Retail Certification Program Module Overview

The following modules are all covered in the CBA Retail Academy Retail Certification Program. Each module consists of several sessions focusing on specific aspects of the module topic.

TRATEGIC PLAN: Your Mission and Purpose
· Define strategic planning
· Evaluate your store’s culture
· Review sample mission and purpose statements
· Write a draft mission statement for your store

Module 1 - MARKET ANALYSIS
· Identify methods of research appropriate for your store
· Design a customer survey for your store
· Describe the strengths and opportunities of your store operation
· Focus your store strategy to achieve your goals and objectives

Module 2 - FINANCES
· Read and interpret an income statement and balance sheet
· Discover how various financial ratios are used in retail
· Read data gathered from various ratios and explain what they mean
· Differentiate aspects of the operating budget and estimate expenses
· Adjust fixed and variable expenses to ensure a year-end profit

Module 3 - STORE OPERATIONS
· Become familiar with standard procedures for opening and closing a store
· Examine best practices for dealing with products you sell
· Practice using sales and productivity measurements
· Learn steps to employ category management
· Examine methods of taking physical inventory

Module 4 - BUYING
· Determine the right inventory mix for your store
· Discover how to stock the right amount of merchandise
· Examine effective ways to meet with suppliers
· Gain an understanding of when and how to use markdowns
· Examine a six-month merchandise plan
· Explore forecasting tools and industry trends

Module 5 - MARKETING AND PROMOTIONS
· Discover the importance of integrated and multi-channel marketing
· Gain an understanding of the importance of customer relationship management

· Adopt marketing practices to become "top of mind"
· Recognize different approaches to marketing and which work best for you

Module 6 - HUMAN RESOURCES
· Identify the knowledge, skills, abilities, attitudes, and values necessary for staff to perform successfully
· Evaluate methods for motivating staff
· Acquire assessment tools and develop personal growth plans for your employees
· Discover resources for help on employment law

Module 7 - SELLING AND CUSTOMER SERVICE
· Assess your customers’ wants, needs, and expectations
· Understand and demonstrate nine steps to a successful sale
· Develop a deliberate system for measuring and improving customer satisfaction

Module 8 - MERCHANDISING AND DISPLAY
· Find out how to design an efficient, effective store layout
· Analyze and evaluate merchandising and display techniques for effectiveness
· Discover the key elements of effective product display
· Analyze and evaluate in-store displays

Module 9 - TECHNOLOGY
· Use technology to enhance your financial management inventory control, marketing programs, and customer relationships
· Assess which technology components are right for your Christian retail operation
· Identify ways to increase revenues or reduce expenses by using retail technology to automate key business processes
· Construct a project plan to ensure success when implementing a retail system

THE STRATEGIC PLAN: The Executive Summary
· Review and refine your store’s strategic plan
· Write an executive summary for the plan
· Submit strategic plan to CBA for panel review and certification