile marketing as a means to attract consumers.