Key takeaways
- Ecommerce Simulator Teacher Guide: 45-Minute Lesson Plan and Discussion Quest… — focus on one metric or lever at a time; validate with data before scaling spend.
This guide is for teachers who want to use the Ecommerce Simulator in a business, marketing, economics or entrepreneurship class. Students run an online store turn by turn and watch revenue, profit and cash respond to their choices. It is free, needs no sign-up and runs in a browser, so it works on school laptops and phones. It teaches mechanics such as break-even ROAS and unit economics. It does not forecast a real store.
Who it suits
Upper secondary and undergraduate students, and self-learners. No prior ecommerce knowledge is needed. Students who have met terms like margin, revenue and cash flow will get more from the debrief.
Learning objectives
By the end of the session, students can:
- Explain how traffic, conversion rate and average order value combine into revenue.
- Calculate break-even ROAS from gross margin.
- Describe why a profitable-looking month can still end in a cash shortfall.
Useful reading for you or the class: unit economics, average order value, ROAS and CAC.
Before class
- Open the classroom assign page, pick a scenario and a seed, and copy the link. Classroom mode turns leaderboard submit off. Students need no login, so compare results through display names and the CSV export on the Leaderboard tab (available after at least one phase).
- Play the first three phases yourself so you know what the dashboard shows. A ready-made link for the lesson below: Margin first, seed 246813579.
- Write the three learning objectives on the board.
45-minute lesson plan
The plan uses the Margin first scenario. Its goal is gross margin of at least 55% and a positive net profit by phase 6.
| Minutes | Activity |
|---|---|
| 0 to 5 | Introduce the question: how does an online store make money, and when does it run out of cash? Define revenue, gross margin, CAC and ROAS in a sentence each. |
| 5 to 10 | Students open the shared link, complete setup (business type, niche, store name) and read the scenario goal. Ask pairs to predict which lever matters most. |
| 10 to 30 | Students play toward the phase 6 goal. Each phase, they choose marketing, product, conversion and retention actions and read the result. Ask them to note, for each phase, one number that moved and the choice that moved it. |
| 30 to 40 | Debrief in pairs, then as a class, using the discussion questions below. Students open Advanced metrics once and name one lever they would change in a real store. |
| 40 to 45 | Exit ticket: each student writes one sentence they would stick next to a real ads dashboard, and the term behind it. |
If your class is slower, stop at the debrief after the phases they reach. The goal is the discussion, not the finish line.
Discussion questions
- Which phase changed your plan, and what number told you to change it?
- Did a high ROAS in one phase hide a thin margin or a cash problem?
- What did you spend on that you would not spend on again, and why?
- If you could restart with the same seed, what is the first choice you would change?
- Which would you fund next with the same cash: more ads, or a reason for customers to come back?
- Where does this game leave out something a real store has to deal with?
Follow-up session: profit is not cash
The Profit is not cash scenario starts with $5k in the bank. The goal is to finish phase 8 with a profitable phase and cash above $1k, without letting cash drop below $1k along the way. A big ad push sells stock you already paid for, and every restock is paid up front, so students see cash and profit move apart. Use it to teach working capital in plain terms. Link: Profit is not cash, seed 246813579.
Assessment ideas
- Collect the exit-ticket sentences and mark them for correct use of the term.
- Ask for a half-page reflection: one decision, the number it changed, and what the student would do differently.
- Use the CSV export for group debriefs. Compare the runs that met the goal with the ones that did not and ask what separated them.
What the simulator does not do
The model uses stylized curves and one-turn initiative effects. There is no live ad auction and no SKU-level lead time. Treat results as a way to see trade-offs, and tell students not to read them as a forecast of any real business. More on how it works: the ecommerce game and what an ecommerce simulator is. The simulator is also listed on MERLOT.
Licence and reuse
The text of this teacher guide is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). You may copy, adapt and share it, including in course packs, if you credit Growthegy and link to this page. The Ecommerce Simulator software and the rest of the site are not covered by this licence.
Questions, or a class licence enquiry? Use the form on the classroom page.