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The order won't start below this number

By the end, you'll know how to set your minimum order based on the real cost of fulfilling it, and why the customer needs to see that minimum in the cart from the first item, not at checkout.

By Yodai · Published September 6, 2026 · Updated October 12, 2026

Every online store that delivers orders eventually has to pick a number below which the cart won't let anyone pay: the minimum order. You set a $20 minimum because that's what the flower shop down the street charges. But your delivery cost is different, your margin is different, and your average customer buys differently. That number isn't something you copy. It's something you calculate.

And setting it correctly isn't enough. If the customer only finds out about it when they reach the checkout screen, it's already too late: they close the tab and don't come back. They add a small $8 bouquet to a flower shop with a $20 minimum, reach the last step, see they're $12 short, and leave. Not because the minimum was calculated wrong. Because they found out too late.

The cost of preparing an order doesn't shrink with size

Here the problem isn't each product on its own, it's the order as a whole.

Wrapping, labeling, pulling from the warehouse, and delivering costs about the same whether the order is $8 or $30. The time it takes to pack the box doesn't change. Neither does the delivery cost, unless your courier charges by weight or volume. That fixed cost is what decides your minimum, not a number that just sounds good on your storefront.

A bakery that delivers pays $3 in courier fees per order, whether it's a single croissant or a whole cake. If the order is $6, delivery eats up half the ticket before you even count the flour. If it's $25, delivery barely registers and the margin shows up.

The number comes from that math, not from a round figure

The math is simple. Take your fixed cost per order, what it costs you to wrap, manage, and deliver, not counting the product itself, and divide it by your gross margin. With a $3 fixed cost and a 35% gross margin, 3 divided by 0.35 comes out to about $8.60: that's where the order stops losing money, but it still doesn't leave you anything. If you also want to keep a net margin, subtract it before dividing: to keep 18%, divide 3 by 0.17 (the 35% minus that 18%), which gives a minimum of about $18, the $18 order in the figure above. Bumping it up to $25 because it sounds better doesn't add anything: if $20 already covers your margin, $25 just costs you orders that were already profitable.

Redo that math every time your delivery cost or your supplier's price changes. A minimum calculated in January with a courier rate that went up in March no longer protects anything.

The cart says so before checkout

The mistake isn't just the number. It's the moment the customer finds out about it. If the minimum first shows up on the checkout screen, the customer has already chosen, already decided, and runs into a closed door. And the easiest thing for them to do isn't to add another product: it's to leave.

Show it from the moment there's just one product in the cart, and update it every time they add something else. Not as a warning at the end. As progress throughout the whole purchase.

Order minimum and free shipping are two different levers

They get confused because both show up as a progress bar in the cart. But they solve different problems, and it's worth not mixing them up.

With the minimum calculated and the message showing in the cart from the first product, no order slips through below what it costs you to fulfill it. Next is what happens in the minute between the customer paying and you accepting the order.

The minimum is set and the cart shows it where it should. But a cart that closes well doesn't guarantee an order you can actually fulfill: that gets decided the instant the payment comes in.

In Yodai the store comes with the Free plan, with a catalog, a cart and orders. See how to create your online store for free.