Retailers in Italy have observed a significant increase in consumers shopping on the web and via their mobile phones. Despite lagging behind several Western European countries in terms of economic recovery, ecommerce and mobile commerce have improved by 20 percent and 210 percent, respectively, in 2011, recent research from Netcomm found.

"In a stagnant economic scenario, the ecommerce market in 2011 had a value in excess of 8 billion euros (US$10.5 billion)," explains Netcomm president Roberto Liscia. "The Italian ecommerce market is still atypical, with service sales surpassing product sales but the gap closed last year with 14 percent and 29 percent rises respectively in the sale of services and products."

The top four major retail sectors were: Clothing, computers and consumer electronics, publishing, music and audiovisual, as well as groceries and healthcare products. Italians are making the switch to mobile and online commerce due to the convenience factor – they like to be able to shop without having to leave the comfort of their own homes.

Merchants should be sure to use retail software that enables them take advantage of this growing online audience abroad.

Smartphones are increasingly being used as a retail companion. New data from Nielsen suggests approximately 60 percent of smartphone owners used their devices for shopping purposes over the 2011 holiday season.

Some of the most popular mobile retail spots include Amazon, Best Buy, eBay, Target and Walmart – shoppers used both mobile apps and websites optimized for handsets to access these brands. Target and Walmart were most popular among females, whereas Best Buy skewed male. Amazon and eBay were popular among both genders.

"Retailers need to think of their business as a multichannel environment that can potentially include mobile, online and brick-and-mortar stores," John Burbank, president of strategic initiatives at Nielsen, said. "Winning with shoppers requires a consistent experience across channels that reinforces the values you represent as a retail brand, whether it be price, service, reviews, selection, style or other key attributes."

Mobile shopping is picking up steam in other countries as well. For example, separate research from Netcomm found mcommerce was up 210 percent in Italy last year.

Many Americans are continuing to practice their recessionary buying habits, with a significant number of shoppers noting that price is still the biggest factor when they choose which retailer to go to.

This, according to the new Times and Trends report from SymphonyIRI, which found 75 percent of shoppers still say price weighs heavily in brand decisions. However, this could change if the economy continues to improve – some respondents said they would be more willing to open their wallets should conditions keep progressing.

"There is a sizable consumer segment that is feeling more optimistic about the road ahead, while a similar sized group is expecting a continued deterioration of economic and personal financial health," Susan Viamari, editor of Times and Trends at SymphonIRI, explains. "Among optimistic and pessimistic shoppers alike, all indications point to continued frugality and conservatism in 2012."

Retail brands need to be cautious when trying to appeal to deal-hunting shoppers – many big-name merchants struggled to meet shareholder expectations after massive discounting during the holiday shopping season.

Australian retailers need to reconsider store operations and how they do business to better compete with online merchants or else they may fall behind, a new report from the National Retail Association reports.

The $1,000 threshold for importing goods encourages many consumers to simply buy retail products online and import them into the country to avoid paying higher domestic prices. Smaller merchants say this practice hurts their business because it means Australian consumers are buying from foreign companies rather than domestic ones.

Gary Black, executive director of the NRA, asserts that other countries have lower thresholds that discourage this behavior. However, the government argues that lowering the threshold would result in the tax costing more to collect than it would earn. Black counters that argument by also noting the negative impact importing has on retail jobs.

"When you factor that into the numbers there's an overpowering case for the removal of the threshold," he told the Daily Telegraph.

Other countries have a much lower threshold to promote local retail. In the UK, for example, the threshold is at 15 GBP.

Retail merchants targeting Millennials – consumers between the ages of 18 and 34 – may want to reconsider their approach, as a new report from WSL Strategic Retail suggests shoppers in this demographic are spending less.

Millennials, who are saddled with student-loan debt, struggle to find jobs and are pessimistic about the economy, are peeling back the amount of money they spend on retail. For brands that target this consumer base, such as Gap, this may result in lower-than-normal sales. Additionally, merchants that aim for slightly older shoppers may also be impacted as they won't have a new crop of customers to sell to.

"There is a notion among retailers that young shoppers are more resilient and will come back sooner," WSL chief executive officer Wendy Liebmann said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg. "The reality is that they don't have money to spend, and retailers aren't paying enough attention to this."

Approximately one-quarter of Millennials don't have the money to cover basic living necessities, such as rent, car payments and food, let alone the latest iPad or the hottest fall fashions.

With that in mind, retail merchants need to consider refocusing their marketing dollars to reach consumers that do have the income to drive sales.

Typically, November and December are the busy holiday months for U.K. retailers, with sales falling in subsequent months. This year seems to be bucking the trend so far, with new data suggesting both retail sales and hiring have made significant gains in 2012.

According to a report from the Office of National Statistics, the retail sector saw sales actually rise by 0.9 percent in January. Meanwhile, data from recruitment firm Reed found that more than 3,500 new retail jobs have been posted on its website since the start of the year.

"The surge in new job postings may be in reaction to the healthy sales figures seen by retailers, meaning more are now willing to create jobs and take on new staff to further bolster returns," Reed said in a statement.

Many Britons appear to be excited to get involved with the retail industry – more than 96,000 individuals applied for these 3,500 jobs.

The retail sector in the United States has made similar gains, with a number of merchants crediting Valentine's Day and warmer weather with boosted sales in February.

According to new research from Pew, a significant number of consumers don't want their past behaviors analyzed by retail companies.

More than two-thirds of Americans (68 percent) said they don't want to receive targeted ads because they dislike it when companies track their habits. Additionally, 65 percent believe Google shouldn't display search results based on their browsing history because they may miss out on pertinent information. Conversely, many do realize the benefits of tracking in terms of relevancy.

"More than half of American web users, or 52 percent, say search results have become more useful and relevant over time. 40 percent say they have not seen a change over time and about 7 percent say they find search results are getting less relevant," Internet Retailer notes, citing the report.

As retail merchants devise their marketing plans, it's crucial they consider how their campaigns could make consumers feel. They should avoid initiatives that make shoppers feel as if their privacy has been invaded.

Many retailers anticipate 2012 to be a big year in sales, but American consumers aren't so sure. According to the Consumer Reports Index, shopper optimism slipped in March for the first time in three months, suggesting that many Americans aren't as confident about their financial situation as they were initially.

The index was most recently observed at 46.1, down more than three points from 49.6 in February, RetailingToday notes. Additionally, the Trouble Tracker – which analyzes consumer concerns – increased slightly from 49.1 to 52.2 over the same time frame, marking the highest reading since August 2011.

A significant portion of Americans are still recovering from the holiday season, when sales increased significantly over the previous year. Wavering optimism means shoppers will be more hesitant when it comes to making retail purchases.

"Consumers are not yet comfortable in their financial situation as the country limps into its fifth year of near-recessionary times," said Ed Farrell, director of the Consumer Reports National Research Center. "Weak retail is the symptom, not an underlying cause. Consumers will need a clear signal led by a greatly improved jobs outlook to resume spending."

If shoppers are spending less, merchants need to focus on bolstering efficiency. Retail software is one effective way of doing this.

Many Americans are gearing up to spend more shopping online in 2012, but a significant portion of consumers will have to limit their ecommerce activities due to rising food and gas prices.

According to a new survey from PriceGrabber and Experian, approximately one in five Americans (21 percent) plans to spend more online in 2012 than they did in 2011. However, 28 percent said they may scale back their shopping budgets to better deal with rising food and gas prices. Meanwhile, half of Americans anticipate their online shopping budgets will remain unaffected, expecting to spend approximately the same amount of money as they did the previous year. Nearly 1,000 consumers participated in the survey between January 26 and February 13.

Those who intend to spend more are doing so in anticipation of an economic recovery. Of the people who said they had bigger ecommerce budgets, 36 percent said they were more confident in the economy and 30 percent are earning more money than they were last year. Additionally, 5 percent said they are now employed, which they weren't last year.

Among shoppers who plan to spend less, 40 percent blamed the higher prices of food, gas and other basic necessities. Compared to the group with larger budgets, 34 percent said they weren't confident in the economy, 29 percent are making less money and 16 percent spent too much during the 2011 holiday season and have to manage their expenses as a result.

With shoppers seemingly split between being cautiously optimistic and discouraged, PriceGrabber anticipates retailers will respond by offering discounts and other promotional efforts.

"We expect retailers will continue to roll out a number of tactics, such as free shipping, larger discounts and online-only promotions to help win the consumer dollar this year, while implementing strategies that will span bricks-and-mortar, online and mobile shopping platforms to entice consumers to shop," Graham Jones, general manager of PriceGrabber, explained.

After the 2011 holiday season, many retail merchants found they went overboard with promotions and discounts. Several had to revise their financial forecasts downward because of all the revenue lost due to rampant sales during November and December.

Retail sales aren't wavering, with many of the big-name retail brands beating or exceeding Wall Street predictions. Ken Perkins, the president of Retail Metrics, notes the strong performance of these industry leaders bodes well for the sector as a whole because they account for a significant portion of spending.

Overall, merchants report a 6.7 percent increase in sales for February compared to the same time last year. January posted a year-over-year improvement of only 2.7 percent, which highlights the growth experienced in February. This also marks the biggest year-over-year gains since June 2011, when retail sales were up 6.9 percent.

"This was a very strong month. A new life has been breathed into the retailers," explained Perkins. "Consumers are starting to feel much better about their overall situation."

The International Council of Shopping Centers credited the warm winter months, along with increased Valentine's Day spending, with the sharp rise in sales.

Merchants need to use retail business intelligence to ensure they are capitalizing on this increase in consumer spending.