Industry
Lot tracking for supplement and nutraceutical brands
Supplement manufacturing runs on batch records. Every production run has a lot number, a certificate of analysis, and a shelf life — and if that chain breaks when stock reaches your Shopify store, the records stop being useful precisely where customers are.
The batch record has to survive the handoff
Contract manufacturers deliver with paperwork: a batch number, a manufacture date, an expiry date, and a certificate of analysis tied to that specific run. Good manufacturing practice depends on that identity being preserved through everyone who handles the product.
The handoff into ecommerce is where it usually breaks. Stock is received into Shopify as a quantity, the batch number goes into a filing cabinet or a shared drive, and from that moment nothing in the system connecting product to customer knows which run any given bottle came from.
Hold stock until QC clears it
A batch that has arrived is not necessarily a batch you can sell. Test results may be outstanding, packaging may need inspection, or a shipment may have arrived outside its temperature range.
LotTrack gives lots a status, so received-but-not-cleared is a real state rather than an informal note. Stock pending QC or quarantined is excluded from allocation, so it physically cannot be picked for an order while it is on hold — and releasing it later is one action, recorded with a timestamp.
- Statuses covering active, pending QC, quarantined, recalled, and consumed
- Held stock is excluded from fulfillment automatically
- Partial holds — quarantine part of a batch and keep selling the rest
- Supplier reference on every lot, linking back to the COA for that run
- Every status change appended to the lot event log with a timestamp
Shelf life you can act on
Supplement potency claims are tied to a shelf life, which makes the expiration date a label claim rather than a guideline. Shipping a product past its date is a compliance problem, not just a quality one.
FEFO allocation ensures the soonest-expiring batch is consumed first, and expiry warnings give you a configurable runway — long enough to promote short-dated stock, bundle it, or decide to write it off deliberately rather than discover it during a stock count.
Recalls without collateral damage
When a batch is implicated, the scope of your response is decided by the quality of your records. Batch-level order links mean you contact the customers who received that specific run.
Everyone else keeps their product, your remaining inventory keeps selling, and the recall costs you one batch instead of a quarter. The case exports to CSV with the affected orders, the customers notified, and the full lot history attached.
Try it on your own inventory
Install from the Shopify App Store — 14-day free trial on every plan.
Frequently asked questions
Can I link a certificate of analysis to a batch in Shopify?
Each lot carries a supplier reference field that identifies the manufacturing run, which is what ties the Shopify-side record to the COA you hold for that batch. Lot data exports to CSV alongside it for audit files.
Can I stop a batch from selling while it is awaiting test results?
Yes. Set the lot to pending QC or quarantined and it is excluded from fulfillment allocation entirely until you release it. The hold and the release are both recorded in the lot event log.
What if only part of a delivery is affected?
Lots can be split, so you can quarantine a specific quantity or a specific location while the remainder keeps shipping. Fragments retain a link to the parent lot, so any later recall cascades across the whole family.
Does LotTrack keep an audit trail?
Yes. Every lot has an append-only event history — creation or import, status changes, fulfillments, splits, returns, and recalls — each with a timestamp. Records are appended rather than edited in place.