FAQ · Ordering, MOQ and the product
Ordering, MOQ and the product: 34 answers
What the minimum is, what moves it, what a quotation contains and how payment runs. The questions that decide whether an order is possible at all. Part of the wholesale FAQ — the 5 groups here are the questions buyers ask in this order, and the answer to each is the one we would put in a quotation rather than the one that sounds best.
Ordering & pricing
What is the minimum order quantity?
Wholesale MOQ starts at 300 units on existing moulds and standard colours. All 25 models can be mixed within one order to reach it. Custom logo or colour raises the minimum to 500 units, a retail packaging or gift-box programme starts at 500–1,000 units, and a new mould starts at 1,000–2,000 units. Reorders drop to 200 units on most models.
Do you publish a price list?
No. Unit price depends on model, battery configuration, packaging, certification scope, Incoterm and volume — and it steps down at the 300 / 500 / 1,000 / 2,000-unit tiers. Tell us your market, volume and configuration and we will return an itemised quote within 24 hours.
Can I order a sample before committing?
Yes, and we encourage it. Stock samples dispatch in 3–5 business days; a custom-spec sample with your logo or packaging takes 7–15 days. The sample fee is credited against your first production order.
What are the lead times?
Standard mass production is 25–35 days after sample approval and deposit; branding on an existing model runs 15–25 days; rush production of 15–20 days is sometimes available. A new mould runs 45–60 days from brief to first article.
What payment and shipping terms do you work on?
30% deposit with the balance before shipment, and net-30 terms after your third completed order. Documentary letters of credit are accepted above USD 15,000. Shipping is ex-works, FOB or CIF, and we prepare carton marks, barcodes and customs documentation to your importer's specification.
Product
How many models are in the range?
25. Three dual-motor bodies — A0158 at 122 mm, A0171 at 137 mm and A0170 at 139 mm — two single-motor bodies, A0183 at 135 mm and A0187 at 151 mm — AB0296, a 355 mm telescoping oral unit — AB0212A, a remote-controlled wearable — AB0136, a dual-head wearable that pops open for wear — AB0178, a bird-form suction unit — AB0128, a pen-form teaser with swappable heads — AB0133, a 160 mm wand with three interchangeable heads — AB0158, a 238 mm rabbit-form unit with two swappable heads — AB0160, a 218 mm rose-form unit that records a voice memo — AB0166, a 245 mm tongue-licking wand with a three-button remote — AB0172, a 222 mm hands-free clamp with three motors — AB0175, a 200 mm bendable unit that becomes a suction or tongue wearable when you bend it — and AB0176, a 116 mm rabbit form with a suction opening and a lit base. AB0180 is a 238 mm telescoping insertable with a wireless remote, AB0182 is a 238 mm inflatable plug that grows from 35 mm to 80 mm, with a wireless egg remote, AB0186B is a 275 mm telescoping insertable with three-stage extension, magnetic charging and IP7, AB0191 is a three-piece rose-bud egg set with tongue-licking and a wired controller, 22 x 61 mm, AB0195 is a sculpted qipao-form wand with a ball head that swivels through a full arc, 210 x 45 mm, AB0196 is a dual-action insertable with a suction cup and two slapping paddles, 129.5 x 35 mm, AB0198A is a swan-form G-spot wand with a suction crown and a vibrating tail, 150 x 37 mm and AB0199 is a peanut-waist insertable with pulse telescoping and a 10 m wireless remote, 209 x 33 mm. The 25 share the same control platform, silicone specification and build standard.
What is the difference between dual-motor and single-motor models?
Dual-motor models run two independent motors, each with its own pattern and intensity, so two zones can be controlled separately. Single-motor models give you the same build standard and mode count at a sharper entry price point, with one motor driving the device.
Which certifications does Slow Duo hold?
Slow Duo holds CE (LVD + EMC + RoHS), RoHS, FDA material safety and IPX5 water resistance. We list only certifications we actually hold, and full certificates plus test reports are released to verified wholesale partners.
Does the product require an app?
No. All models are controlled onboard. There is no app, no account and no pairing step — nothing for a retailer to support and no data leaving the device.
What is the warranty policy?
Every order carries a 12 months from the shipment date, with a written resolution plan within 48 hours. If a verified quality issue arises we supply replacement units, credit toward your next order, or a partial refund, depending on the defect scope.
OEM, ODM & exclusivity
Can I sell Slow Duo under my own brand?
Yes. Our OEM programme covers logo, colour, packaging, manual and UI customisation on all current models from 500 units. Structural changes — new housing, motor pairing or control layout — fall under ODM, and the mould is 100% buyer-owned.
How does market exclusivity work, and what does it cost?
Catalog market exclusivity from 3,000 units a year for a 12–24 month renewable term; a mould you commission is yours permanently. Exclusivity is documented in the supply agreement with a defined territory, annual volume commitment and term.
How long does a custom project take?
Branding on an existing model follows a sample timeline of 7–15 days. A new design on our existing motor platform runs 7–15 days to sample; a new mould runs 45–60 days to first article.
How do you protect our designs?
A mutual NDA is signed before any technical discussion begins. Your artwork, briefs and mould files are stored on access-restricted servers, and any mould you pay for is your intellectual property, documented with a tooling ownership certificate.
Payments, market size & launch order
Why do Stripe and PayPal freeze accounts that sell intimate products?
Because the category is priced as high-risk by the acquiring banks, and the processors pass that decision down. Stripe and PayPal both publish restricted-business lists that name adult content and adult products, so enforcement happens at account review rather than at any question of legality — a store can trade for months and then be frozen while the balance is held against future disputes. According to the Wikipedia entry Chargeback, a chargeback is a forced reversal routed through the cardholder bank rather than the merchant, which is exactly the exposure an acquirer is protecting itself against in this category. The practical consequence for a B2B buyer is that the payment rail, not the factory, is often the binding constraint at launch: plan for a specialist high-risk acquirer, or go wholesale-first and let a distributor carry the card processing. Wholesale terms →
What does a high-risk merchant account cost, and can I model it before launch?
Budget it before you price the product, not after. Specialist acquirers publish ranges for this category of roughly 4.5–7% plus a per-transaction fee, against roughly 2.9% plus a fixed fee for a standard account; a monthly account fee, a per-chargeback fee and a rolling reserve held for several months are normal, and the reserve is the part that hurts cash flow because it is your money sitting with the acquirer. On a low-ticket SKU that spread can absorb the entire gross margin. We do not process your payments and we do not quote your processing — that conversation is between you and your acquirer — but we do supply the underwriting pack they will ask for: CE Declaration of Conformity, RoHS report, material test reports per SKU, and a live product page that describes the goods accurately. What is in the certification pack →
Does 3-D Secure 2 actually protect an adult store from chargebacks?
Against one kind of chargeback, yes — and knowing which kind is the whole point. 3-D Secure 2 is the current EMVCo cardholder-authentication protocol: it sends a far richer data package to the issuing bank than the first version did, so most payments are approved silently and only the ones the issuer distrusts are challenged. When authentication completes, liability for fraud chargebacks shifts from you to the issuer, so a stolen-card order that authenticated is their loss rather than yours. What it does not touch is a "not as described" or "not received" dispute — those stay with you regardless of authentication. That distinction matters more in this category than in most, because the disputes that actually hurt are as often about expectation and delivery as about stolen cards. Ask your acquirer which dispute reason codes their particular configuration protects, and get it in writing before you build the checkout. Where expectation is set →
What happens if my payment processor terminates the merchant account?
Assume it can happen, and know the mechanics before it does. An acquirer that closes an account for cause reports it to the MATCH file — Member Alert to Control High-Risk Merchants, formerly the Terminated Merchant File — a database maintained by Mastercard that acquirers on every major network query when underwriting. The entry carries a reason code chosen by the acquirer: excessive chargebacks is the most common, alongside fraud, misrepresentation on the application and card-network rule violations. It stays for five years from the filing date, and only the acquirer that filed it can remove it early. It is not a credit record and it is not permanent, but a hit declines most new applications on sight. The protection is unglamorous: describe the business accurately on the application instead of optimistically, keep the dispute ratio under the scheme threshold, and never process another business's transactions through your account. If you are listed, the route back is a specialist acquirer who prices for it plus documented evidence of what changed — not a "removal service", which is a reliable way to lose money. Payment terms defined →
How big is the sexual wellness market, and why do the published figures disagree?
This is the most misquoted number in the category. Estimates published for 2026 range from roughly USD 3 billion to over USD 60 billion for "sexual wellness", and the spread is a definition problem rather than a forecasting one: some reports count condoms and lubricants only, some count pleasure devices only, and some count the whole intimate-health basket including supplements, intimate hygiene and telehealth. A twenty-fold spread between reports is the tell that the scope differs. Before a figure goes into a deck or a funding application, ask which products it includes and which year it is measured in — a number without a stated scope is unusable. Market-by-market compliance matrix →
Should I launch direct-to-consumer or wholesale first?
They answer different questions. Direct-to-consumer gives you the margin, the customer data and the repeat-purchase behaviour, and it puts the payment rail, the ad restrictions and the last-mile discretion problem on your own desk. Wholesale gives you volume and somebody else's audience, in exchange for a thinner margin and a buyer who will hold you to a reorder schedule. A workable sequence for a first label is wholesale or a marketplace listing to prove sell-through on a small number of SKUs, then DTC once you know which two models actually move — because by then you are funding ads against a product you have evidence for. Either way the first order opens at MOQ 300 units mixed, so the wholesale-first route costs you no extra commitment. Compare the two programmes →
What chargeback rate gets a merchant account flagged?
Two published numbers decide it, and both are checked monthly whether or not anyone tells you. Visa's Dispute Monitoring Program places a merchant at a 0.9% ratio of disputes to sales transactions together with 100 disputes in the same month, and escalates to excessive at 1.8% and 1,000; Mastercard's Excessive Chargeback Merchant programme starts at 1.5% with 100 chargebacks, with a high-excessive tier at 3% and 300. Both conditions have to hold at once, which is why a small store at 2% and forty disputes is left alone while a large one at 0.8% is not. Three details decide whether the number is your problem. The ratio counts disputes received, not disputes lost, so winning a representment recovers the money and moves the ratio not at all. Visa divides this month by this month, while Mastercard divides this month's chargebacks by last month's sales, so a shrinking January raises the figure without one extra dispute. And a case settled at the pre-dispute stage — through Verifi Order Insight or an Ethoca alert — never enters the count, which is why accepting those alerts is worth more than winning them. Read the ratio as a launch constraint rather than an operations metric: at high-risk processing rates, it is the number that decides whether the rail survives the first year. The two programmes side by side →
MOQ, lead time & customisation
Can the 300-unit MOQ be split across models and colours?
Yes. The stock-SKU minimum of 300 applies to the mixed order as a whole, not per model or per colour, so a first order can combine all 25 dual- and single-motor models and several stock colours in one shipment. Custom Pantone colours carry their own higher minimum (typically 500–1,000 units) because the pigment is screened and the print batch is set separately; if you need only one custom colour, ask for it as its own line item so the rest of the order still ships at 300. How the volumes move →
Can the production lead time be compressed for a fixed launch date?
The published window is 25–35 days for a stock configuration and 15–25 days for OEM on existing tooling; compression below that is possible but it is a commercial decision, not a free one — it usually means prioritising your order on the line, which can carry a premium or a higher reorder commitment. The reliable way to protect a date is to place the order at the reorder point (stock cover minus lead time minus safety stock) rather than asking the factory to break its cycle. Tell us the date and we quote the realistic window, not the hopeful one. Compare the programmes →
Private label or OEM — which should a first brand choose?
Private label, almost always for a first brand. It puts your artwork on a proven mould with no tooling capital and the shortest path to revenue; OEM on an existing platform is the step once you know which model actually sells and want to change material, finish or configuration. A new custom mould is the last step, because it commits capital before demand is proven. The choice is the classic one in strategy: private label buys a cost position rather than a differentiation position, and for a first label the cost position is the safer purchase. The three routes are compared in the OEM vs ODM vs private label guide.
Will you quote 500, 1,000 and 2,500 units in the same RFQ?
Yes, and asking for the three bands in one message is the cheapest way to see how a supplier prices a programme. A single price at one volume hides the tooling and setup charges that only appear at the next tier. Put the quantity, the Incoterm and the packing in the same row for all three columns, then compare the landed cost rather than the unit price. Wholesale terms and volume tiers
Is the reorder MOQ lower after tooling approval?
It is here: the first order starts at 300 units and a repeat order drops to 200 on most models, because the setup has already been paid for. Ask for both numbers in writing before the deposit — a quote that names only one "MOQ" usually means the first-run figure. Ask also whether the lower threshold applies per colourway. How the minimums are structured
Which payment terms apply after the third completed order?
Standard orders are 30% deposit with the balance before shipment; net-30 terms become available after a third completed order, and letters of credit are accepted above USD 15,000. Whatever is agreed in an email must also appear in the purchase order and the pro-forma invoice, because the contract is the document a dispute reads. The payment clause as published
Does ordering a mix of models cost more than ordering one model?
No fee attaches to mixing, and no per-model minimum applies: the 300-unit minimum is counted on the order rather than on each SKU, and the whole order is scheduled as one batch on a shared platform. What does change the arithmetic is anything that forces a separate set-up — a non-standard shell colour, a printed retail carton, a different packing configuration. Those are priced per SKU because each one is a separate changeover at a different supplier. Mix bodies freely on the first order, and keep the customisation to one variable until the batch has shipped. What the minimum is actually paying for
What are the sample routes, and how long does each take?
Three, and they answer different questions. A stock sample leaves in 3–5 business days and shows the platform as it exists — the cheapest way to hold the motor and the silicone before deciding anything. A decorated sample, with your logo, colourway and retail box, takes 7–15 days and proves the factory can repeat somebody else's specification, which is the actual job. A new mould runs 45–60 days and is only worth commissioning once a decorated sample has been approved. Ordering the third before the second is the most expensive mistake in this category. The five-stage shortlist
Why is the printed-carton minimum sometimes higher than the product MOQ?
Because three of the four costs inside a printed carton do not care how many units you ordered. The plate or screen set-up is once per colour, the cutting die is once unless a stock die exists, and board is bought by the sheet or the pallet rather than by the unit — so on a 300-unit order those fixed costs are spread over a third of the run instead of all of it. The minimum is not a policy, it is that arithmetic. It also disappears at reorder: the plate is cut, the artwork is approved, and the same box becomes cheap precisely because you paid the fixed part once. What a printed box costs before it is printed
Two suppliers quote the same dB figure. How far apart can they actually be?
Roughly ten decibels, which is a factor of ten in sound power, and neither of them has to be lying. Sound pressure falls by about 6 dB per doubling of distance, so a unit measured at 30 cm and the same unit measured at 1 m differ by about 10 dB. Add the speed setting — a figure taken at the lowest intensity flatters the product — and the weighting, because an unweighted reading is not comparable with dB(A). Until distance, speed and weighting are on the same line as the number, the number cannot be compared, specified or enforced. The three variables behind a published figure
One order, three models — does the volume price attach to the order or to each model?
To the order. The 300-unit minimum and the price steps above it are counted across the whole purchase order, so 100 units each of three models is one 300-unit order at the 300-unit price, not three 100-unit orders below the threshold. That is deliberate: a new brand that has to buy 300 of a single model buys two years of stock and never tests a segment. Two consequences are worth knowing before you build the sheet. The carton does not follow the same rule — a printed box is counted per SKU, so three models can mean three print runs. And the price step is a step, not a slope: 299 units and 300 units are priced differently, and nothing is gained by splitting the same volume across two orders. The thresholds, as a table
Is a pilot run a second order, with its own minimum?
No. A pilot run is a gate inside the first order, not a second purchase order: a small batch pulled from that order and made with production tooling, production material, production workers and production packaging, then inspected and signed off before the main run is committed. It does not reset the MOQ or add a new one — the 300-unit minimum is still reached by mixing models in one order. What it does add is a dated line in the schedule between the signed sample and the production booking. Ask for the batch size, the inspection report and the sign-off name in the quotation. A factory that prices it plainly and books the line is describing a process; one that asks to skip it to hold a ship date is describing a date. The five stages, with the pilot gate in place and why a new tool is quoted in months, not days.
Does adding my label change the MOQ or the lead time?
It can move one and not the other, which is why a quotation should state them on separate lines. Printing your logo on a stock model puts the order on the custom-sample route — 7–15 days for the sample — but the 300-unit minimum is still reached by mixing models in one order, so a labelled stock range does not create a second minimum. Packaging is the item with its own floor: a printed box needs a print run, and that run, not the unit count, is what sets the packaging minimum. Lead time starts when the artwork is approved and the deposit clears; a late file moves the ship date by exactly the time it was late, because the 25–35 day window is booked against the line, not against the design. Ask for three numbers in writing — the printed-box minimum, the artwork approval date, and the day the production window starts. How the three numbers are calculated and what sets the packaging minimum.
Where pricing stops and the other four sections start
- Why is the minimum the number it is, rather than one somebody picked?
Because it is a production number before it is an order number: a moulding run has a floor, a colour change has a purge, and a printed box has a plate. The guide works the arithmetic through and shows which of the three is usually the binding constraint on a first order.
Why the minimum is what it is- The unit price is agreed — what does the order actually land at?
Duty is set by the tariff classification your broker files, not by the invoice, and freight scales faster than production as the order grows. That is a different question from what a unit costs, and it is answered with the classification and the document set rather than with a price.
Tariffs, HS codes and landed cost- What has to be settled about the product before a price means anything?
The model, the motor count and whether your name goes on it. Those three decide the platform, and the platform decides the price band — quoting before them produces a figure that changes twice.
The range, model by model
The other three sections
A question rarely belongs to exactly one decision. These are the neighbours.
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Send the question with your market and volume and you will have an answer within 24 hours, Monday to Friday. If we are not the right fit, we will say so.
Where these answers are worked through in full
Each section page answers; the pages below do the arithmetic, quote the standard and show the caveat.