Retailers using printed circulars to promote sales and new product releases are altering their approaches – rather than sending higher volumes of flyers to consumers, they are instead trying to send more information in one complete package.

Recent data from Market Track, a company that measures the return on investment achieved by retail marketing efforts, found that overall circular counts per market declined in January 2011 from five to four. On the other hand, the number of pages per flyer jumped 7.6 percent during the same time frame.

For example, Lowes sent out massive 20-page inserts in the first week of January, whereas the company released two smaller flyers during the same period last year.

"JCPenny distributed only two flyers this January compared to five flyers last year, resulting in a 48 percent decrease in pages," RetailingToday notes, citing the research. "Walmart and Safeway worked on their promotions in a different way this month, they dropped fewer flyers per market but increased the number of pages per insert by 42 percent and 5 percent respectively compared with last year."

Retail merchants looking to bolster sales should experiment with a variety of means, ranging from time-proven methods such as circulars to new mediums such as mobile devices.

Retailers are looking to advance and tighten up store operations through the diversification of marketing channels. One avenue through which this is being accomplished is social media.

However, according to a recent infographic from Zendesk, consumers don't feel like they are receiving the level of customer care and support from retailers on social networks that they desire. In fact, 62 percent of survey respondents said they want companies to be more social.

"Brand reputation and promotions still tops the list of how brands are using social media. The good news is once companies begin to engage in this arena, the more they find the importance in engaging in social channels," the infographic demonstrates, according to Econsultancy.

The survey found that social networks and blogs are the most popular online destinations, followed distantly by online games and email. The top online network, with 34 percent of the vote, is Facebook followed distantly by Twitter, which garnered only 4 percent.

Consumers are interacting with companies on social networks for specific reasons. Retailers may want to consider improving their customer service policies as well as the discounts and exclusives they offer online.

While many retailers have a Facebook or Twitter profile, few are conducting adequate customer service through these social tools. Long response times, unanswered questions and other customer service missteps were among some of the key pitfalls CMO.com noted in a recent survey.

This isn't an issue relegated to smaller, understaffed retail merchants either. Across the entire sample, 64 percent of brands didn't answer questions or respond to complaints, and among this group were major chains such as Costco, Kroger and Kmart.

"Unlike traditional customer-service channels, every complaint and response in Facebook and Twitter is completely public. Follow-up comments from the original, now much angrier, customer and empathetic responses from other fans can undermine the first impression of a brand for page visitors," CMO.com notes.

Conversely, well-respected retail brands frequently had quick response times. A recent customer satisfaction report from The E-tailing Group found that top 10 retailers all had response times of less than three hours.

Retailers using quick response codes on flyers, posters and in-store shelves may see an increase in consumer activity. A new report from ScanBuy suggests the number of people scanning these codes has shot up dramatically over the past year and will continue to do so through 2012.

ScanBuy registered more than 31 million scans worldwide in 2011, marking a significant 297 percent increase over the 7.8 million scans registered in 2010. More than one-third of these engagements – 11 million – came in the fourth quarter of 2011, which means consumers were scanning these codes more actively as the year drew to a close.

"Thousands of marketers are using [the] platform to create, manage and track their QR code activity," Mike Wehrs, president and CEO of Scanbuy, told Internet Retailer. "They range from local businesses up to Fortune 500 brands like Coca Cola, Home Depot and Starbucks."

This shouldn't surprise any retail merchants – the number of smartphone owners in the United States jumped from approximately 60 million at the beginning of 2011 to 91 million by the close of the year, meaning the potential audience grew significantly.

Efficient ecommerce platforms, prompt customer service and quick shipping are three factors that have elevated retailers above their competitors, according to a new customer satisfaction from The E-tailing Group.

Ballard Designs, Tiffany & Co., Williams- Sonoma and Wine.com were among the top retailers recognized by the survey, which uses mystery shoppers to rank and rate ecommerce merchants. Retail brands in the top 100 had the average customer service response time of 31 hours and four delivery days. On the other hand, top companies responded in 20 hours and shipped in less than three.

"These merchants understand that customers gravitate to sites with front-end efficiency and back-end speed in support and logistics," E-tailing Group president Lauren Freedman says. "Delivering a swift online shopping experience has become the ticket to retention."

This study should show retailers where they could improve their online shopping services. Response time is key – whether they are answering inquiries or shipping packages, it's absolutely crucial for merchants to be prompt.

Everyday, the impact of smartphones and web-enabled cellphones on purchasing habits can be seen – when consumers are looking around stores, they can frequently be seen looking up products on their mobile phones. Now, a common fear has arisen among many brick-and-mortar retailers: Consumers will use these devices to find better prices elsewhere.

A new survey from the Pew Research Center suggests that actually isn't always the case, perhaps allowing retailers to breathe a sigh of relief. In fact, more than one-third of the time (35 percent), consumers do purchase the item they were researching on their phones. Conversely, only 19 percent opt to buy the product online and 8 percent purchase the item from another store.

In fact, consumers frequently don't even use their phones to research prices on the web. When Pew asked respondents what they used their mobile devices for as they shopped, 38 percent revealed they called their friends to ask for advice. That said, one-quarter (25 percent) responded that they did look up prices online while in-store, and 24 percent searched product reviews.

"These findings show that the growing availability of smartphones and other mobile devices has dramatically changed the shopping experience," says Aaron W. Smith, a Pew senior research specialist.

"Consumers are frequently using their phones to make sure they get the most highly-rated product at the best price, and in many cases they are willing to go elsewhere or delay their purchase until they find the right combination of value and quality," Smith added.

Of course, younger consumers – the ones who tend to be on the bleeding edge of technology – are the most likely to use their mobile phones to research products and services. Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of consumers between the ages of 18 and 29 use their mobile devices while they browse retail shelves. Conversely, only 36 percent of consumers between 50 and 64 utilize their phones for the same purpose.

Younger consumers are also more likely to compare prices – 38 percent of 18- to 29-year-old shoppers check prices elsewhere on their phones, while only 16 percent of those between 50 and 64 did the same.

The key is embracing this new technology rather than fearing it. Have a mobile app and implement price-matching policies to keep these shoppers from going to competitors.

A new report from comScore further highlights the importance of operating a website. According to the measurement firm, shoppers who visit a manufacturer's website spend 37 percent more on that brand in retail stores than those who have not visited their home page.

"Marketers currently invest millions of dollars in their brand websites, and the results of this study confirm the importance of this investment. Brand websites can attract and influence the behavior of the most valuable segments of any brand’s franchise," said comScore vice president Mike Zeman.

Clearly, consumers who spend the time visiting a brand's website are also the ones that would be more engaged by it and spend additional money on the company's products. If retailers don't have websites, this adds further incentive for them to fix that folly as soon as possible.

This is especially important considering the sheer number of consumers shopping online. A separate comScore report suggests that ecommerce spending hit all-time highs over the 2011 shopping season and is positioned to keep growing.

Retail merchants in New Hampshire may be able to breathe a collective sigh of relief, with state legislators fighting to implement a new rule that would limit swipe fees, Convenience Store News reports.

Called New Hampshire House Bill 1319, the bill specifically states "no bank shall charge a person doing business in this state who accepts a credit card or debit card issued by the bank as payment for goods or services an interchange fee, or 'swipe fee,' that exceeds 1 percent of the payment."

Swipe fees are a common compliant among retailers both in New Hampshire and nationwide. Rep. Johen Hikel himself owns an auto repair shop and is forced to pay between 0.65 percent and 4.76 percent for each credit card transaction. Moreover, retailers frequently only find out how much they are paying when they receive the bill.

The Durbin Amendment led to reduced swipe fees nationwide. Many financial institutions tried to circumvent the bill by passing the fees onto the consumer for other services, such as charging debit accounts for making purchases through point-of-sale software.

For online retail merchants, engagement is everything. The more people who click on ads translates into a greater number of website visitors which leads to higher conversion rates. It's easy to understand why many brands get fixated on using advertising tools that provide the best click-through rates.

New data from Marin Software further highlights the importance of using mobile devices as marketing tools. Whereas desktop computers had a click-through rate of only 0.95 percent, smartphones and tablets were observed at the much higher 1.25 and 1.31 percent, respectively.

"Tablets and smartphones, while still in the early stages of adoption relative to desktop computers, are showing strong and accelerating gains in search shares, while delivering quality performance with higher than average click-through rates," Marin's report explains.

Mobile devices can be used for a variety of purposes. Smartphone-optimized ads and apps can be utilized to engage consumers, while retail brands could leverage them as payment processing and customer assistance tools.

If retailers don't have a mobile-optimized website, now is the time to at least consider one. According to new data from Walker Sands Communications, more than one in 10 consumers browse the web from their mobile devices.

In the fourth quarter of 2011 alone, 13 percent of all website traffic came from on-the-go consumers, marking a sizable increase from the 6 percent observed during the same time period the previous year. This is particularly the case among shoppers using Apple devices – 47 percent of mobile traffic stemmed from the iPhone, iPod or iPad.

"When we began this study in Q3 2010, traffic originating from mobile devices accounted for a relatively modest portion – 4 percent – of total web traffic," says John Fairley, director of digital services at Walker Sands. "More than a year later, we have seen a significant uptick in mobile browsing, which has increased more than three-fold."

According to separate data from comScore, approximately 91 million Americans currently own smartphone devices. This number doesn't include the millions of prospective customers that own tablets.