MOQ guide for cosmetic packaging

What MOQ really pays for

MOQ (minimum order quantity) is not a sales tactic. It's the smallest run that lets a factory cover the cost of setup, mold changeovers, decoration plate creation, color matching, line calibration, QC sampling. Below MOQ, the per-unit setup cost makes the run uneconomic for both sides.

Our MOQ starts at 5,000 units per SKU. That covers an extrusion run, a single artwork, and a single colorway. New artwork or new colorway = new SKU = its own 5,000 minimum.

Planning your SKU count

The most common mistake we see indie brands make is over-SKU'ing at launch. Five products × three sizes × two colorways = 30 SKUs × 5,000 = 150,000 units of inventory before you've sold anything.

Start narrow. A focused launch of 2–4 SKUs at 5,000 each gives you 10,000–20,000 units of inventory, enough to test demand without choking cash flow. Add SKUs once sell-through justifies it.

• Limit launch SKUs. 2 to 4 is plenty
• Standardize the tube or bottle, vary only the artwork
• Use a single colorway at launch; add seasonal colorways once volume justifies
• Plan ~10 weeks of inventory cover at peak run-rate

Working with our 5,000-unit MOQ

If 5,000 per SKU is genuinely too high for your stage, we can sometimes consolidate. Two SKUs sharing the same tube body but different artwork can be planned as one production run with a mid-run plate change, bringing the effective per-SKU minimum closer to 2,500–3,000. Ask your account lead.