Games / Markup Mogul
🛒 Markup Mogul
Run an online store one week at a time. Source trending products, price them against your rivals on a real demand curve, and clear dead stock before carrying costs eat your cash — and learn why big sales mean nothing without a margin to back them up.
Markup Mogul
Run an online store with $12,000in the bank. Source trending products, price them against your rivals, and clear dead stock before it eats you alive. Big sales mean nothing if there's no profit left after fees — can you build a real margin?
It'll go on the storefront.
The finance behind the fun
Markup Mogul is a simulation, but every figure uses the same exact arithmetic that powers our calculators, so the numbers behave the way a real shop's would.
- Gross vs. net margin: the gap between your sticker price and what you actually keep after costs is where shops live or die. Work it out with our margin calculator.
- Price elasticity:demand responds to price, so the most profitable price balances margin against volume — and it's seldom the highest.
- Marketplace fees & tax: platform cuts and sales tax come straight off the top of every order. See how much with our VAT calculator and percentage calculator.
- Inventory carrying cost: unsold stock costs you every week and ties up cash you could deploy elsewhere — liquidity, not paper inventory value, keeps you trading.
Frequently asked questions
How do you win Markup Mogul?
There's no fixed finish beyond the trading quarter — the goal is to grow your net worth as high as you can. Each week you source stock from suppliers, set a price for every product against your rivals, and decide when to clear dead stock. You can cash out early to lock in your score. Run out of cash, though, and you're forced to dump inventory at a loss until you're solvent — or bust.
Why do I make a loss even when sales are high?
That's the difference between gross and net margin — the heart of the game. Your sticker price isn't your profit. Out of every sale come the marketplace's cut, shipping, and the cost of returns, and every unit sitting unsold racks up weekly carrying cost. Price too low to chase volume and there's nothing left after those deductions; you can post huge revenue and still lose money.
What's the best price to set?
It's rarely the highest one. Demand follows a price-elasticity curve: price well above your rivals and shoppers abandon you for them; price far below and you give away margin for volume you may not need. The profit-maximising price usually sits close to the competitor's, nudged by how hot the product is and how much stock you're trying to move. The live margin preview on each product helps you find the sweet spot.
Why does unsold stock hurt so much?
Because inventory isn't free to hold. Every week, unsold units cost you carrying cost (storage plus the risk they go out of fashion), and your cash is locked up in them until they sell — so overbuying a slow product leaves you unable to fund a hot one. That's the cash conversion cycle, and ignoring it is the classic over-trading death: a full warehouse and an empty bank account.
How do product trends work?
Each product moves through a hype lifecycle — rising, peaking, then cooling — shown by its buzz badge. A hot product can sell several times the volume of a cold one, so timing your buys to a product on the way up, and clearing it before it fades, is the core skill. Buy at the peak and hold too long and you'll be left with stock nobody wants.
Is my progress saved?
Yes. The game saves to your browser automatically, so you can close the tab and pick up where you left off on the same device. Starting a new game clears the old save.