What Is Shople?
Shople is Spotle for brands. Every day there's one mystery brand, and you get 10 guesses to find it from a pool of 2,000+ shoppable brands everyone knows, from Nike and Delta to Chipotle and Rolex.
Each guess reveals 8 clues: HQ country, year founded, vertical, sub-vertical, employees, public or private, estimated revenue, and where to shop. Green means exact, yellow means close, and arrows tell you to go higher or lower.
The surprise factor is real. Brands you've bought from for years can turn out to have headquarters, founding dates, employee counts, or revenue levels you never expected.
The 8 Shople Attributes
Every guess is scored on the same eight facts. Understanding how each attribute works makes it much easier to narrow down the mystery brand.
HQ Country
This is where the brand is headquartered today.
- Gray — Not close: the countries are on different continents.
- Yellow — Close: the brands are headquartered in different countries on the same continent.
- Green — Exact: both brands have the same HQ country.
Founded
This is the year the brand was founded.
- Gray — Not close: more than 15 years away.
- Yellow — Close: within 15 years of the answer.
- Green — Exact: the founding year matches exactly.
Arrows point toward the mystery brand's founding year. For example, if your guess shows 1962 ↓, the answer was founded earlier. If it shows 1948 ↑, the answer was founded later.
Employees
Shople groups global employee counts into six bands:
- Under 1,000
- 1K–10K
- 10K–50K
- 50K–150K
- 150K–500K
- 500K+
A matching band is green. One band away is yellow. Anything farther away is gray. Arrows indicate whether you should look for a brand with more or fewer employees.
Estimated Revenue
Annual revenue is grouped into these bands:
- Under $1B
- $1B–$5B
- $5B–$25B
- $25B–$75B
- $75B–$200B
- $200B+
The same logic applies: exact is green, one band away is yellow, and more distant values are gray. Arrows indicate whether the answer has higher or lower estimated revenue.
Listing
Listing describes whether the brand is publicly traded, privately owned, or part of a larger company.
This attribute does not use a close state. It is either an exact match or not close.
Vertical
Vertical is the brand's main industry, selected from 24 broad categories.
An exact industry is green, while a related industry can be yellow. For example, Big Box & Department and Apparel & Footwear are considered related.
Sub Vertical
Sub Vertical is the more specific category inside a brand's main vertical, such as Athletic & Sportswear or Traditional Department Stores.
- Gray — Not close: unrelated categories.
- Yellow — Close: different sub-verticals within the same main vertical.
- Green — Exact: the exact sub-vertical matches.
For example, Athletic & Sportswear and Fast Fashion are considered close because both belong to Apparel & Footwear.
Where to Shop
This describes where consumers usually buy from the brand, such as a mall, supermarket, department store, dealership, or app.
Similar channels are yellow. For example, Mall and Department Store are close, while Mall and App are not.
How to Play Shople
- Search for a brand to make your first guess. Each guess reveals all eight attributes and shows how they compare with the mystery brand.
- Read the colors and arrows. Green means exact, yellow means close, and gray means not close. Arrows on numerical clues tell you whether the answer is higher or lower.
- Use what you learned to make a smarter guess. Combine country, industry, age, company size, revenue, ownership, and shopping channel instead of relying on a single clue.
- Keep narrowing the possibilities. Each new guess should ideally confirm or eliminate another part of the mystery brand's profile.
- Find the mystery brand within 10 guesses. The puzzle is solved when every attribute turns green.
Example: Kohl's to Puma to Adidas
The built-in tutorial shows how the deduction process works using three guesses.
The first guess is Kohl's. Its employee band and public listing are exact matches. Founded, Revenue, Vertical, and Where to Shop are close, while HQ Country and Sub Vertical are not close. The 1962 ↓ founding clue tells you the target is older, while the revenue arrow points toward a higher revenue band.
The second guess is Puma. This produces several exact matches: Germany for HQ, Public for Listing, Apparel & Footwear for Vertical, Athletic & Sportswear for Sub Vertical, and Mall for Where to Shop. Puma's 1948 ↑ clue reveals that the mystery brand was founded slightly later, while the employee and revenue clues point upward.
Those clues strongly suggest a German, publicly traded athletic brand founded around 1950 with more employees and higher revenue than Puma.
The third guess is Adidas, and every tile turns green. The tutorial is solved in three guesses.
What the Colors Mean
| Color | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Gray | Not close |
| Yellow | Close |
| Green | Exact |
What counts as close depends on the clue. For HQ Country it means the same continent. For Founded it means within 15 years. For Employees and Revenue it means one band away. For industry and shopping clues, it means a related category or channel.
Shople Strategy Tips
Use exact category matches aggressively
A green Vertical, Sub Vertical, HQ Country, or Where to Shop clue can eliminate a large part of the 2,000+ brand pool. Once you have several exact categorical clues, use them together to identify realistic candidates.
Follow the arrows
Founded, Employees, and Estimated Revenue are especially useful because arrows give you a direction rather than simply marking a guess as wrong.
If Employees shows 10K–50K ↑, look for a larger company. If Founded shows 1962 ↓, look for an older brand.
Combine multiple clues
The game becomes much easier when clues are treated as a profile rather than isolated facts. Knowing that the answer is German is useful. Knowing it is German, public, Apparel & Footwear, Athletic & Sportswear, mall-based, and founded around 1950 is much more powerful.
Use early guesses to gather information
Your first guess does not have to be your best attempt at the answer. A familiar brand can act as a reference point for geography, age, employee count, revenue, industry, and ownership.
Pay attention to yellow tiles
Yellow does not mean the same thing for every attribute. A yellow HQ clue identifies the correct continent. A yellow Sub Vertical tells you the brands share a broader vertical. A yellow Employees or Revenue clue means you are exactly one band away.
Understanding why a clue is yellow is often more useful than simply looking for green tiles.