MOQ, Lead Times and Payment Terms in K-Beauty Wholesale

Every few weeks a retailer comes to us with a first Korean order already planned. Six brands, a budget in the low four figures, shelves filled inside a month. The exporter's page said the minimum was 500 dollars, so the plan looked funded. Then the quote lands at four or five times the budget. Nothing went wrong: 500 dollars was the minimum per brand, and most brands sit above it.

That one word, per, is the most expensive thing on a Korean wholesale FAQ page.

The short version

• Korean exporters publish the minimum order amount per brand, from 500 dollars with most brands at 1,000 dollars or higher, so a six brand order against a 1,000 dollar floor is 6,000 dollars before freight.
• Prepayment to Korea is split 50/50, half on order confirmation and the balance plus freight when the goods are ready, with a published deposit window of ten days and warehousing charged per carton per day once the balance is more than five days overdue.
• Goods are ordered from the brand after the deposit clears, so allow one to four weeks inside Korea before shipping, and more around Seollal (16 to 18 February 2026) and Chuseok (24 to 26 September 2026).

Five suppliers, five minimums, none of them comparable

Three numbers get called the minimum and suppliers rarely say which they mean. A minimum order amount is money, and in the Korean model money per brand. A minimum order quantity is units of one product line. A box quantity is set by the factory, and nobody breaks a sealed carton for you.

Published terms, read on 1 September 2026:

Read the right column before the middle one. A 350 euro entry ticket with a four unit floor per reference makes a fourteen line opening assortment fifty six pieces, whether you wanted fifty six pieces or not. On the Korean side the ticket multiplies instead: six brands against a 1,000 dollar per brand floor is a 6,000 dollar order before freight. Do that arithmetic before you talk to anyone, next to how much inventory a K-beauty store actually needs to open.

No credible average MOQ exists for this category, and any page giving you one is averaging units against dollars against euro. Box quantities are the same, set per product and published nowhere central, so an assortment can only be built from a price list with a box quantity column, which usually means opening an account first.

Prepayment to Korea is normal. Two clauses inside it are not.

Buyers keep asking whether prepayment means the supplier is dodgy. It does not. Split prepayment is the category standard, published openly by exporters with no connection to each other.

The Korean pattern is 50/50. Half releases the order into procurement, the balance plus freight falls due when the goods are ready, before they ship. Four separately published policies read on 1 September 2026 describe that same structure, in wording as plain as "50% after confirming the order, 50% when the beauty products are ready to be shipped". European wholesalers publish full advance payment by bank transfer, often the only method accepted, which matters mainly because a card gives you a chargeback route and a wire does not.

None of that is where people get hurt. The damage sits in two clauses under the same heading that get skimmed.

The first is the deposit deadline. One exporter publishes a ten day window to settle it before the order may be invalidated. Miss that in a busy fortnight and the order you negotiated is gone, at whatever the brand quotes next.

The second is worse. The same terms allow five days on the balance, after which a per carton per day warehousing charge starts. Picture that moment: the goods are boxed in a Korean warehouse, you have paid half their value, and a meter runs on stock you cannot move until you pay. One bank holiday, one compliance check on an outgoing wire, one person on leave. Ask for the free window in days and the charge per carton per day, in writing, before you commit.

Ask about wire fees in the same breath: at least one published policy counts only the net amount received against the invoice, so a transfer landing twenty euro short is an unsettled balance.

Terms do exist, as something earned. One European operation publishes credit on long term business agreements, which is the shape to expect: prepay, build a record, then ask. Net 30 on order one is not an aggressive ask, it just does not connect to anything on the other side, because Directive 2011/7/EU, the source of that 30 day default every European retailer knows, governs commercial transactions inside the EU and not a purchase from Seoul. The choice itself is weighed in net terms or prepayment on a first order.

One to four weeks, because the goods do not exist yet

Nothing is picked when you order. One FAQ says it outright: stock is not held for most items, and goods are sourced from the brand's head office or authorised distributor once the order is placed, on the argument that this yields the freshest production. Procurement starts when the deposit clears.

Add the per brand structure back in. A six brand order is six procurement events at six companies that must converge on one consolidation date in one warehouse, and the slowest brand sets the ship date for all of it. The published windows reflect that: "Most orders are processed in 1-2 weeks before shipping", "It would take 10~20 business days". One to four weeks inside Korea before a box moves, and that is before freight.

A European wholesaler publishes a one to two business day preparation window, and at another the stated bottleneck is the two to four business days needed to confirm an incoming transfer. That gap has nothing to do with diligence. It comes from whether the goods already physically exist inside the EU, which is the real arithmetic of buying direct versus buying from an EU wholesaler.

Then the calendar. Seollal fell on 16 to 18 February 2026, Chuseok runs 24 to 26 September 2026, and both close offices and banks. The pause runs longer than three days for your order, because the whole chain stops at once: brand head offices, the distributors your exporter buys from, the forwarder, the bank confirming your wire, and the days either side thin out as people travel. A deposit wired into a Chuseok week does not become a picking instruction that week. Build both into any February or September order.

The email to send before the first wire

Send this before you agree a price. Every question can be answered in one sentence, and 6 and 7 decide what the order really costs.

Subject: Terms confirmation before our first order

Hello [name],

We are preparing a first order and would like the terms in writing before we place it. Our line list is attached. Could you please confirm:

1. Is your minimum per order, per brand or per SKU, and in which currency?
2. The box quantity for each line on the attached list, and whether partial boxes are ever accepted.
3. Is the quoted price EXW, FOB or DDP, and to exactly which point?
4. Are these items in stock with you now, or ordered from the brand after our deposit clears?
5. Working days from cleared deposit to goods ready, and how that changes around Seollal and Chuseok.
6. Deposit percentage, the deadline to pay it, and what happens to the order if that deadline passes.
7. The deadline to pay the balance, the free storage days after it, and the storage charge per carton per day that follows.
8. Wire fees: is the invoice settled on the amount we send or the amount you receive?
9. What minimum remaining shelf life is guaranteed on arrival?
10. If a line is unavailable at picking, is the order held, substituted, or the value deducted?

Once we have these in writing we can confirm the order and pay the deposit the same week.

Kind regards

A supplier who answers eight of ten and goes quiet on the deadline and the storage charge has told you something. Documents are a separate and longer list, covered in the documents to ask a Korean supplier for.

Questions buyers ask

Can I negotiate the minimum order on a first K-beauty order?

Rarely on the per brand floor, because that number comes from the brand or its distributor and the exporter passes it through. What moves is the shape of the order: three brands at their minimum each is a real order, six brands below it is a quote that never becomes one. Ask which brands on your list sit at the published entry level, build the first order from those, and add brands as reorders prove the sell through.

Can I pay a Korean wholesale supplier by credit card or PayPal?

Bank transfer is the published standard on both sides, and at several European wholesalers the only method accepted. Where a card or PayPal is offered, ask whether a surcharge is added and get the percentage in writing before you pay, because a card is the one route that leaves you a dispute process after the money has gone. On a first order with a supplier you have never met, that dispute route can be worth more than the surcharge costs.

What happens if a product is out of stock after I have paid the deposit?

Most suppliers only find out at picking, because the goods are ordered from the brand after the deposit clears. In practice the answer is one of three things: the order is held until the line arrives, a substitute goes in, or the value comes off the balance. Agree the rule before the deposit: deduction from the balance by default, substitution only with your written approval, a hold only if you ask for one. Ask as well whether a dropped line pushes that brand back under its per brand minimum, and what the supplier does then.

Sources

• EUR-Lex, Directive 2011/7/EU on combating late payment in commercial transactions, 2011
• European Commission, Late payment in commercial transactions, page read 2026
• Korea Tourism Organization, Public holidays in Korea, 2026
• ICC, Incoterms 2020 rules, 2020

All published terms and holiday dates in this article were checked on 1 September 2026.