How to read wholesale tier pricing
The price you see on a wholesale apparel SKU is rarely the price you'll pay. A buyer's guide to how tiered pricing actually works, and how to evaluate a supplier's structure.
**Short version.** Wholesale blank apparel almost always uses a tiered pricing structure: the per-piece price drops as the order quantity goes up. Break points and discount sizes vary by supplier. Some show the curve upfront; some hide it behind a quote request. Understanding the curve before you commit is the difference between landing a margin-positive job and one that bleeds.
The basic structure
A typical wholesale tier looks like this:
- 1 to 11 pieces: piece price (sometimes called "case break" pricing) - 12 to 71 pieces (one case): first tier discount, often 10 to 20% off - 72 to 143 pieces: another step down, 15 to 25% - 144 to 287 pieces: another step - 288+ pieces: deepest break, sometimes 30 to 40% off piece price
Numbers vary by brand and supplier. Some catalogs use 6/12/24/48 instead of 12/72/144. Some show 4 tiers, some show 7.
What "price" actually means at each tier
Each tier price applies to the per-piece cost of every unit in the order at that quantity threshold. A run of 200 pieces gets the 144-tier price on all 200, not just the 56 above 144.
This sounds obvious but trips up people coming from retail pricing. If you have 11 pieces at $5.50 and add 1 to get to 12, the unit price doesn't just apply to that last piece. All 12 reprice at the lower tier.
Three questions to ask a supplier
**1. Is the curve visible before you fill the cart?**
If you have to "request a quote" to see the price at 144 pieces, the supplier is reserving the right to negotiate. That's fine if you're a high-volume buyer with leverage; it's bad if you're a small print shop trying to bid a job under deadline.
**2. Where are the break points?**
A supplier with break points at 6/12/24 is friendlier to small runs than a supplier whose first break is at 72. If your typical run is 24 to 48 pieces, find a supplier whose first tier discount lands before then.
**3. How big is the spread?**
The bigger the spread between the 1-piece price and the deepest tier, the more leverage volume gives you, but also the more punishing single-piece sampling becomes. Look for a curve that's reasonable at both ends.
Why we made ours visible
Most of the buyers we talk to don't have a procurement department. They're print shops, schools, makers, and small businesses bidding a job and trying to land it. Hiding the tier curve behind a quote request adds friction to a workflow that's already friction-heavy.
We made our tier pricing visible so you can quote a job in the time it takes to fill a cart. If the price doesn't work for the job, you find out before you call the customer back, not after.