If you sell wholesale with quantity-based discounts, you need a way to ensure customers actually buy in the bulk quantities those discounts are designed for. Without minimum order rules, a customer can order a single unit at a wholesale price, which breaks the discount structure you have set up.
WooCommerce Wholesale Prices Premium gives you two tools for this. The first is minimum order quantity and step quantity settings, which you can apply directly on each product or product variation. The second is wholesale-exclusive variations, which lets you create a separate bulk variant that is hidden from regular customers. This article covers both approaches and how to combine them.
Requirements
- WooCommerce Wholesale Prices Premium installed and activated. Get WooCommerce Wholesale Prices Premium here.
- WooCommerce Wholesale Prices (free) installed and activated. Get WooCommerce Wholesale Prices here.
- At least one wholesale role configured in your store.
- WooCommerce installed and active.
Set minimum and step quantity on a simple product
The Wholesale Minimum Order Quantity field sets the lowest number of units a wholesale customer can buy. The Wholesale Order Quantity Step field sets the increment they must order in above that minimum. For example, a minimum of 12 with a step of 6 means a customer can order 12, 18, 24, and so on, but not 13 or 20.
To configure these fields on a simple product:
- Open the product and go to Product data → General.
- Under Wholesale Minimum Order Quantity, enter the minimum number of units in the field for your wholesale role.
- Under Wholesale Order Quantity Step, enter the increment amount in the field for your wholesale role.
- Click Update to save.
When both settings are active, the product page pre-fills the quantity input with the minimum and constrains further input to valid multiples of the step.
Enforce min/step on the cart page
By default, the minimum and step quantity restrictions are applied on the product page only. To enforce them when a customer updates quantities directly in the cart:
- Go to Wholesale → Settings → Wholesale Prices → General.
- Enable Enforce Min/Step On Cart.
- Click Save Changes.
When this setting is on, the cart also raises any item below its minimum to the minimum quantity. For a parent product minimum, the cart raises the combined quantity only when two or more variations of that product are in the cart.
Set minimum and step quantity on variable products
For variable products, the Wholesale Minimum Order Quantity and Wholesale Order Quantity Step fields are available at two levels: on the parent product, and on each individual variation.
The parent-level fields are labelled Parent Product Wholesale Minimum Order Quantity and Parent Product Wholesale Order Quantity Step. To find them:
- Open the product and go to Product data → Inventory.
- Locate Parent Product Wholesale Minimum Order Quantity and Parent Product Wholesale Order Quantity Step and enter the values for your wholesale role.
- Click Update to save the product.
- Values set on the parent product apply to all variations unless a variation has its own value set.
- Values set on a variation override the parent product values for that variation only.
The parent minimum and step also apply to the combined quantity of all variations of the product in the customer’s cart, not to a single variation on its own. For example, if the parent minimum is 12, a customer can meet it by ordering 6 units of one variation and 6 of another.
To set these at the variation level:
- Open the product and scroll to Product data → Variations.
- Expand the variation you want to configure.
- Locate Wholesale Minimum Order Quantity and Wholesale Order Quantity Step and enter the values for that variation.
- Click Save changes to save the variation, then click Update to save the product.
Create wholesale-exclusive bulk variations
An alternative to step quantity is to create a separate product variation for bulk purchases and restrict it to wholesale customers only. For example, you could have a “1 Piece” variation available to all customers and a “1 Dozen” variation visible only to wholesale roles. Regular customers see only their permitted variations; wholesale customers see theirs.
- Open the product and scroll to Product data → Variations.
- Add or expand the variation you want to make wholesale-exclusive.
- Locate the Wholesale Exclusive Variation field and select the wholesale roles that are allowed to see this variation.
- Click Save changes to save the variation, then click Update to save the product.
Hide non-wholesale products from wholesale customers
If you want wholesale customers to see only your bulk variations, enable the Only Show Wholesale Products To Wholesale Customers setting. When it is on, wholesale customers do not see products and variations that have no wholesale price.
To hide your single-unit variation, give a wholesale price only to the bulk variation. A category discount or a general wholesale role discount also counts as a wholesale price, so a variation that gets one of these stays visible.
- Go to Wholesale → Settings → Wholesale Prices → General.
- Enable Only Show Wholesale Products To Wholesale Customers.
- Click Save Changes.
Troubleshooting
Why isn’t the minimum quantity being enforced for a customer already viewing the product page?
The product page reads the quantity settings when it loads. If you update the minimum or step setting while a customer already has the page open, they need to reload the page for the restriction to take effect.
Do minimum and step quantity settings apply to administrator or shop manager accounts?
No. These rules only apply to users with a wholesale role. To test them, log in as a wholesale customer. Do not give admin or shop manager accounts a wholesale role.
Frequently asked questions
Can I enter a decimal value for the minimum or step quantity?
No. Wholesale Minimum Order Quantity and Wholesale Order Quantity Step only work with whole numbers. If you enter a decimal, the plugin rounds it to the nearest whole number when you save the product. For example, 1.5 is saved as 2 and 2.7 is saved as 3.
Can I set different minimum quantities for different wholesale roles?
Yes. The Wholesale Minimum Order Quantity and Wholesale Order Quantity Step fields are per wholesale role. You can enter different values for each role that appears in the product data panel.
What happens if a wholesale customer tries to add fewer than the minimum quantity?
By default, the store does not let them. If the quantity is below the Wholesale Minimum Order Quantity set on the product or on the variation, the product is not added to the cart and the customer sees an error message. If a step is also set, the quantity box on the product page does not go below the minimum.
For a variable product with only a Parent Product Wholesale Minimum Order Quantity, the add to cart check does not block a single variation below that number, because the parent minimum counts all variations together. The wholesale price applies only when the combined quantity of all variations in the cart reaches the minimum.
To let customers add fewer units, enable Allow Add To Cart Below Product Minimum under Wholesale → Settings → Wholesale Prices → General. The wholesale price then applies only when the cart quantity reaches the minimum. If Enforce Min/Step On Cart is also enabled, the cart raises the quantity to the minimum. For a parent product minimum, this happens only when two or more variations of that product are in the cart.
Can I set min/step quantity at the variation level without setting it on the parent product?
Yes. Variation-level values take precedence over parent product values. You can leave the parent fields empty and configure each variation separately. Variations without their own values fall back to the parent product values if those are set. If you do set parent-level values, remember they apply to the combined quantity of all variations in the cart, not a single variation.
Do these quantity settings apply in the WooCommerce Wholesale Order Form?
Yes. The minimum order quantity and step quantity restrictions set on a product apply both on the standard WooCommerce product page and in the Wholesale Order Form.
Can I use wholesale-exclusive variations alongside min/step quantity on the same product?
Yes. You can add a Wholesale Exclusive Variation restriction and also set Wholesale Minimum Order Quantity and Wholesale Order Quantity Step on that same variation. Both rules apply independently.
Help & support
We have a dedicated support team for Wholesale Suite who knows our products, WooCommerce, and the industry very well. You’re welcome to make use of their expertise at any time, worldwide.
If you are an existing customer please go to the support ticket request form and send us a message.
If you are a free plugin user, please send us a support request on the forum. We actively monitor the WordPress.org support forums for the free plugin and help our users there as best as we can.
