Quote 25 units and the per-unit figure can land close to double the 500-unit price — same product, same line, same week. Nothing cynical happens on our side of that spread: certification batches, first-article inspection, tooling set-up, export paperwork and freight booking barely register the difference between 25 units and 500, and the fixed stack simply gets divided by a smaller number.
Every quotation carries a stack that ignores your quantity
Two halves sit inside any quote. The variable half scales with your order: resin, sensors, motors, assembly labour, packaging. The fixed half does not scale at all: mould amortisation or tooling set-up, export documentation, the batch sent through certification, first-article inspection and the freight booking. When a buyer recently asked us to price one SKU at 10, 25, 50, 100, 300 and 500 units — a sensible request — the variable half stepped down gently while the fixed half per unit collapsed. That shape, not a sales argument, explains most of the distance between a pilot quote and a volume quote.
Dividing the fixed stack: the shape of the curve
Set the fixed stack at an arbitrary 100, divide it by each order size, and index everything against the 500-unit figure. What follows is not a quotation — it is what division does:
| Order size | Fixed cost per unit, indexed to the 500-unit order (= 1) | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| 25 units | 20 | Pilot economics, not shelf economics |
| 50 units | 10 | Entry wholesale rung |
| 100 units | 5 | The fixed share thins fast |
| 300 units | ≈1.7 | The curve flattens out |
| 500 units | 1 | The reference point |
Quotations from real production bend this arithmetic a little — certification is occasionally spread over several SKUs and freight climbs in steps rather than a glide — but no quantity reverses it. The gap also widens or narrows with customisation depth. Light branding on an existing catalogue SKU keeps the fixed half small, so a 25-unit quote sits above the volume price without approaching it. New tooling plus a fresh certification round pushes the small-order penalty toward twice the volume figure. A near-doubling describes the heavily customised end of the range, not a law of the category.
Our published rungs: 50, 1,000 and 3,000
On the standard wholesale ladder the first rung sits at 50 to 100 units — fixed costs have thinned by then, yet you are not asked to commit warehouse space. OEM work, meaning your branding applied to an existing mould, starts at 1,000 units and runs 15-25 days in production. ODM work with new tooling starts at 3,000 units and runs 30-45 days. Feeder SKUs on the current line wholesale between $14.69 and $69.99 depending on capacity and features, with the 6L timed feeder and the 8L camera feeder marking the two ends. Samples stand apart from the ladder: with no quantity underneath, a single unit absorbs all of the inspection and paperwork cost by itself, so we quote samples separately — and on standard programmes the fee is returned against a first order that clears the wholesale tier. The factory sample testing guide covers what one unit can and cannot prove.
Levers that move your price without a discount request
Each of the four goes after the fixed half head-on. Merging SKUs lets a single certification batch and a single tooling set stretch across more units. Consolidating shipments spreads the documentation and freight bill across fuller loads — the container loading and CBM guide shows how fuller boxes change the arithmetic. Trimming customisation depth, choosing a shared mould over a dedicated one, stops amortisation from ballooning. And splitting the delivery schedule can preserve the volume price while your warehouse breathes. Before asking any supplier for a lower number, ask which of the four applies to your mix. A discount that shows up later as a missing inspection step is no discount — the risk has simply moved onto your books.
Reading a quote that looks too good
A number far below the pack deserves exactly one question: which line item went to zero? The usual suspects: a cheaper sensor substituted into the build, a motor spec shaved until service life suffers, CE, FCC or RoHS verification missing at SKU level, and inspection stages that quietly vanish. The warranty clause usually betrays the shortcut: honouring 12 months of coverage requires genuine testing behind it, and a promise printed on paper costs the supplier nothing. Weigh cost per unit sold instead of cost per unit shipped, and the seemingly expensive quotation frequently comes out ahead — our automatic feeder cost audit works one example in full.
One RFQ, every supplier pricing the same product
To make several suppliers price one product, put one product on paper. Pin the configuration down first — model, capacity, app platform, plug type — and describe it in the same words to every recipient; the plug, voltage and wattage guide covers the destination-specific fields. Fix the packaging specification too, retail box through to master carton — packaging rarely changes a return rate, yet it shifts every quote you receive. Pin one trade term across all quotes, FOB, CIF or DDP; the DDP vs CPT landed cost breakdown shows how much the term moves the total. Then add target tiers at 25, 50, 100, 300 and 500 units, a sample price, certificate copies per SKU and the warranty statement in writing. Any quotation that skips the trade term returns incomparable: identical goods priced on different assumptions.
Per-unit pricing questions buyers put to our sales desk
Can any factory honestly sell 25 units at the 500-unit rate?
No honest factory beats the division; a supplier who promises to has hidden the difference where you are not looking. What you can ask for is transparency: fixed and variable lines separated, the pilot tier priced at its true cost, every break above published. Ask for that split and the whole ladder lays itself out on a single page.
Does the near-doubling appear on every SKU?
No. The swing tracks the fixed stack, and the fixed stack tracks customisation depth. Light branding on a standard SKU carries a modest premium; new tooling, another certification round and bespoke packaging stretch it toward the heavily customised end. Judge suppliers on the shape of their curve rather than on one point — an unnaturally flat curve hides padding, a steep one reflects genuine fixed costs, and both shapes are saying something worth hearing.
Where should a first-shelf retailer step onto the ladder?
At the 50 to 100 unit rung, on one SKU you genuinely believe in. Below it you pay near-pilot prices for shelf stock; above it, cash sits in cartons before any sell-through data arrives. After that, let the reorder carry the progress: adding one more SKU to the next order is the lowest-cost break most small shops will ever see. Reorders backed by shelf data outgrow reorders backed by optimism.
Send your target tiers and we will return the quotation with the fixed and variable lines shown side by side — pilot tier at true cost, published breaks above it.
