Facebook IQ commissioned third-party international market research firm Factworks to create a better understanding of user engagement with their latest survey.

Loco for local

More than 6000 businesses and 10,000 consumers across Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, UK, and the US participated in unearthing the challenges of shopping local.

According to the analytics 87% of consumers said that trust and security was the motivation for going local while 85% said it was the sheer convenience.

Neighborhood vs Online

The shop around the corner is competing with the biggest box store of them all, the internet, and two out of three Facebook users say they look to local business websites once a week.

The overlap between local and online is that four our of five consumers polled said they use their mobile to interact with local business. With 66% saying smartphones help them shop, the numbers are unsurprising.

Regardless of the size of a business, three out of five said an online presence is essential but only 48% said they have started to optimise marketing for mobile. As the mom and pops operations join the race, its safe to say mobile friendly shopping is the new starting point for marketing. Period.

Are you surprised about the heavy mobile push? What do you think about the numbers? Let us know in our comments.