Industry
Lot tracking for food and beverage brands on Shopify
Food businesses are expected to trace product one step forward and one step back. If you sell direct on Shopify, the forward step ends at a named customer — which makes batch-level records the difference between a targeted recall and a total one.
One step forward, one step back
Traceability regimes for food converge on the same principle: for any product you handle you should be able to identify where it came from and where it went. For a wholesaler the forward step is another business. For a direct-to-consumer Shopify brand it is an individual customer with a name, an address, and an order number.
That is harder to reconstruct after the fact and far more valuable when something goes wrong, because you can contact exactly the people at risk instead of issuing a blanket public notice.
Shelf life is inventory you are about to lose
Perishable stock has a deadline, and the cost of missing it is total — unsold product past its best-before date is not discounted, it is destroyed.
Two things prevent that. Selling down the soonest-expiring batch first, automatically, so short-dated stock is not stranded behind a longer-dated delivery. And knowing far enough in advance that short-dated stock exists to actually do something commercial about it.
- FEFO allocation ships the nearest best-before date first, without the picker deciding
- Expiry warnings with a configurable lead time, 30 days by default
- Low-stock alerts on the same feed, so you see both ends of the problem
- Per-location lot quantities for brands running a warehouse plus retail or a 3PL
When a supplier batch fails
Most food recalls do not originate with you. An ingredient supplier discovers an allergen labelling error or a contamination risk and notifies everyone downstream with a batch code and a date range.
What happens next depends entirely on whether you kept batch records. With them, you enter the lot, get the list of affected orders and customers, email exactly those people, and export the case for your file. Without them, the only safe assumption is that every unit you sold in that window is suspect.
Built for how food brands actually operate
Most food and beverage catalogues are mixed. Alongside the perishable range sit tote bags, gift cards, brewing equipment, and subscription boxes that have no meaningful expiry date. Selective tracking means you nominate the SKUs that need lots and the app ignores the rest entirely.
Stock also moves. A pallet arrives at the warehouse and part of it goes to a retail location or a market stall. Splitting a lot across locations keeps both halves traceable to the same original batch, so a recall on that batch catches every fragment wherever it ended up.
And because LotTrack supports Shopify POS, a batch sold over the counter is recorded the same way as one shipped from the warehouse.
Try it on your own inventory
Install from the Shopify App Store — 14-day free trial on every plan.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need lot tracking to sell food on Shopify?
Requirements vary by jurisdiction and product, but food traceability rules generally require you to identify where each batch came from and where it went. Selling direct to consumers means the forward record is your Shopify order data — linking it to batch codes is what makes a targeted recall possible.
Can LotTrack handle best-before dates as well as expiry dates?
Yes. Each lot carries a manufacture date and an expiration date; whether you treat that as a best-before, use-by, or sell-by date is your convention. Alerts and FEFO allocation work from that date either way.
What if only some of my products are perishable?
LotTrack defaults to selective tracking. You choose which products require lots, and the app stays silent about everything else — no alerts or compliance prompts on merchandise and accessories.
Does it work with Shopify POS for market stalls and retail?
Yes. LotTrack supports Shopify POS, so units sold in person are recorded against their lot the same way online orders are, keeping retail sales inside the same traceability chain.