Why do DHgate prices change with quantity?
Direct answer
Tier pricing lowers the unit price and raises everything else. Moving from one unit to five usually cuts the unit cost, and it can also push the parcel into a heavier freight band, past a value threshold that duty was sitting under, and beyond the point where a returns reserve can absorb one bad unit. Compare tiers on the delivered total for the whole parcel, never on the unit price.
Why
- Freight repricing is the hidden step. A carrier tier is chosen by weight and volume together, so a five-unit parcel can leave the small-parcel band and its freight line can jump by more than the unit discount saves. The desk carries separate packed-weight defaults per category for exactly this comparison, from a quarter of a kilogram for a small accessory to one and six tenths for mid-length outerwear.
- Duty thresholds are applied per parcel rather than per unit. One item under a low-value threshold can cross a border untaxed, while five of the same item in one parcel form a single declaration whose whole value is assessed together. The tier therefore decides the duty treatment of the order as well as the unit price printed beside it.
- Breakage allowance scales with the number of units. The recorded share of orders that ended in a return or a partial refund runs from five per cent on accessories and six per cent on jerseys to thirteen per cent on electronics. At ten units an electronics order carries a returns exposure that a single unit simply does not carry, and the reserve line has to reflect that.
- The tier you can actually use is set by the parcel rather than by the price list. Weight and volume decide the carrier band, the band decides the freight line, and the value inside the parcel decides the duty treatment. Work the ladder from the parcel you intend to receive, then read the unit price that follows from it, instead of working from the unit price backwards. Write the parcel down first: the number of units, the packed weight, the destination and the carrier tier. The unit price is then an output of that description rather than an input to it, and two ladders can be compared on the same description without either page being reread.
When this answer flips
- The tier discount is large enough to cover the freight step, the duty change and one unit of breakage together. The larger parcel then becomes the cheaper route on the delivered total, and the calculation should be run rather than assumed from the unit price beside the tier label.
- The units are not identical and the tier applies to a mixed selection. A mixed parcel changes its duty band through the combined value while the discount applies per line, so the two effects stop pointing in the same direction and have to be costed separately before anything is committed.
- The order is bought to be split with other people before it ships. The parcel is then one declaration with several owners, and the question shifts from the total to who carries the risk on a single unit that comes back and cannot be returned again.
Three things to do next
Sources and checks
- Platform published rule — Quantity bands commonly offered on listings, as published, recorded per categoryno sample
- Public community thread — Orders that ended in a return or partial refund, counted by category to give a breakage rate per linen=58
- Editor analysis — Packed-weight defaults per category used to compare tiers like for like across categoriesno sample
Last checked · next review due · status current.