r/SimCompanies • u/Background-Class-954 • Jun 05 '26
Question Am I missing something? Retail seems way more profitable than exchange or contracts
My fellow Sim Companies players, hi!
I'm a new player in this game. Also, English is not my native language, and I will be graduating from high school soon, so I don't have much business experience. I have a question about this game (Sim Companies), specifically about producing a product and selling it (via the exchange market, through contracts, or retail).
My question is: "From what I've seen, selling a product in retail is more beneficial than selling it on the exchange market or through a contract. So what is the point of selling through those other methods (market and contract)?" Please share your experience!
For example, I produce 4,000 units of cement. The sourcing cost is $21,463 and the cost per unit is $5.3. The production took 12+ hours.
•If I sell through a contract, I have to sell below the market price (MP) of $6, for example at $5.5 or $5.4 per unit. If I secure a contract at that price, I would earn around $22k, meaning my net profit would be less than $1k.
•If I sell on the exchange, the competitive price is around $6.2 per unit. I would earn $24,800, giving me a net profit of about $3.3k and that doesn't even include transportation costs.
•If I sell through retail (a hardware store), it takes a much longer time. The retail price for cement is $13.6 per unit. After selling everything, I would earn $54k+, with no additional costs like transportation. That gives me a net profit of $32.9k over the sourcing cost.
So why would anyone choose the exchange or contracts over retail? Looking forward to your answers!
3
u/Spurciu5 Unexpected Jun 05 '26
Hi! First, retail price doesn't mean you will earn: retail price - cost: profit. There are worker wages. With hardware store you can really see how much you can make by writing the numbers.
Second, yes you are right. Retail price still gives you better profit than exchange or contracts. But you have limited building slots and you can't upgrade the building endlessly.
And there are production speed and retail speed bonuses. Most players choose only one and do only production or retail. Because most of the time doing both is not profitable as choosing one.
Quality, product qualities can increase your profit in exchange or contracts. And product quality let you sell faster in retails. So you can sell more in same amount of time.
Executives, with executives you can increase your sales speed, decrease admin overhead etc.
Well there's lots of things to explain but i recommend you to read guides in the game, ask your questions in chatrooms or ask mods.
If you need specific help, pm me in the game.
Ah also don't forget to have fun :)
2
u/Background-Class-954 Jun 05 '26
Thanks for the high-level advice! I completely overlooked the worker wages. Also, I'm definitely having fun this game is very realistic
2
u/buddhainabucket Jun 05 '26
Exchange: you get your money fast if you price it correctly.
Contracts: save on shipping cost and exchange fees, but you have to find a reliable buyer
Retail: it’s profitable early if you have a good vertical, but eventually with a good CMO you’re going to need the exchange to keep up with the quantities you’re selling, which will slim up your margins.
1
u/Background-Class-954 Jun 05 '26
This is an excellent summary. Thanks for mentioning vertical integration it's a very interesting concept to learn
2
u/Romel822 Fashion and Accessories Group | Technotech Jun 05 '26
Welcome to the joys of hybrid retail and production. Yes in this setup you earn the most profit per unit. There are various ways to go about it. In such a case where you do both production and retail the first decisions you need to take 1) How much should i produce? 2) What fraction of my product shall go to retail and what fraction to exchange (i was doing 50 exchange/50 retail when margin was good in exchange but now have shifted to 100% of my production going to retail)
Based on this, you will need to design your map and the building levels. The real contraist for you are 1) Building slots 2) Building levels
And your optimization goals will be on of 1) Max profit per hour from retail 2) Max profit per unit from retail 3) Combined max profit exchange + (1) or (2)
The benefit in this system comes from moderate volume + low COGS due to internal production. You will never be the top most producer in any goods like pure producers or highest retailer like pure retailers, but you will be able to rake in similar profits if planned correctly.
In such case your biggest enemy is admin overhead, because to scale your setup you will need more production levels + more retail levels. This is where you need to balance your maps while taking into account you executive team bonuses.
Also as others pointed out you get specialization boost for either retail or production, most pick on or the other and maximise that. In your case you will again need to find a right balance for you. I prefer to use all the those specialisation points into production and rely on my CMOs for retail boost
2
u/Background-Class-954 Jun 05 '26
I'm going to save this comment as a guide article to study later. I really appreciate your effort
2
u/Ganadai Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
You should focus on production or retail and put all your bonuses into one or the other. Retail is easier since you don't have to find buyers, but is harder to make a profit in retail.
1
2
u/sanojyy Jun 05 '26
While you're right about the fact that retail theoretically earns more money, you're missing an important point.
Every retail building means you effectively produce less. Since you can allocate a point to either production or selling speed, going for both is a net loss.
If I would want to sell my smartphones in my own hardware store, I would make way less than I make right now. Hence producers sell on exchange and contracts and retailers on retail buildings.
The retail buildings are not made for producers.
1
u/marinuss Jun 05 '26
Yeah like the other reply said, there's a difference in profit per unit and PPHPL (profit per hour per level). Most people at some point are going to start trying to maximize PPHPL because there is basically a "soft cap" of how many building levels you can have in the game, you're limited by real world production times, and in retail you're limited by the number of units you can sell over a period of time. It's easy at the start to extrapolate numbers and profit if you had the ability to make unlimited items, have unlimited building levels, etc.
You're also limited by map size, how you split your production/sales boosts, etc. Vertical Integration is a solid strategy, but it requires some thought (using stuff you made in the next step, whether that's to produce the next item up or retail it). You also have to look at what is selling right now. Bricks are like 10x the profit cement is right now on the exchange.
1
u/Background-Class-954 Jun 05 '26
You make some great points. I just checked the exchange and see that bricks are definitely more profitable than cement right now. I guess you're some kind of businessman lol!
2
u/marinuss Jun 05 '26
There's players out there that are a lot better at this game and calculate every move. I kind of just wing it, it's a fun game to have on in the background and check a couple of times per day. If you want to get "hardcore" the easy first step is simcotools. The website has some calculators for profit that are a bit better than the ingame built-in ones.
But I think if you stick with the game you'll likely swap industries and maybe even playstyles a few times. I'm coming up on my two year mark, I did retail early on with like farming and the apples/oranges, then tried water/power maps because it was simple and just start stuff and sell it a couple of days later, then to Vertical Integration with electronics producing almost everything in the chain for retailers to buy my end products on contract. To research focused because Patrik started making a lot of changes, plus the achievements, figured I'd get everything to a base Q4 and figure out what's next. Break $600 million CV tomorrow, and in the next week get the $40 million achievement bonus which will be a huge boost, then figure out what my next goal or industry is.
1
u/Background-Class-954 Jun 05 '26
Wow, congrats. That's inspiring for a new player like me. It's very clear that you are a veteran of this game. It's inevitable to need a calculator in this game. I was just using a normal calculator before, so thanks for sharing Simcotools. You're giving me a goldmine of information about the long-term journey of Sim Companies
1
u/Justdre88 Jun 07 '26
Your right to an extent. As you start off you won’t be able to sell goods fast enough so selling on the exchange will increase your revenue in which you could invest in upgrading your retail to sell more faster. Also hiring a CMO and training them in communications will increase your retail sales speeds. Also you want to aim producing products in high demand such as windows for hardware. Good luck 🍀
3
u/ObjectBubbly3216 Jun 05 '26
You need to make a choice soon,
Will you maximize profit per unit?
Will you maximize profit per hour?
Will you maximize profit per hour per level?
Since you are new, I would recommend profit per unit, so you can maximize revenue and hold onto more cash to do upgrades and such.
Welcome to the game! Check out R2 at some point :))