Virtual School Store Challenge

🏪 Virtual School Store Challenge — Team-Based Business Simulation Lab

Bring the world of business into your classroom with this interactive, team-based competition where students run their own virtual school store! In this multi-week simulation, students work in teams to launch and manage a school merchandise store — competing to earn the highest profit through smart decision-making, collaboration, and strategy.

🚀 How It Works

Students are placed into teams and step into the roles of marketing leads, product managers, finance officers, and store executives. Their mission: build a successful school store from the ground up. Over the course of the lab, students will:

1. Analyze customer personas
2. Select products from a BSN-style catalog
3. Assign roles and responsibilities
4. Build a store brand — name, logo, slogan, flyer
5. Set product pricing using demand-profit curves
6. Plan marketing strategies across three channels
7. Allocate budgets based on marginal ROI curves
8. Purchase inventory with uncertainty and risk
9. Staff and finance their operations
10. Track weekly sales performance and adjust strategy

Students compete head-to-head with other teams in the class, and their decisions — from product selection to promotion — all impact their real-time sales and profit.

💡 Key Concepts Covered

This lab covers major business and entrepreneurship topics, including:

• Market research & customer segmentation
• Product selection & pricing strategy
• Branding & promotional design
• Marketing ROI & budgeting
• Inventory planning & purchasing under uncertainty
• Team roles, leadership, and workplace ethics
• Financial planning, staffing, and business financing
• Profit tracking & competitive analysis

📅 Suggested Pacing

This lab is designed to run over 2–3 weeks, and is fully adaptable to your classroom schedule. It includes:

• 1 week of individual & team prep (concept learning, role assignment, market research)
• 1–2 weeks of team-based simulation activities and weekly sales tracking
• Built-in flexibility for group discussions, ethics scenarios, reflection, and presentations

🎓 Ideal For:

• High School Business, Marketing, or Entrepreneurship courses
• CTE, DECA prep, or end-of-year capstone projects
• Classrooms seeking collaborative, data-driven learning experiences

This lab is not just a simulation — it's an immersive, engaging experience that brings business education to life. Students leave with a deep understanding of core concepts and practical skills they’ll carry into the real world.

Let your students compete, collaborate, and learn by doing — with the Virtual School Store Challenge!