Buyer's Guides
How Wholesale Pricing Works: MOQ, Quantity Tiers and Freight
Wholesale pricing looks simple on a product page and becomes confusing on the first invoice, because the number that decides your real cost per unit is not the unit price. It is the quantity tier you landed in, what else was in the carton, and how the freight was spread.
This guide explains how the three levers work so you can plan an order that lands in the right tier instead of guessing.
The minimum order quantity, and why it exists
Our minimum is 50 pieces. Not because we want to push volume, but because of how the stock physically arrives: virtually every product in the catalogue is packed to a factory carton that holds 10, 25, 50 or 100 pieces. Breaking a carton to ship 12 pieces means the remaining 88 sit open on a shelf, and that handling is what makes small orders expensive.
| Packing unit | Typical minimum | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| 10 pcs / bag | 50 pcs = 5 bags | Boxes and card holders usually fall here |
| 25 pcs / bag | 50 pcs = 2 bags | Sleeves and smaller bags |
| 50 pcs / bag | 50 pcs = 1 bag | Large sleeves and budget lines |
| By the roll / metre | 50 units | Ribbon and paper on rolls |
The packing column on each product page tells you the unit. Read it before comparing two products on unit price, because a 10-piece bag and a 25-piece bag are not the same thing at the same price.
How quantity tiers actually work
Tiered pricing means the unit price drops as the quantity rises, and the breaks are set at the points where our own handling cost drops. That produces a specific shape worth understanding.
| Quantity band | Relative unit cost | What changes at this point |
|---|---|---|
| 50 – 199 pcs | 100% (baseline) | Single carton, single SKU handling |
| 200 – 499 pcs | roughly 85-92% | Multiple cartons of the same SKU — less per-item picking |
| 500 – 999 pcs | roughly 75-85% | Tier crossing where custom logo printing also becomes possible |
| 1,000 pcs and above | roughly 65-78% | Direct factory run, arranged to your order |
Two practical consequences. First, the biggest single jump is usually between the first and second band, so it is worth pushing a slightly larger order if you can store it. Second, the curve flattens: chasing the top band on a product you use slowly ties up cash for no real gain.
Mixed orders: how to reach a tier without over-buying
You do not have to buy 500 of one thing. Most buyers reach the next tier by combining several products in one order, because the tier applies to the order value rather than to a single line. That is the single most useful thing to know about wholesale ordering.
| What you would order alone | Quantity | Add these to reach the next tier instead |
|---|---|---|
| Wrapping paper | 150 sheets | + 100 sleeves, + 50 ribbon rolls |
| Sleeves | 100 pcs | + 100 bags, + 50 boxes |
| Ribbon | 60 rolls | + 100 sheets of paper, + floral tape |
| Boxes | 80 pcs | + 200 sleeves, + card holders |
The logic: consolidate the things you know you will use anyway. Accessories and sleeves are ideal for this — light, cheap, near-indestructible in transit, and consumed continuously.
The cost nobody calculates: freight per unit
Freight is often the largest single line on a first order, and the only way to reduce it is to spread it across more units. This is why two orders of 250 pieces usually cost more in total than one order of 500.
| Order profile | Freight as share of total | Effect on true unit cost |
|---|---|---|
| 50 pcs by air | Very high — can exceed the goods | Unit cost is dominated by freight |
| 200 pcs by air | Moderate | Freight still visible per unit |
| 500 pcs by air | Low | Unit cost approaches the goods price |
| 500+ pcs by sea | Lowest per unit | Worth it whenever you can wait 15-20 working days |
Heavy items — paper reels, boxes, glass vases — swing most sharply between air and sea. Light items such as sleeves, ribbon and card holders are cheap to fly, which is why they make good fillers when you want to reach a tier without waiting for a sea shipment.
Samples, lead times and what to expect
- Samples — worth doing once on any product where the finish matters (paper colour, ribbon sheen, box rigidity). Ask before committing to volume.
- Air freight — 7-12 working days door to door. Use it for urgent restocks and for light items.
- Sea freight — 15-20 working days. Use it for heavy and bulky items where cost matters more than speed.
- Custom logo printing — minimum 500 pieces, and it adds production time on top of shipping. Plan it around a season, not inside one.
- Stock timing — order at least six weeks before a peak if you are shipping by sea. For Valentine’s, that means the order goes in by early January at the latest.
Planning an order in four steps
- Count backwards from usage. Take your monthly consumption of each item and multiply by the order cycle you want. That is your baseline quantity.
- Find the nearest tier above it. Check the product page tiers and see how much extra it takes to cross. If it is less than a few weeks of extra stock, cross it.
- Fill the gap with consumables. Add tape, string, sleeves or card holders rather than a slow-moving colour you will not use.
- Choose the freight mode by weight. Heavy and unhurried goes by sea; light and urgent goes by air.
Run those four steps once and you have a repeatable ordering pattern you can reuse every season, adjusting only for the peaks.
Worked example: two orders of 250 versus one order of 500
The clearest way to see how tiers and freight interact is to compare two purchasing patterns on the same products over the same period.
| Two orders of 250 | One order of 500 | |
|---|---|---|
| Goods price | Band 2 price, twice | Band 3 price, once |
| Freight | Paid twice — the fixed element is duplicated | Paid once |
| Handling | Two pick-and-pack cycles | One |
| Cash tied up | Lower at any moment | Higher for the whole period |
| Risk | None — you can change colour mid-season | Committed to one colour for months |
Consolidating usually wins on cost. Splitting wins on flexibility. The decision rule that works in practice: consolidate anything you are certain about — plain paper, white sleeves, tape, string — and split anything where the colour or design might change, such as seasonal or custom printed lines.
The reorder point matters more than the order size
Most stockouts are not caused by ordering too little. They are caused by ordering too late. A shop that reorders when stock reaches zero is out of that product for at least the lead time, which is 7-12 working days by air and 15-20 by sea.
| Item type | Reorder when remaining stock reaches | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Fast consumables (tape, string) | 30% | Used continuously and cheap to hold |
| Core paper and sleeves | 25-30% | Covers air freight lead time with a buffer |
| Seasonal colours | Reorder only if the season is more than six weeks away | Arriving after the peak is worse than running short |
| Custom printed items | Six to eight weeks before you need them | Production time sits in front of shipping time |
| Boxes and vases | 20% | Slow-moving, but expensive to fly if you get it wrong |
Write these thresholds on the storage shelf. Physical signage beats a spreadsheet nobody checks during a busy week.
Next step
If you are working out what to order first, start with how to choose wrapping paper. If you are planning around a peak, read the Valentine’s rush playbook — it sets out the seven-day preparation timeline that the delivery schedule depends on.
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