Book excerpt: Information Technology for Retail is a concise yet comprehensive book for students pursuing post- and under-graduate courses in retail management. The book elaborates functions and sub functions of retailing. These form the main part of retail operations and are being facilitated by IT these days. Beginning with the basics of information technology and information systems, the book goes on to elaborate on the hardware and software of e-point of sales, automatic identification and data capture, database management systems, network and telecommunication. It discusses retail servicescape and types of retailers, modern electronic payment systems, enterprise resource planning systems and their functions and features in the retail context. It also covers applications of supply chain management and customer relationship management, electronic commerce--e-tailing, emerging technologies like mobile computing, m-commerce, global positioning systems, and also various retail IT products and vendors. The book illustrates the theories with practical retail scenario examples. This book will be useful for retail students and also for professionals working in retail businesses.