Should we hold stock or buy per job?

Hold what you turn over and buy the rest per job. Stock costs money to hold, space to store and goes out of date; buying per job costs freight and lead time. Most shops get this roughly right by instinct for their core materials and badly wrong for the occasional ones, where a minimum order sits on a shelf for three years.

How often should we update supplier costs?

For the materials that carry most of your quoting, quarterly at worst. The practical answer is to connect the suppliers you can so the price comes from your own account, and diarise the rest — because a review that depends on someone remembering does not happen.

Is it worth asking for better trade terms?

Usually yes, and shops ask far less often than they should. But know your annual spend with that supplier before you call — a request backed by a number is a negotiation, and one without is a favour.

Buying materials better: MOQs, price breaks and what your supplier is not telling you

Published 30 August 2026

Purchasing is the least glamorous part of running a sign shop and one of the most profitable to get right. Not through hard bargaining — through knowing what a thing actually costs you by the time it is on your bench, which is rarely the number on the price list.

Start free 30-day demo See AUD pricing

The landed cost is the only cost that matters

A sheet at $84 delivered on a $95 freight charge with three other sheets is not a sheet at $84. Freight, minimum order charges, fuel levies and the cost of the trip to collect it are all part of what that material cost you, and a quote priced off the list price is short by all of them.

Work out landed cost per stock unit once for the ten materials you buy most. On an illustrative order — four sheets at $84, $95 freight, no other charges — the landed cost is $107.75 a sheet, not $84. That is a 28% difference sitting inside every quote that uses it.

Landed cost = price + freight + levies + collection time
Split freight across the order, not onto one line
A collection is not free — it is an hour and a vehicle
Do this for your top ten materials; ignore the long tail

Minimum order quantities are a cost, not a rule

When a supplier’s MOQ is ten and you need three, you have not bought three. You have bought ten and put seven on a shelf, and unless those seven are genuinely used within a reasonable time, the job that triggered the order should carry more than three-tenths of the cost.

This is worth being deliberate about rather than superstitious. If you turn the item over regularly, spread it — that is what stock is for. If it is a one-off colour for one customer, the customer pays for the MOQ, and you say so at quote time rather than discovering it at invoice time.

Regular stock: spread the MOQ, it will be used
One-off or custom colour: the job carries the whole order
Say it in the quote — “minimum order applies” is not a surprise
Review shelf stock yearly; unused MOQ is money you spent

Price breaks are only worth taking sometimes

A break that saves 8% on a material you use twice a year is not a saving, it is capital sitting on a rack going out of date. Vinyl in particular has a shelf life, and old media is a remake waiting to happen.

The test is turnover, not percentage. If you will use the larger quantity within a few months, take the break. If it is a year’s supply, the discount has to beat the cost of the money and the risk of the stock going off — which for a small shop it usually does not.

Judge a break on turnover, not on the discount
Vinyl and adhesives have a shelf life — old media causes remakes
Storage space is a real constraint and a real cost
A break you take once and never use again is a loss, not a saving

Quote off today’s cost, not last year’s

The most common purchasing loss in a sign shop is not a bad deal — it is a good deal from 2023 still sitting in the pricing spreadsheet. Supplier prices move, sometimes twice a year, and a shop quoting off stale costs is discounting without deciding to.

Either update your costs on a schedule you actually keep, or connect the ones you can so the price comes from your own trade account and never goes stale. Getting your suppliers to quote your materials list in one place also means you are comparing the same list on the same terms, which is the only comparison that means anything.

Diarise a cost review, or automate it
Compare suppliers on the same list, not on three PDFs
Trade account pricing beats list pricing — quote off yours
A cost that has not changed in two years has probably not been checked

Frequently asked questions

Should we hold stock or buy per job?: Hold what you turn over and buy the rest per job. Stock costs money to hold, space to store and goes out of date; buying per job costs freight and lead time. Most shops get this roughly right by instinct for their core materials and badly wrong for the occasional ones, where a minimum order sits on a shelf for three years.
How often should we update supplier costs?: For the materials that carry most of your quoting, quarterly at worst. The practical answer is to connect the suppliers you can so the price comes from your own account, and diarise the rest — because a review that depends on someone remembering does not happen.
Is it worth asking for better trade terms?: Usually yes, and shops ask far less often than they should. But know your annual spend with that supplier before you call — a request backed by a number is a negotiation, and one without is a favour.