Minimum order, first order and box multiples: the rules and why they exist

Written 23 September 2026, last changed 27 October 2026 by the trade desk. About 7 minutes to read.

$100 on a first order, $300 on the second, $500 on the third and $1,000 from the fourth order on, counted on goods; whole sealed boxes only; at least 50 boxes on a line marked special order, $910.00 to $21,800.00 of goods on today’s list; at least 10 boxes of BAC3 or BAC10; no maximum. Each rule is set out here with its reason and today’s box counts, because a supplier who will not tell you the minimum until you have registered is asking you to guess.

The minimum steps up with the account

The floor is counted on goods, in US dollars, and it depends on how many orders the account has already paid for.

Only paid orders move an account up a step: one that was cancelled, or raised and never paid, does not count. Freight, where it applies, does not count towards the floor, and neither does a discount already taken off. An account that has agreed its own floor with the desk in writing is on that figure instead.

Why the first order is small

A first order is where a buyer finds out whether the batch number can be looked up, whether the certificate matches the vial, whether the packing list agrees with what arrived, and how quickly the desk answers when something is not right. Asking someone to commit a wholesale-sized order before they know any of that is asking them to trust a stranger, so a new account can start from $100 of goods and test one line.

Why it rises after that

Below a few hundred dollars the cost of picking, packing and documentation outweighs the goods, and below $1,000 of goods an order to a US address also pays its own freight, quoted at checkout. The steps close that gap in stages rather than all at once. At the top step the floor has reached $1,000, the figure from which an order to a US address no longer pays freight, so an established account pays none on a US delivery; to Canada and other countries the desk quotes the freight on the proforma.

Whole boxes, and 50 on a special-order line

The smallest quantity of a regular line is one box of ten vials, and boxes are not split. A box is sealed at fill with the batch number on it; opening one to sell five vials would break the seal, the batch record and the certificate's link to what you received. BAC3 and BAC10 are sold 10 boxes at a time: bacteriostatic water ships in its own parcel.

A line marked special order on the price list sits outside regular production. It is not held in stock and brought in on a 50-box minimum, per strength and at the list price per box. Every other line is on the shelf, on its way in (1 or 2 weeks, as marked), or made to order in about four weeks, from a single box.

What volume earns

Two discounts are worked out at checkout and the better one applies, never both. An order of $5,000 of goods or more takes a percentage off that order: 5 percent from $5,000, 10 percent from $10,000, 15 percent from $20,000 and 20 percent from $50,000. And lifetime spend on paid orders moves an account up a tier that comes off the goods on every later order: 3 percent from $5,000, 6 percent from $15,000, 10 percent from $50,000 and 15 percent from $100,000. There is no monthly commitment, no standing order and no penalty for ordering once and not returning.

Two examples

A first order of one line whose boxes add up to $100 or more of goods is accepted; the table below gives the box count for several common lines at today's prices, at every step. A second order of nothing but bacteriostatic water, 10 boxes of BAC3 (the least it is sold in), is far below the $300 floor for a second order and is not; add lines until the goods reach it.

Volume beyond the list

There is no maximum. A quantity of a regular line that the shelf cannot cover is made to order in about four weeks, and a quantity beyond the price list is quoted rather than listed: raise it from your account under Quotes and RFQ.

Boxes to reach each step, from today’s list

How many sealed boxes of one line it takes to reach the floor at each step, at the prices on the list as of 27 October 2026. The columns are the order the account is on: its first, its second, its third, and its fourth and every one after. An order can mix lines, and usually does; this is the single-line case, so the figure is the most boxes of that line an order would ever need to clear the floor.

Read across: RT10 at $80.80 a box needs two boxes to clear a first order and 13 to clear the top step on its own.

Questions about the minimum order

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