This page teaches a merchandiser or factory owner how to set a quotation's validity, minimum order quantity and lead time, not only its price. This lesson mainly teaches decision: which terms to attach to a price, and how each one protects the factory or informs the buyer. At work, a price alone is not a complete quotation. A buyer who receives only a number has no way to know how long that number holds, how few pieces it can order, or how soon the goods can arrive.
Delta Garments' domestic Make to Stock line supplies Cedar & Co., a domestic brand restocking its own shops from its own sales forecast. Cedar & Co. sends a repeat enquiry for a basic T-shirt style it already stocks, 6,000 pieces, asking for a quotation. Mona has already built the costed price from the confirmed specification, the skill taught in lesson 1.2. Now she must decide three more things: how long the quoted price stands before it must be requoted, the smallest quantity Delta Garments will accept, and how many weeks the order will take from confirmation to delivery. This lesson teaches how to set each of these three terms.
You need: lesson 1.2, building a costed quotation, since this lesson adds terms around a price already built.
By the end of this lesson you can:
Not covered here: reading and confirming the enquiry itself (lesson 1.1); building the costed price these terms sit around (lesson 1.2); presenting the finished quotation to the buyer (lesson 1.4); tracking terms across many quotations at once (lesson 1.5).
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Quotation validity | The length of time a quoted price stays fixed before the factory can require it to be requoted. |
| Minimum order quantity (MOQ) | Minimum order quantity; the smallest quantity a factory will accept for one style at the quoted price. |
| Lead time | The number of weeks from order confirmation to the goods being ready, built up from the order's own production stages. |
| Repeat style | A style a factory has produced before for the same buyer, letting some production stages move faster than a first-time style. |
| Stock programme | A Make to Stock arrangement where a buyer restocks its own shops from its own sales forecast, rather than from one large export order. |
| Price validity date | The specific calendar date after which a quoted price is no longer guaranteed, stated on the quotation itself. |
A price alone leaves three risks unmanaged: the risk that fabric or other input costs rise before the buyer confirms, the risk that a factory accepts a quantity too small to be worth the setup cost, and the risk that the buyer expects delivery sooner than the factory can actually produce. Quotation validity manages the first risk, MOQ the second, and lead time the third. A complete quotation states all three next to the price, not as separate documents sent later.
| What can differ | The shapes you will meet | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Export MTO, new style, volatile fabric price | An export MTO quotation for a new style, where fabric price can move quickly, often carries a short validity of 15 to 30 days, and a lead time built fully from scratch: approvals, fabric, sewing, and shipping. | A short validity protects the factory if fabric costs rise before the buyer confirms; a full lead time is needed since nothing about this style has been produced before. |
| Domestic MTS, repeat stock style | Cedar & Co.'s repeat stock enquiry can carry a longer validity, often 60 days, since the style and fabric are already known and less likely to move in price, and a shorter lead time, since fabric sourcing and pattern approval are already settled from past runs. | A repeat style removes the approval and pattern stages from the timeline, so a domestic stock buyer reasonably expects a faster turnaround than a brand-new export style. |
| Hybrid order, MTO base plus MTS top-up | A buyer combining a confirmed MTO base quantity with an MTS top-up option often receives one MOQ for the base order and a separate, usually lower, MOQ for each top-up, since the top-up reuses an already-approved specification. | Treating the top-up MOQ the same as a brand-new style's MOQ would needlessly turn away small, low-risk repeat business the factory could otherwise accept easily. |
| Small buyer, first order, no history | A small new buyer requesting a very small first quantity is often quoted a higher MOQ than an established buyer, or a price that only holds above a stated minimum, since a small first order barely covers the fixed setup cost of a new style. | Without a stated MOQ, a factory risks accepting a quantity too small to be profitable, or having to explain a much higher per-piece price after the fact. |
Cedar & Co. sends its repeat enquiry for 6,000 pieces of a basic T-shirt style it has stocked before, using the same 180 GSM single jersey fabric as Order A. Since the style, fabric source and pattern are already approved from earlier runs, Mona sets the quotation's validity at 60 days, longer than the 30 days she would set for a brand-new export style, because the fabric price for this established style moves less over time and Cedar & Co. does not need to confirm as quickly.
| Term | Cedar & Co.'s repeat stock quotation | A comparable new export MTO style |
|---|---|---|
| Validity | 60 days | 30 days |
| MOQ | 2,000 pieces per style | 5,000 pieces per style |
| Lead time | 9 weeks (approvals skipped) | 16 weeks (full timeline, as Order A) |
Cedar & Co.'s order of 6,000 pieces sits comfortably above the 2,000-piece MOQ Mona sets for this repeat style, so the quotation can proceed without needing to raise the price for a small quantity.
The worked numberOrder A's full export timeline runs 16 weeks: approvals 2 + fabric 5 + sewing 2 + inspection, packing and documents 1 + shipping 4 + warehouse and distribution 2 (docs/02 section 7). Cedar & Co.'s repeat stock order removes the 2-week approvals stage, since the style is already approved, and removes the 4-week export shipping stage and the 2-week warehouse and distribution stage, since it is a domestic order collected locally rather than shipped by sea.
A common mistake is quoting the same 16-week lead time for a repeat stock style as for a brand-new export style, simply because that is the number a merchandiser is used to writing. A repeat style genuinely can move faster, since approvals and pattern work are already settled; quoting the longer timeline anyway either loses the order to a competitor with a more accurate quotation, or forces the factory to explain later why the goods arrived weeks earlier than promised.
This mistake costs real business when it goes unnoticed. Cedar & Co., restocking its shops from its own sales forecast, needs goods on a schedule that matches when its shelves actually run low; a quotation that overstates the lead time by 7 weeks risks Cedar & Co. placing the same repeat order with a different domestic factory that quotes more accurately. Building the lead time from the order's own real stages, rather than reusing a standard export figure, costs nothing extra and keeps the quotation competitive.
A quotation is not finished once it states a price. Three more terms belong with it: how long the price stands before it needs to be requoted, the smallest quantity the factory will accept, and how many weeks the order takes from confirmation to delivery. A price that can change quickly needs a shorter validity; a small order needs a stated minimum so it still covers the factory's setup cost; and a repeat style that skips steps already done before can honestly promise a shorter lead time than a brand-new style. Stating all three next to the price, rather than leaving them unclear, protects the factory and lets the buyer plan properly.
Cedar & Co., pleased with the 6,000-piece quotation, later asks whether Delta Garments can also supply a smaller first trial batch of 1,500 pieces of the same style, to test a new shop location before committing to the full quantity.
Should Mona quote 1,500 pieces at the same per-piece price as the 6,000-piece order, or does the smaller quantity need its own terms? Decide before opening the answer.
The smaller quantity needs its own terms, most likely a higher per-piece price, rather than the same price applied below the stated MOQ. 1,500 pieces sits below the quotation's own stated 2,000-piece MOQ.
First, the MOQ exists because a smaller order still carries close to the same fixed setup cost as the 2,000-piece minimum, so spreading that same fixed cost over only 1,500 pieces raises the true cost per piece.
Second, since Cedar & Co. is an established buyer and the style is already approved, Mona can reasonably offer the 1,500-piece trial at a modestly higher per-piece price rather than refusing it outright, explaining that the increase reflects the same fixed cost spread over fewer pieces, not a change in the underlying fabric or making cost.
If the fixed setup cost for this repeat style is about USD 300, spread over the quotation's stated 2,000-piece MOQ, it adds roughly USD 0.15 per piece.
Spread instead over Cedar & Co.'s requested 1,500 pieces, the same fixed cost adds closer to USD 0.20 per piece.
Quoting 1,500 pieces at the original price without adjustment would absorb an extra USD 0.05 per piece, USD 75 across the small order, out of the factory's own margin rather than the buyer's price. Stating the adjustment plainly costs nothing and keeps the factory's margin intact.
Open the course workbook's Terms sheet. For each quotation, enter the validity period, the MOQ, and the lead time built from the order's own production stages, alongside the price already recorded in the Quotation Build sheet.
Download the full working sheet, with Cedar & Co.'s repeat stock quotation already filled in, from the link on this course's page.
1. What risk does a quotation's validity period specifically manage?
2. Why can Cedar & Co.'s repeat stock order carry a shorter lead time than Order A's full 16-week export timeline?
3. A buyer requests a quantity below the quotation's stated MOQ. What is the most accurate response?
| EN | AR | FR | TR | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quotation validity | صلاحية عرض السعر | Validité du devis | Teklif geçerlilik süresi | The length of time a quoted price stays fixed before the factory can require it to be requoted. |
| Minimum order quantity | الحد الأدنى لكمية الطلب | Quantité minimale de commande | Minimum sipariş miktarı | Minimum order quantity; the smallest quantity a factory will accept for one style at the quoted price. |
| Lead time | الوقت الإجمالي للتنفيذ | Délai de production | Teslim süresi | The number of weeks from order confirmation to the goods being ready, built up from the order's own production stages. |
| Repeat style | موديل متكرر | Modèle répété | Tekrar model | A style a factory has produced before for the same buyer, letting some production stages move faster than a first-time style. |
| Stock programme | برنامج المخزون | Programme de stock | Stok programı | A Make to Stock arrangement where a buyer restocks its own shops from its own sales forecast, rather than from one large export order. |
| Price validity date | تاريخ انتهاء صلاحية السعر | Date de validité du prix | Fiyat geçerlilik tarihi | The specific calendar date after which a quoted price is no longer guaranteed, stated on the quotation itself. |
You now know how to set a quotation's validity, MOQ and lead time. The next lesson presents a finished quotation to a buyer and answers the questions it usually raises first. Back to the course map