Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ)

Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ) is one of the first numbers you will encounter when sourcing from overseas manufacturers. It represents the lowest quantity a factory is willing to produce per order, and it varies enormously by product type, manufacturing process, and factory size. Injection-molded plastic products might have MOQs of 1,000-5,000 units, while custom-sewn textile products might start at 200-500 pieces per color per size.

MOQs exist for practical reasons. Factories need to purchase raw materials (which have their own MOQs from material suppliers), set up production lines and tooling, and allocate worker time. A factory producing 10,000 units per day cannot economically stop their line to run a batch of 50 units for a single customer. The setup time, quality control overhead, and material waste make small runs unprofitable at standard pricing.

Negotiating MOQs is an art. Strategies include: offering to pay a slightly higher per-unit price for a smaller initial order, committing to larger follow-up orders in a purchase agreement, consolidating multiple SKUs into a single production run, working with trading companies who aggregate orders from multiple buyers, or targeting smaller factories that specialize in lower-volume production.