What it means for a research store
Most of the time an MOQ is something a store owner meets rather than sets. A supplier quotes a unit price on the condition that you take a certain number of units, or spend a certain amount, per order. The number is theirs, and it is usually about their own packing and handling cost rather than about you, so it is worth asking whether a first order can be smaller and whether the price holds if it is.
An MOQ changes what stock costs to hold. If a supplier will not sell fewer than twenty of something that sells two a month, the order is ten months of shelf life bought at once, plus the storage and the risk that the batch or lot number you are holding ages out before it sells. Reorder points and MOQs have to be set together: a reorder point below the MOQ means every reorder is larger than the gap it was meant to fill.
Stores sometimes set their own customer-facing minimum too, usually to stop very small orders costing more to pack and ship than they earn. Before adding one, check what it does to a first-time order, because a minimum is a reason not to buy at all. Raising the free-shipping threshold or adding quantity pricing usually moves order size without refusing the sale.
How Torva OS handles it
Torva OS does not impose a minimum order on your customers. On the buying side, Purchasing keeps a reorder point per variant and turns the suggestions you tick into one purchase order per supplier, so an order you send lines up with that supplier’s own minimum instead of being assembled by hand.
Updated September 25, 2026. General information for merchants, not legal, tax or financial advice. This glossary does not describe the use of any compound in people.
