Retail Systems Magazine

	Headache busting	Deciding whether to go for a packaged software solution or one developed in-house can be a real headache for retailers. Duncan Jefferies reports
	In rude health	Gift cards have emerged as a new category in retailing over the past 18 months. As Will Hadfield observes, they are so new that many major retailers have used different approaches to make them work
	Changing attitudes	Spending on networks and cabling has to date been positioned well down the agenda of most retailers as it has been seen as nothing more exciting than the plumbing of their business. But, as Glynn Davis finds, this is changing as retailers increasingly recognise that by investing in such infrastructures they can reap great rewards
	Risky business	The journey made by a coin or banknote from a customer’s pocket to a retailer’s bank account, via an EPoS, the cash office, and often, a third-party ‘cash-in-transit’ courier, is fraught with risk. As Jessica Twentyman reports, along the way, money might be miscounted, mislaid or, in some cases, stolen
Supplement
	The right strategy	Remember when no one was sure if or when online retailing could ever become a significant source of profit for UK retailers? asks David Adams
	A booming business	Specialised gangs of criminals are embracing the internet with even more enthusiasm than the unsuspecting consumers they prey upon. Scott Thompson asks: what is being done to counter the increasingly sophisticated threat of e-crime?
	Making it work	As Christmas trade and the sales well demonstrated, the only place retailers will see double-digit growth figures in 2008 is online. It means that a multi-channel strategy is no longer an option but vital for survival, as Penelope Ody demonstrates