What is the minimum order quantity on 1688, and can you buy less?

The minimum is the smallest quantity a 1688 seller agrees to sell, set listing by listing. In Rabbit’s US catalog of October 31, 2026, 233 of 436 products sold from one piece. To buy less than a minimum, order a one-piece sample, find the same product from another seller, or order exactly the minimum. Rabbit buys a sample even below the minimum.

By Hussayn Delli, founder of Rabbit · Updated November 9, 2026.

What 1688 is, and why its prices drop with the quantity: what 1688 is, and why resellers buy there. This page is about the minimum alone.

What does the minimum on a 1688 listing mean?

It is the seller’s rule: below that quantity, the seller doesn’t take the order. It is set listing by listing, not by 1688. The unit is the seller’s too: pieces, pairs, sets or packs. A listing can also show several prices, one per quantity step. The price you pay is the price of the step your quantity reaches, never a price in between.

How common are minimums on 1688?

On October 31, 2026, Rabbit kept 436 products from 1688’s own ranking of what sells in the US. Their minimums, as the sellers set them that day:

• 233 products sold from one piece.
• 166 products had a minimum from 2 to 20 pieces. The most common was 2 pieces (72 products).
• 37 products had a minimum above 20 pieces. The highest was 200 pieces (3 products).

That is one catalog, chosen for resale in the US, on one day. Sellers change their minimums; read the one on the listing you buy.

Why do 1688 sellers set a minimum?

1688 sells wholesale to buyers in China, and every order costs the seller the same work: taking it, packing it, shipping it. A minimum spreads that cost over enough pieces. Rabbit has the same kind of cost on its side: each order carries fixed fees, the same for 1 piece or 20. They cover placing the order, the parcel, the warehouse photos of each variant, and the seller’s shipping to the warehouse in China. One piece pays them alone. That is why a sample costs more per piece than a batch.

How can you buy less than the minimum on 1688?

1. Order a sample. In Rabbit, “Order a sample” sets the order to one piece, even when the seller’s minimum is higher. One piece is priced at the price of the smallest quantity the listing shows, never lower. The seller still decides whether to sell it: a minimum is the seller’s rule. How to order a sample from 1688, and what it costs.
2. Find another seller of the same product. The same product is often listed by several sellers, each with its own minimum. Search by photo to find them: how to find the factory source of a product by photo, and why the same photo shows up on many listings.
3. Order exactly the minimum. You pay the price of the smallest step the listing shows, and your batch stays as small as the seller allows.

What does Rabbit do with a seller’s minimum when you order?

• The quantity starts at the minimum. On a product page, you can raise it, but it doesn’t go below the seller’s minimum. The exception is “Order a sample”, which is one piece.
• The batch is 20 pieces, or the minimum if it is higher. That is the batch Rabbit prices on the product page and in its estimated profit. A product with a minimum of 50 is priced at 50.
• A price is never shown for less than the minimum. When a product card gives a price per piece, it names the quantity that price is for, and that quantity is never below the seller’s minimum. It is not a minimum Rabbit adds.
• Rabbit suggests the minimum first. When Rabbit’s verdict on a product is good and you set more than the seller’s minimum, it offers one button: “Order the minimum first”.
• Your store, without stock, needs a product sold by the piece. Each sale in your store is one piece. A product with a minimum above one shows “Minimum N pieces” and can’t go to your store that way; it can come as a batch, delivered to you.
• Products for beginners sell from one piece. On the US side of Rabbit’s Find tab, the products picked for a beginner all sell from one piece.
• Up to 5,000 pieces per order. Above that, Rabbit doesn’t quote the order.

Should you start below the minimum or at it?

Below it, with one piece, when you don’t know the product yet: you check it in your hands before you pay for a batch. At it, once the sample is good. Above 3 pieces, you pay the goods when you order, and the delivery once your batch is weighed at the warehouse, never more than the maximum shown in your quote. For a US account today, an order of more than 3 pieces can’t be paid in dollars yet: its delivery is paid at the weighing, and that payment isn’t open in dollars. You can order up to 3 pieces, delivery included. The three steps, and when to move from one to the next: Test, batch, brand: how to start reselling one product.

For your exact situation: your accountant or a customs broker.