SUM function in Google Sheets - Real Business Scenario

Scenario Mode

👤 Your Role: You are a sales assistant at a small retail store.

📋 Request: Your manager wants to know the total sales for each product category to understand which category sells the most.

📊 Data: You have a list of sales transactions with product categories and sales amounts.

🎯 Deliverable: Create a summary table that shows the total sales amount for each product category.

Sample Data

Transaction ID	Product Category	Sales Amount
1	Electronics	120
2	Clothing	80
3	Electronics	150
4	Home	200
5	Clothing	60
6	Home	100
7	Electronics	90
8	Clothing	70

1

Step 1: List each unique product category in a new column to prepare for total sales calculation.

Manually type the categories: Electronics, Clothing, Home in cells E2, E3, and E4.

Expected Result

Cells E2:E4 contain Electronics, Clothing, Home respectively.

2

Step 2: Calculate total sales for Electronics category using SUMIF function.

=SUMIF(B2:B9, "Electronics", C2:C9)

Expected Result

360 (sum of 120 + 150 + 90)

3

Step 3: Calculate total sales for Clothing category using SUMIF function.

=SUMIF(B2:B9, "Clothing", C2:C9)

Expected Result

210 (sum of 80 + 60 + 70)

4

Step 4: Calculate total sales for Home category using SUMIF function.

=SUMIF(B2:B9, "Home", C2:C9)

Expected Result

300 (sum of 200 + 100)

5

Step 5: Place the formulas next to each category in cells F2, F3, and F4 respectively to create the summary table.

In F2: =SUMIF(B2:B9, E2, C2:C9) In F3: =SUMIF(B2:B9, E3, C2:C9) In F4: =SUMIF(B2:B9, E4, C2:C9)

Expected Result

F2=360, F3=210, F4=300

Final Result

Product Category | Total Sales
-----------------|------------
Electronics      | 360
Clothing         | 210
Home             | 300

✓Electronics is the top-selling category with total sales of 360.

✓Home category follows with total sales of 300.

✓Clothing has the lowest total sales of 210.

Bonus Challenge

Create a total sales amount for all categories combined using the SUM function.

Show Hint

Use =SUM(F2:F4) to add all total sales values together.