Minimum order quantity for promotional products: what you need to know

Customising a product is not like printing an office page. Before the first item, your artwork has to be prepared for the chosen process, the machine set up, the colour adjusted and the product positioned in the marking area. This set-up work is roughly the same whether you produce a handful of items or a large run.

The minimum quantity therefore makes this preparation reasonable for everyone. Below a certain volume, its cost would weigh so heavily on each item that the product would lose all its appeal. This is also why the unit price falls as the quantity rises: the set-up is spread over more items.

This threshold is not the same for every item. It depends on the product itself and on the marking process possible on its area. A pen, an embroidered textile and an engraved water bottle do not have the same constraints.

There is no need to request a quote to find out this figure. The minimum quantity is shown on every product page and in the configurator: you see it when you choose your product, together with the price grid that goes with it.

Get into the habit of checking it from your very first searches in the catalogue. If your need is modest, mentally filter out the products whose minimum does not match your volume, rather than falling for a product whose threshold far exceeds your need. This saves you rebuilding your selection at the last minute.

Pricing is degressive: the unit price falls in tiers, and the full grid is shown on the product page. The “from” price on the catalogue cards is excl. VAT and excluding marking; the configurator, for its part, calculates the price with the marking you choose, for the quantity entered. This grid is your best decision-making tool.

Two habits to adopt:

• Compare the total, not just the unit price. Moving up to the next tier lowers the price of each item, but increases the bill. The question is whether you will actually use the extra items.
• Think in terms of the actual marking. An extra colour or a second marking area changes the price. The final price is confirmed on your quote.

If you are hesitating between two quantities, ask yourself a concrete question: where will the remaining items be stored, and on what occasion will they be handed out? Without a clear answer, stick with the lower volume.

A small need is not a problem, provided you choose suitable products. A few ideas:

• Favour products with a low threshold, identified from the product page.
• Consider digital printing when it is offered on the area: it suits small runs and complex artwork.
• Limit the number of colours. In screen printing and pad printing, each colour is a separate pass: a one-colour marking remains the simplest choice.
• Keep timeless artwork: your logo alone, with no date or event name, so that you can reuse any remaining items.

For a tight budget, our low-cost promotional products page presents the most economical product families.

Often, the volume already exists within the company, but it is scattered. The sales team wants items for a trade show, HR for welcoming new starters, management for a few client gifts. Taken separately, each of these needs remains below the threshold or on an unattractive tier.

Check with every department before ordering. The same product, marked with your logo, can serve several purposes: you reach the minimum and a better tier more easily. To put several different items together in a single step, the Create my pack tool helps you build a coherent set.

A common example: an SME is preparing a trade show in spring and welcoming several recruits in autumn. By choosing the same notebook marked with its logo for both uses, it places one order instead of two, approves a single proof and has a stock it can use all year round. Be careful, though: this grouping only makes sense if the artwork suits both audiences. A product that is too event-specific is hard to reuse.

Conversely, aiming too high to obtain an attractive unit price is a common mistake. Boxes sitting in a storeroom have a cost: space, products that age, and sometimes artwork that is out of date after a change of brand guidelines.

Base your volume on identified uses: number of visitors expected on a stand, number of new starters planned in the year, list of clients to thank. Add a small margin for the unexpected, no more. A product handed out at the right moment brings in more than a batch got rid of in a hurry to free up space.

Also bear in mind that a new order is always an option. If your first batch goes faster than expected, it will be all the easier to place since your file is already prepared and checked. Two well-sized orders are sometimes better than a single oversized one.