EMPIRE e-commerce brand strategy simulation
The Kitchen Table · Free E-commerce business simulation game
E-COMMERCE
You have $15,000, one product and 150 units on the shelf. Practise pricing products, finding customers, planning inventory and managing cash flow. Decide what to spend on ads and which supplier to trust. Choose a response or type your own business decision, then see how orders, margins and returns change. The hard part is not selling. It is staying solvent while you grow.
Starting monthly costs: $300/mo overhead. Your $800/mo owner salary starts after your first sale. With $15,000 and no sales yet, that is about 50 months of cash.
Starting cash
$15,000
Starting stock
150 units
Supplier lead time
2 months
Goal
$100,000,000 brand
How this business actually works
- Ads and brand awareness create orders. Each order costs you product, shipping and refunds: what is left is your contribution.
- Buying stock takes cash the day you order it, months before those units become sales. Cost of goods only hits the P&L when a unit actually sells.
- Order too little and you stock out and lose demand you paid for. Order too much and your cash is locked in a warehouse.
- Cheap suppliers lift margin and raise defects, refunds and bad reviews. Fast shipping delights customers and costs money on every order.
Prefer other economics? Explore SaaS business games or Explore Service business games , every mode saves its progress separately.