MOQ appears on supplier price sheets and in wholesale terms, and it works in both directions: your suppliers set one for you, and you can set one for your own trade buyers. This guide explains what it is, how it works and where merchants get it wrong.
What MOQ is
MOQ stands for minimum order quantity. It is the smallest amount a seller will accept in a single order. It is usually stated in units per product, though some sellers set it as a minimum order value or a minimum number of cases instead.
A concrete example
Say you sell candles wholesale. Each case holds 12 candles, and you decide a trade order has to include at least two cases of any scent.
| Buyer asks for | Result |
|---|---|
| 24 candles of one scent | Meets the MOQ |
| 36 candles of one scent | Meets the MOQ |
| 10 candles of one scent | Below the MOQ |
In Shopify's B2B features, the help pages describe this as a quantity rule. A minimum rule sets the fewest of an item that can be purchased at one time, a maximum rule sets the most, and an increment rule sets the multiple it has to be bought in, such as a case of 12.
Why it matters for a store
Small orders cost roughly the same to pick, pack and invoice as large ones, so a minimum protects your margin at wholesale prices. It also keeps trade pricing for trade-sized orders.
- Margin: Fixed handling cost is spread across more units
- Fairness: Wholesale prices go to buyers ordering wholesale volumes
- Planning: Predictable order sizes make stock and production easier to plan
Common mistakes
An MOQ that is unclear or badly set creates friction with the buyers you want to keep.
- ❌ Stating the minimum in a PDF but not enforcing it at checkout
- ❌ Setting a minimum that does not line up with your case size
- ❌ Copying a supplier's MOQ without checking what your own costs require
- ❌ Refusing a below-minimum order with no alternative offered
- ✅ Publishing the minimum next to the price so buyers see both together
For how minimums and price tiers fit together, see wholesale price breaks and MOQ. When a buyer asks for less, see what to do with a wholesale order below minimum.
Doing this at scale
QuoteWeaver reads a buyer's free-text quote request, parses it into line items and matches each to a real catalog SKU with a confidence score. It prices the request against your B2B list, including volume breaks, MOQ and the next-break upsell, then builds a Shopify draft order and a drafted reply. Low-confidence lines are flagged, and it never invents a SKU or price. See QuoteWeaver.