Accepted answer
Worth being precise here: document who paid what and who received what, in writing, before anything ships.
Ordering a single lot for the whole group is the analytical advantage: one independent submission then characterises everyone's material, which spreads the cost of testing across the participants.
A first group order should be small for the same reason a first individual order should be, and the argument is stronger rather than weaker when several people are exposed.
Carriage costs on international consignments scale far less than linearly with weight, which is the arithmetic basis for the saving.
Split sealed vials only. Anything else breaks the certificate and the closure together.