What is batch management?

Batch management is all about tracking products via unique batch or lot numbers. When you receive a shipment, you record the batch number and Shoporama links it to the specific inventory. When a customer orders the product, you can see exactly which batch was sold.

This is essential for industries with shelf life requirements - food, cosmetics, supplements, medical devices - but also for anyone who wants full traceability in their supply chain.

Batch information

For each batch you can register:

• Batch number - The unique number from the supplier or your own numbering
• Name - An optional description of the batch
• Expiration date - When the product expires
• Production date - When the product was manufactured
• Receipt date - When the batch was received at the warehouse (set automatically)
• Supplier - Which supplier the batch comes from
• Notes - Free text field for internal information

FIFO - First In, First Out

Shoporama uses the FIFO principle to automatically select the oldest batch with available inventory when a product is sold. This ensures that items with the shortest shelf life are shipped first and minimizes the risk of products expiring in the warehouse.

FIFO logic also supports variants - if a product has sizes or colors, the oldest batch for that specific variant is selected.

Expiry monitoring

Batch management gives you a clear overview of shelf life:

• Expired - Batches that are already expired are clearly marked
• Expiring soon - Batches expiring within 30 days are highlighted as a warning
• Not expired - Batches with a shelf life beyond 30 days
• No expiration date - Products with no shelf life requirements

Easily filter the list by expiration status to quickly identify which batches require attention.

Stock status per batch

For each batch, the current stock level is calculated in real-time based on inventory entries. You can filter the list to show only batches with inventory ("in stock") or batches that have been sold out ("out of stock").

Traceability from supplier to customer

Batch management creates a complete traceability chain:

1. Receiving: You register the batch with batch number, supplier and possibly expiration date
2. Storage: The batch is linked to the inventory via stock entries
3. Sales: When an order is processed, you register which batches were used to fulfill the order
4. Tracking: You can see at any time which orders have received products from a specific batch

This allows you to quickly find all affected customers if there is a quality issue with a specific batch - a critical feature for recalls.

Search and filtering

The advanced search and filtering feature makes it easy to find exactly the batches you're looking for:

• Free text search - Search by batch number, batch name and product name
• Supplier filter - Only show batches from a specific supplier
• Expiration filter - Filter by expired, expiring soon, not expired or no expiration date
• Stock filter - Only show batches with or without stock
• Flexible sorting - Sort by batch number, expiration date, receipt date, inventory, product name, supplier or number of orders

REST API support

Batch management is fully accessible via the REST API so you can integrate it with your existing systems - ERP, WMS or other inventory management systems. Create batches automatically upon receipt of goods and let your system synchronize with Shoporama.

Available in templates

Batch information is available in the webshop's Smarty templates via the SafeProductBatch object. This means you can display the batch number, expiration date and other relevant information directly on product pages or in order confirmations if relevant to your industry.