MOQ is short for Minimum Order Quantity.

This is the minimum amount of units you need to purchase from a supplier / manufacturer.

For example, if you are looking to purchase 500 Garlic Presses from a manufacturer on Alibaba. He might respond that this is not possible since his MOQ is 1000 units.

Once you have found your product to sell on Amazon, it is time to start contacting manufactures. You will soon find out that most manufacturers will only manufacture your product if you order X amount of units from then. As it is unprofitable for them if they only sell a small amount to each customer.

MOQ Example:

How to get around high MOQ on Alibaba?

Pay for the mould cost

There are a couple of ways to get around a high MOQ. One of the main reasons a manufacturer sets a high MOQ is because he needs to recoup the mould cost for your product.

A mould is the unique design to manufacture your product. This is a fixed cost for the manufacturer. And in order to recoup this he will set the minimum order quantity at X level.

A solution for this is that you could offer to pay the mould cost yourself if you could order a lower quantity. This way you are taking away the risk for the supplier that he will not recoup his fixed cost for the mould. While still being able to order a lower quantity.

Pretending your a huge business

I feel like everyone uses this method, so all the manufacturer will know about this. But I feel like this could still work in some cases. When you are in contact with a possible manufacturer, pretend to be a huge business that is willing to place huge orders in the future. However, in order to test the quality of their product you will need to start with a small order that is below their MOQ.

The manufacturer might lower their MOQ for you, hoping that your “huge business” will place a larger order in the future.

Throw around lots of corporate words and stuff like: “Mike, from accounting, will send you an email regarding the invoice”. Anything to convince them you are not a 1-man business being run from home.

Find another supplier

Honestly, I have found that the MOQ could vary greatly between suppliers for the same product. Sometimes I get the response that they can not sell me their product as their MOQ is 5000 units. While I find other suppliers who can manufacture my product and only request a MOQ of 1000 units. It is always best to contact as many suppliers as possible. I discuss this in detail in my manufacturing guide.