A buyer handed a price list looks first at the price of the piece they want. That is the mistake. What matters is the gap between the columns, because it tells you how the supplier builds prices and where there is actually room to move.
A maker does not sell at one price, but at five
A furniture maker's list usually shows four columns: five sets, twenty sets, fifty sets, full container. There is a fifth, rarely printed, which is the single unit price for a sample or a display piece.
That fifth tier is the most expensive of all, and it is the one applied to your first order, exactly when you are judging whether the supplier is worth it. Many buyers therefore compare one supplier's worst price with another's best.
Always ask for the full grid, not the price of your order.
The grid is a formula, and you can check it
We compared the ratios between columns across five different references from our own range, from armchair to three seater sofa. The ratios are identical to the thousandth.
From one reference to another, moving from a single unit to the five set tier is always worth the same percentage. So is five to twenty. And so on up to the container.
This means the grid is not built product by product. It is one coefficient applied uniformly across the range. The practical consequence matters: negotiating the price of one reference is pointless, because it derives mechanically from the others. What is negotiable is the tier.
What each tier is worth
On the grid we analysed, each tier saves between eight and ten percent against the one before it.
From single unit to full container, the cumulative gap is a factor of 1.43, which is roughly thirty percent off the purchase price.
Thirty percent is the order of magnitude of the margin many retailers hope to make on resale. Put differently, your choice of tier weighs as much as your entire commercial negotiation.
But the container is not always the right call
The best unit price comes at full container, and that is exactly where many buyers go wrong. A container is two to three hundred pieces depending on format, paid up front and at sea for weeks.
If you do not yet know how the product turns in your store, the thirty percent saved on purchase costs far more in tied up capital and unsold stock.
The rule is simple: move up a tier once the turn is proven, not before. A supplier pushing you to a full container on a first order is selling you their production problem, not your interest.
How to read a grid you are handed
Work out the ratios between columns yourself. If they are constant across references, you are looking at a formula, and you know a single piece's price cannot be discussed on its own.
If they vary widely, some references are more profitable to the maker than others. Those are the ones where you have real negotiating room.
And always check which tier applies to the order being quoted. A quotation with no tier stated is an incomplete quotation.