Custom Pouch MOQs and Pricing: A Realistic Buyer's Guide

So, you’re ready to up your product-packaging-game and buy custom printed pouches? You’re probably wondering how much it costs to get custom printed pouches and how many you will need to order. Here are some things you can expect when shopping for custom printed pouches.

Minimum Order Quantities

Minimum order quantities, or MOQs, will vary depending on the way the pouches are produced. We’ve gone into detail on two types of pouch production, which are printing before the pouch is formed, or after. There are other factors in pouch production that can lead to changes in MOQs. Printing with Flexo technology will always create higher MOQs and often incur additional set up fees and the purchase cost of print plates. Digital printing, on the other hand allows for lower MOQs. There are also different types of lamination that can impact MOQs, but the main factors that contribute to minimum order quantities are how the pouches are produced:

• Digital printing on already formed pouches will have the lowest minimums generally around 50 or fewer pouches, though some suppliers set slightly higher MOQs at about 100 pouches
• Digital pre-printing then forming will have the next lowest minimum order quantities at approximately 100-200 pouches. You will likely be able to order any quantity of pouches, but the price is about the same if you order 1 or 100, so that’s essentially a 100 pouch minimum if you ask me. It is common for some suppliers to not bother with the set up and scrap to just produce a few hundred pouches, and will have minimums closer to 1,000+ pouches.
• Flexo pre-printing and then forming will have the highest MOQs, usually beginning at 5,000+ pouches minimum, with the best quantity being above 10,000.  

Pouch Pricing

Now that you have an idea of minimum order quantities and the right production method for your project, you’re probably wondering what all this will cost you. While pricing is greatly impacted by the size pouch you are looking for, we can use a medium sized pouch as a guide.  Let’s use a 5x7x3 stand-up pouch for this example. As with most packaging types, the more you buy, the cheaper each piece will get, so we will give a range of prices depending on order volume.

• Printed, pre-formed pouches will likely range from $1.00-1.25 per pouch at lower quantities, so an order total of $100-150. Prices can drop to the $0.50-0.75 per pouch range at high quantities like 8,000-10,000, that would mean an order total in the $3,000-7,000 range.
• Digitally printed and then formed pouches will be more expensive at the very small quantities. You can expect to pay as much around $3.00 per pouch at a 100 quantity order. Orders over 500 will get you closer to paying about $1.00 per pouch, and at higher quantities over 2500, the price per pouch gets comparable to pre-formed pouches at around $0.50-0.75 each, but at the better quality.. 
• Flexo printed and then formed pouches will get the prices down the lowest per pouch at orders over 5,000-10,000 pouches, which would have you paying under $0.50 per pouch, to $0.20-0.30 at high quantities, and even lower when quantities reach enterprise level volumes. Don’t forget that there will be additional fees for job set up and initial investments for print plates. Any artwork changes would require investment into new print plates as well.