CBSE Class 12 Retail (801)
Chapters: 6
1. Part A: Employability Skills
Communication skills · Self-management skills · ICT skills · Entrepreneurial skills · Green skills
- Communication Skills: How to Share Meaning Clearly and Kindly – Communication is sharing meaning between people. A sender encodes an idea into a message, sends it through a channel, and a receiver decodes it and gives feedback. Barriers such as noise, hard words, strong emotions and cultural differences can block or bend the message. We send meaning with words (verbal), with face, eyes, gestures, posture and tone (non-verbal), and with pictures (visual). Active listening — attention, patience, questions and paraphrasing — proves the message arrived. Good communicators adapt to context: formal or informal, spoken or written, and use polite requests, kind refusals, sincere apologies and assertive (not aggressive or passive) language.
- Self-Management: Taking Charge of Your Feelings, Goals and Time – Self-management is the skill of guiding your own feelings, thoughts and actions so you can reach your goals. It starts with self-awareness: noticing what you feel and how strong it is. Then you pause before reacting (Stop, Think, Act) and use calming tools such as slow breathing. Your beliefs and thoughts shape your feelings and actions, so changing an unhelpful thought ('I'm useless') into a helpful one ('I can't do it yet') changes what you do. Good self-managers set SMART goals, plan their time by importance, build healthy habits and bounce back from setbacks (resilience). These skills help in school, friendships and future careers.
- ICT Skills: Office Tools, Internet, E-mail and Staying Safe – ICT means Information and Communication Technology. It is the set of tools we use to make, store and share information: computers, phones, software and the internet. The core ICT skills are: using a word processor to write, a spreadsheet to calculate, a presentation tool to show ideas, the internet to search, e-mail to communicate, and good habits to stay safe online.
- Green Skills: Sustainable Development, Green Economy and Green Jobs – Green skills are the knowledge, habits and job skills that help us live and work without harming the planet. They rest on sustainable development (meeting today's needs while leaving enough for the future). A green economy grows while cutting pollution and waste, often by going circular: make, use, repair, recycle. It creates green jobs such as solar technician or recycling worker. Everyone can use green skills through the 5 Rs: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle.
2. Display of Products and Customer Needs
Display and service
- Visual Merchandising: Displaying Products and Serving Customers – Visual merchandising is the art of arranging and showing goods so that shoppers notice them, like them and buy them. A window display is the shop's face. On shelves, eye level sells best ('eye level is buy level'), then touch level; bulky goods go at the bottom. Packs are 'faced' to show their label, and old stock goes in front (FIFO: first in, first out). Goods are grouped by category, arranged in colour blocks and given clear price tags and signs. Store upkeep means refilling gaps, removing damaged or expired goods, cleaning spills and keeping aisles clear. During sale and delivery the sales associate helps the customer choose, bills, packs safely and hands over or arranges home delivery.
3. Non-store Retailing
Non-store retail
- E-commerce – E-commerce is buying and selling goods and services over the internet. It is a form of non-store retailing, like telemarketing and catalogue selling. By who sells to whom, it can be B2C, B2B, C2C or D2C. Marketplaces join many sellers and buyers on one platform and earn a commission. M-commerce is e-commerce on mobile phones, often with digital payments. Physical shops also become digital, using QR codes, screens and click-and-collect, and firms that combine channels are omnichannel. Behind every order is e-retail logistics: warehouses, picking and packing, hubs, last-mile delivery and returns. E-marketing (search, social media, email) brings customers to the online shop.
4. Retail Point of Sale
Point of sale
- Point of Sale (POS): Components, Process and Marketing – The point of sale (POS) is the place and the system where a customer pays and a sale is completed, usually the billing counter. POS hardware includes a computer or tablet with a screen, a barcode scanner, a receipt printer, a cash drawer, a card or UPI/QR payment terminal and a customer display. POS software stores item names, prices, tax rates and stock, and makes reports. The POS process is: greet, scan items, add tax and discounts, show the total, take payment, give change and a receipt, pack, and update stock. At day end the cashier matches cash with the report. POS marketing uses the till area for impulse items, offer posters, loyalty cards and receipt coupons.
5. Billing and Accounting
Billing and accounts
- Bookkeeping for Shops: Billing, Books and Profit – Bookkeeping is the daily, careful recording of every money deal of a business. It starts with billing: each sale gets a bill (invoice or cash memo) showing seller, bill number, date, buyer, items, quantity, rate, amount, tax and total. Under double entry, every deal affects two accounts: one is debited and one is credited by the same amount, so Assets = Liabilities + Capital always holds. Deals are first written in the journal by date, then posted to ledger accounts. Busy shops use subsidiary books: cash book, purchases book, sales book, purchase returns, sales returns, petty cash book and journal proper. At year end the trading account finds gross profit (sales − cost of goods sold), and the profit and loss account finds net profit (gross profit − expenses + other income).
6. Inventory Handling
Inventory handling
- Inventory Management: Receiving, Storing and Tracking Stock – Inventory (stock) is the goods a business keeps to sell or use. Good inventory management means having the right goods, in the right amount, in the right place, at the right time, at the lowest cost. In a shop it has three main jobs. Receiving: check every delivery against the purchase order for count, quality and damage, then record it in a goods received note (GRN). Storing: keep goods safe, labelled and easy to find, and use FIFO so older stock sells first. Tracking: record every sale and delivery (often by barcode scan) so the stock record always shows what is left, and count the real stock regularly to find shrinkage. To avoid running out, the shop reorders when stock falls to the reorder level: daily sales × lead time + safety stock.