You do not test a supplement idea by ordering the product. You test it by putting the formula into one shell, finding out whether the dose fits, whether the bottle takes the artwork, and whether the per-bottle price at 3,000 bottles still makes the idea worth doing — and then deciding. Everything else, from the name to the ad, is cheaper to change after that.
Start with the format, not with the flavour
The fill decides the shell. A powder or a granule blend goes into a two-piece hard capsule, where eight sizes run from #4 up to #000. An oil or an oil-soluble active goes into a softgel, where fifteen dies are already in the house across oval, oblong and round. There are no gummies, powders, stick packs or liquids on either line, so this is the first fork in the road rather than a preference.
The format decides how much room your dose has, and that room is not a fixed figure. A capsule’s fill weight moves with the density of the powder: a dense granule packs heavier than a light extract in the same size. A softgel’s reference fill moves with the oil. That is the reason to sample at all: the sample measures your formula in that shell instead of assuming a number from a chart.
What a sample can prove
- That the dose fits. Milligrams per capsule, or oil volume per softgel, against the size or die you asked for — measured, not estimated.
- That the shell suits the fill. A powder that flows, an oil that holds, and a shell that looks like the product you want to sell rather than the one in a photograph.
- That the bottle and the artwork agree. Whether 60, 90 or 120 units fill the bottle you have in mind, and whether your label has the room it needs.
- That the price per bottle works. A quote at 3,000 bottles, which is the number that decides whether the idea is a business.
What a sample cannot prove
It does not register the product in your market, and it does not make your claims defensible: market registration documents are not part of what ships with a batch, and product compliance in your market stays with you. Nor does it tell you whether the product sells. A sample answers manufacturing questions; demand is a different test, and one no factory can run for you.
How a sampling round runs
Sampling takes 7 to 14 days and costs $450, with three revision rounds included; the fee is credited against the first order. Once the sample is signed off, a first order runs 3 to 5 weeks for hard capsules and 4 to 6 weeks for softgels. On the stock line, where the formula and the packaging are already in place, a batch ships 2 to 4 weeks after those two are confirmed.
Three rounds is usually enough when the brief arrives whole: dose, bottle, market and format. It stops being enough when the brief moves between rounds — a new dose or a new shell is not a revision of the sample, it is a new project.
Bring four things to the first conversation
- The milligrams per capsule, or the oil volume per softgel.
- The bottle count: 60, 90 or 120.
- The market you sell in, and the channel.
- Whether the packaging is chosen or still open.
With those four, the first reply can name a specific size or die and a per-bottle price at 3,000 bottles as one DDP landed cost, within 48 hours — instead of a range that leaves you where you started.
Why the minimum is 3,000 bottles per SKU
The minimum is a batch, not a sales target. Both lines run at 3,000 bottles per SKU, whether that is 60, 90 or 120 units to a bottle, which works out at 180,000 to 360,000 capsules or softgels. Below that figure it is not a smaller batch of the same product; it is a different production plan. If your plan starts smaller, the honest answer is that this factory starts at 3,000.
Test in the order that wastes least money
Format first, because it decides which line and which shell. Dose second, because it decides the size or the die. Bottle third, because the carton and the price follow the count, and the count never changes the formula. Price last, because only then is there something to price.
Run it the other way — artwork first, dose later — and every step after the artwork is a redesign. That is the most common way a first order becomes expensive without becoming better.
What arrives, and what you do with it
The sample arrives as filled product: the shell, the fill and the finish, at the dose you asked for. Put it in the bottle you plan to use, hold it next to a competitor’s, and photograph it. That photograph is what your first customers will judge, months before a batch exists. If the photograph does not carry the idea, a batch will not fix it — and you will have learned that for the sampling fee instead of a production run.
Two things decided before the batch, not after
The shell specification and the label’s claims. The shell is fixed before the run: changing it afterwards is a new project rather than an edit to this one. The claims are yours to make and to defend; what ships with a batch is the batch record, the specification sheet and a COA of the tests actually run.
Everything else — the name, the photography, the channel, the price on the shelf — you can change as often as you like, and no factory has to be told.
If the idea dies after sampling
You will have spent the sampling fee and nothing else. No inventory, no packaging run, no batch to store. That is what the fee buys: the measurement and the sample, credited against the first order if you place one, and one wrong idea kept out of a warehouse.