The factory specification, before you commit to tooling.

Yes, and a mixed model trial order is the normal way a first line is tested: several shapes at the entry quantity each, rather than one shape at a volume you have not sold yet. Two costs move when you do it. The printing setup cost is charged per artwork rather than per unit, so three SKUs means three setups even when the total unit count is unchanged — that is the line a mixed order does not escape.

And each additional SKU carries its own certification variant, because a report describes a model and a bill of materials. Mix the first order, but mix it inside one product family, so the certification file, the packaging plate and the material specification are shared rather than tripled.

It depends entirely on what the purchase order says, so make it say something. Paying a tooling fee buys you the amortisation, not automatically the asset; ownership, exclusivity and the right to move the mould are three separate clauses, and they are the difference between a qualification cost you can recover and one you cannot.

Model the tooling as a risk-adjusted number: if the SKU fails, what is left, and who can sell the same shape tomorrow? Capacity booking belongs in the same conversation, because a mould you own is worth little if the line is committed to somebody else in your launch quarter. All three questions are business continuity planning, and they are cheaper before the deposit than after it.

Each SKU states its own MOQ in the specification, and the entry tier varies by SKU — the lightest, simplest devices start at 100 units, the rest at 300. A custom colour, logo or Pantone match moves any SKU to 500 units, and full custom mould work starts at 1,000. The figure on the card is the factory's, not an estimate — and our MOQ pricing guide explains what that number is actually protecting.

Yes — that is what the OEM/private-label route is for. Logo application, Pantone colour matching, retail packaging design, multilingual manuals and carton configuration are available from the SKU's stated MOQ, and units ship without factory branding unless you ask for it.

The documentation set is a CE Declaration of Conformity, RoHS test report, FDA 21 CFR 177.2600 material compliance, REACH statement, MSDS, commercial invoice, packing list and certificate of origin. UN38.3 battery transport certificates and IEC 62133 test reports are available on request for air and sea freight.

No, and the page says so rather than implying it. These are factory specifications published for sourcing evaluation. Devices that have run our five-criteria protocol are published with their measurements under Reviews, and a catalogue listing is never presented as a test result.

No. We take no commission from either side of a manufacturing introduction, which is the only way the introduction means anything. Where a fee applies it covers the sourcing work and the written shortlist.

Three things move the number, and none of them is asking nicely. A written volume ramp — first order small, second and third committed — changes the factory's risk calculation. An itemised cost breakdown shows which costs are fixed. And narrowing customisation scope lowers the setup cost the MOQ has to recover. Our MOQ pricing guide walks through each one.

Pick one hero SKU, validate demand on a small first order, then scale. Our guide to starting an intimate wellness brand covers the market work, the compliance order, the supplier checklist and realistic startup-cost scenarios.

Ask for a live, unscripted video walkthrough of production running that week — raw material storage, the assembly line, the QC station. Cross-reference the business licence against the physical address, and request the CE/RoHS reports with the accredited lab's name and sample ID. A direct manufacturer can do all three; a trading company usually cannot.

A public tool is a mould the factory already owns and runs for several brands — you add your logo, colour and packaging to an existing shape, and there is no new tooling cost to recover. A private tool is cut for you, paid for by you, and held under contract so it is not resold to your competitors. Public tools carry the lower minimum; private tools are what you buy once a shape has proved itself and you need to stop competitors selling it. Our MOQ pricing guide compares the two routes line by line.

A standard platinum-cure silicone shape typically runs $500–$3,000, and complex geometry can reach $2,000–$15,000. The figure matters less than the ownership terms: ask whether the fee is itemised, who owns the tool, and what happens if you move factories. A tooling fee charged on a shape the factory is already running for other brands is not a mould — it is margin with a technical name.

Ask the supplier directly and ask to see how, because this is the one question that sorts factories that know the product class from factories that only know their catalogue. ISO 3533:2021 is the international standard covering sex toys in direct contact with the genitalia, the anus or both, published in September 2021. It requires documented risk assessment, retention-safe design for anal-use products, freedom from burrs and sharp edges, and post-market surveillance — a design discipline, not a certificate bought once.

Yes, if you are shipping by air, which most first orders do. UN38.3 is a set of lithium-battery transport tests — altitude, thermal cycling, vibration, shock, short circuit, overcharge — and couriers will not fly a rechargeable device without it. It is the certificate most often discovered too late: founders clear CE, then find the shipment held at origin because nobody tested the cell.

Thirty per cent on the purchase order, seventy per cent against a passed pre-shipment inspection. Never 100% up front, whatever the reason given — the split is not only cash flow, it is the reason the balance depends on goods that pass. Treat any first-order demand above 50% as a signal to slow down and verify the supplier.

Yes, and you should treat them as the only moment you inspect the product before it is a container of your money. Samples from a stock platform usually arrive in three to five working days. Test the sample the way a customer will: material feel, noise held in the hand, charging and battery, and whether the packaging is something you would put your name on.

Ask for the AQL in writing and ask whether a third-party inspector is accepted — both answers tell you more than the level itself. AQL 2.5 is the usual commercial standard, 1.5 where you are positioning as premium. A supplier who will only accept its own inspection report, or who goes vague on defect handling, has answered the question you did not ask.

Both are possible. If you already own tooling, the question is whether the factory will run it and under what exclusivity terms, and you should get the answer in writing before a deposit. If you are bringing a design, expect the sampling leg to lengthen because the tool has to be proved before it can be scheduled. In either case, establish who owns the tool and what happens to it if the relationship ends.

Yes, and asking for one tells the factory what kind of buyer you are. A stock sample shows how the device feels; a sample you cut open shows whether the core, the motor mount, the cell and the seam are what the spec sheet claims — and the seam is where a cheap unit fails first. Suppliers who expect professional buyers quote a destruction-test sample without hesitating; a supplier who stalls on a paid sample has answered a more useful question than any certificate could. Our sourcing guide covers what to photograph before you cut.

Not on a first order, and a verified supplier should not. Net-30, Net-60 and partial consignment are second-order terms: they are earned by a clean first shipment that landed to specification. On a first order the workable structure is a deposit against production and the balance against inspection or shipping documents — 30/70 is the convention in this category, and 20% is commonly negotiated when the buyer is paying for the tooling. Once a shipment lands to spec, a smaller repeat on Net-30 is a normal conversation, because the track record is the collateral.

All nine are body-safe silicone massagers — four rabbit bodies, a dual-motor, a clitoral massager, a mini wand, a bullet and a suction massager — because a row on this page is a promise that we hold a specification sheet and have checked every field in it. The categories buyers ask for most beyond this index are app-controlled wearable massagers, kegel-ball trainers, pelvic massagers and prostate devices.

Those are quoted on a brief rather than listed as rows, and the distinction is honest rather than commercial: the same mould-and-MOQ logic applies, but we have not verified a specification sheet for them, and a row whose fields are mostly dashes is worse than no row at all. Send the category with a volume band and a target retail price and you get the same treatment as a listed SKU — a shortlist and the numbers behind it. What a row means field by field is explained under data provenance.