In medical technology, laboratory supply, food, chemicals and electrical engineering, a single question decides whether an online shop may be used at all: can you prove afterwards which batch or which serial number went to which customer? Companies that cannot answer this from their systems keep taking orders over the phone, because sales writes the assignment down by hand. How often that proof is needed becomes visible in the European rapid alerts: in 2024 a total of 5,250 (European Commission) notifications ran through the rapid alert system for food and feed, 12 percent (European Commission) more than the 4,695 (European Commission) of the year before. At the same time procurement keeps moving online: B2B internet trade by wholesalers and manufacturers in Germany stood at around 509 billion euros (ECC KÖLN) in 2024 and grew by 7 percent (ECC KÖLN) against the previous year. This article shows how batch and serial number handling moves from the ERP into shop and customer portal, how certificates end up attached to the right document automatically, and how a recall finds the affected buyers within minutes.
Key takeaways
- In regulated sectors traceability is not an add-on but the ticket to entry: the shop has to prove which batch or serial number was delivered to which customer.
- The assignment happens at delivery, not at ordering. Only when the warehouse picks the goods is it clear which lot reaches the customer - before that the shop collects requirements, afterwards it supplies the proof.
- Certificates belong to the batch, not to the product: certificate of analysis, inspection certificate 3.1 (EN 10204) or declaration of conformity end up on the delivery note and in the document archive of the customer portal.
- A recall is a query, not an archive search. If goods receipt, batch, delivery note and buyer stay linked, the affected recipients show up in minutes instead of days.
- Complaints and warranty run through the serial number: the portal knows delivery date, expiry of the period and history, instead of the sales desk looking up every case in the ERP.
Why traceability decides whether a shop can be used
In many sectors the online shop did not fail because of the assortment but because of the proof. A laboratory distributor selling reagents has to state for every line item which lot was delivered and which certificate of analysis belongs to it. A manufacturer of medical devices has to be able to name the economic operator it supplied a device to, for at least ten years (MDR), and for implantable devices for fifteen years (MDR). A food wholesaler is obliged to document every delivery one step back and one step forward; this requirement has applied across Europe since 1 January 2005 (Regulation (EC) 178/2002). As long as a shop cannot answer these questions, it stays a catalogue with an order button rather than a sales channel for regulated goods.
The reflex in many projects is to push the topic aside: launch the shop first, add batches later. That rarely works, because batch and serial number handling does not sit in the interface but in the data model. Anyone who creates line items, delivery notes and documents without a lot reference has to rebuild the existing data later instead of extending it. That is why the question belongs in the requirements phase, especially when the shop serves customers from medical technology and laboratory supply or from the food sector. The assortment logic depends on it too: how pack sizes, packaging units and minimum order quantities are mapped correctly is described in our article on units of measure and pack sizes in the B2B shop - batches are usually attached to exactly those units.
Batch, lot and serial number are three different things
What separates batch tracking from serial numbers
The choice between batch and serial number is not made in the shop but in production and the warehouse. Bulk goods, liquids, reagents, plastic granulate, material sold by the metre and food are handled by batch: one number stands for a quantity, and that quantity is spread across many customers. Devices, measuring equipment, machines, assemblies and implantable products are handled individually: one number stands for one item, and that item has exactly one owner. Both routes require different fields, a different quantity logic and different views in the customer portal.
| Aspect | Batch tracking | Serial number tracking |
|---|---|---|
| Typical goods | Reagents, food, granulate, material by the metre | Devices, measuring equipment, assemblies, implants |
| Reference | One number for many items | One number for exactly one item |
| Extra fields | Best-before date, expiry, production date | Delivery date, end of period, location |
| Typical document | Certificate of analysis, inspection certificate 3.1 (EN 10204) | Declaration of conformity, calibration record, device passport |
| Assignment in the order | At picking, often several lots per line item | At picking, exactly one number per item |
| View in the portal | Shipments per batch, recall query | Device list per location, service and complaints |
In practice both forms occur within the same assortment. A supplier of laboratory equipment sells the measuring device with a serial number and the matching consumables with a batch and an expiry date; an electrical wholesaler tracks luminaires serially and cables by batch. The shop therefore has to handle both in parallel without the buyer needing to learn the distinction. How much a well-maintained data base helps here is shown in our article on product data and PIM in B2B: without clean attributes you cannot even record on the product whether it requires batch tracking at all.
Assign at delivery, not at ordering
The most common design mistake is to promise the batch number in the shopping cart. At the time of ordering it is usually not yet determined: the warehouse picks by remaining shelf life or by first batch first, and a line item of 400 units may end up spread across two or three lots. Displaying a batch in the shop anyway produces complaints as soon as the delivery note states something else. The sensible order is the other way round: before the order the shop collects requirements, after the delivery it supplies the proof.
Requirements before the order are, for example, a minimum remaining shelf life, a required certificate or the wish for a single batch across the whole quantity. Such details belong in the ERP as an attribute of the order line, not in a free text field that somebody retypes later. After goods issue the ERP reports back the lots actually picked, including quantity, shelf life and documents, and the shop writes them onto the delivery note line. This feedback is the actual core of the topic and therefore a classic case for ERP integration in the B2B shop; which transmission routes come into question is set out in our article on interface architecture.
The core in one sentence
Certificates per batch: from ERP to delivery note and portal
A certificate belongs to the batch, not to the product. That sounds obvious, yet many shops map it differently: a data sheet valid for all lots hangs on the product, while the batch-specific document still arrives by email from the sales desk. The work stays with sales, and the customer has no reliable place to file it. A second layer works better: general documents on the product, batch-specific proof on the delivery note. How the general document layer is built is described in our article on data sheets and downloads on the product detail page.
Certificate of analysis
The certificate belongs to the lot that was delivered and is attached to the delivery note line automatically at goods issue.
Inspection certificate
Certificate types 2.1, 2.2, 3.1 and 3.2 (EN 10204) differ in who performs the inspection; type 3.1 is batch-specific and is assigned accordingly.
Shelf life and expiry
Best-before or expiry dates sit on the batch and appear in the portal per shipment, rather than as a blanket value on the product.
Safety data sheet
For substances and mixtures the applicable version hangs on the document and is supplied to the affected buyers when it is updated.
Label and barcode
Batch number, expiry date and serial number sit at defined positions on the label and can be scanned at the customer's goods receipt.
Document archive
All records run into the archive of the customer portal and stay available there even when the responsible buyer changes.
The benefit shows at the customer's goods receipt. Anyone who can download the records themselves does not have to call, and the goods are released faster. That is exactly the point of a self-service portal as we describe it in our article on B2B customer portals and self-service. For suppliers in the chemicals and plastics sector an explicit obligation is added: when a safety data sheet is updated, the new version has to be supplied free of charge to all recipients of the preceding twelve months (REACH Regulation). Without a batch and delivery history that group cannot even be determined.
Recalls in minutes instead of days
The critical case is the moment that decides whether the investment paid off. When a batch is blocked, the question is: who received something from this lot, how much, when and on which delivery note? With linked data that is a query. Without it, it turns into a search through order folders, packing lists and email threads, while authorities, customers and your own quality assurance all want to be informed in parallel. For food and feed, European law explicitly requires traceability across all stages of the chain (Regulation (EC) 178/2002); for food of animal origin, details identifying the consignment are added that have to be passed on to the recipient (Implementing Regulation (EU) 931/2011).
- Every delivery note line carries batch or serial number, quantity and date
- Every batch knows its goods receipt, its supplier and its certificate
- All buyers of a batch can be listed in a single step
- Partial and follow-up deliveries are recorded separately and completely
- Blocked batches are marked in stock and can no longer be ordered in the shop
- The query returns the same result in the portal and in the back end
How often the critical case occurs is shown by the number of alerts: in 2024 a total of 5,250 (European Commission) notifications on food and feed ran through the European rapid alert system, after 4,695 (European Commission) the year before. Not every notification concerns a German distributor, but each one shows how routine such events are in these chains. It also helps to withdraw the stock of a blocked batch from sale immediately - a question of real-time availability in the B2B shop, which should be coupled to the warehouse anyway.
Complaints and warranty by serial number
With serially tracked goods the benefit moves from the exception into everyday work. A customer reports a faulty device and gives the serial number; the portal then knows delivery date, order, end of the period, spare parts fitted and earlier cases. The sales desk no longer has to look things up in the ERP, and the customer gets a case in the same screen instead of a request for a callback. This feeds directly into the returns process we describe in our article on the RMA process for B2B returns, and it makes the digital spare parts catalogue genuinely usable: whoever knows the serial number sees the matching parts list instead of a general catalogue.
The serial number is the entry point into service
What law and standards actually require
The requirements differ by sector more strongly than it appears at first glance. In the food sector the duty to be able to name suppliers and recipients of every good has applied since 1 January 2005 (Regulation (EC) 178/2002); lot marking itself is governed by a separate directive under which the lot has to be identifiable (Directive 2011/91/EU). For medical devices the European regulation builds on the unique device identification UDI: the device identifier names the model, the production identifier carries batch, serial number and expiry date (MDR). The duty to apply the UDI carrier came into force in stages - for implantable devices and class III since 26 May 2021 (MDR), for classes IIa and IIb since 26 May 2023 (MDR) and for class I since 26 May 2025 (MDR).
On top of that come retention periods that concern the shop directly. Economic operators have to be able to name whom they supplied a medical device to, over a period of at least ten years (MDR), and fifteen years (MDR) for implantable devices. In chemicals the look-back period of twelve months (REACH Regulation) applies to updated safety data sheets. In technical trade it is less the law than the customer requirement that leads: anyone supplying materials will be asked for the inspection certificate 3.1 (EN 10204), which refers to the specific batch. In quality management systems the clause on identification and traceability requires unambiguous assignment across the whole process anyway (ISO 9001). How such a check is anchored technically in the ordering process is shown by our article on sanctions screening in the B2B shop using a related example.
Documentation is not a by-product
Step by step to batch tracking in the shop
A batch project rarely fails because of the interface but because of the sequence. First it has to be clear which products require batch or serial number tracking at all and which system holds the leading truth. Then come the data model, the feedback from the warehouse, the document assignment and only at the end the views in the portal. Working this way, every stage can be tested and put into operation on its own instead of risking one large rebuild at the end. Which transmission routes and data formats come into question is something we assess as part of our interfaces and integrations.
- Classify the assortment: batch-tracked, serially tracked or without proof requirements
- Define the leading system, usually the ERP, and the fields for batch, serial, shelf life and documents
- Connect the feedback from picking and goods issue to the delivery note line
- Assign documents per batch automatically and file them in the customer portal archive
- Set up the recall query and blocking flags in stock and rehearse them with real data
- Add service views per serial number: delivery, period, maintenance, complaints
This spreads the effort across clearly separated steps, and the second or third stage already takes noticeable load off the sales desk, because requests for proof end in the portal rather than on the phone. Which stage of expansion suits your assortment can be judged from comparable project examples; our services around the B2B shop show the framework. If you would like to know how batch and serial number tracking can be mapped in your case, we are happy to work through it in direct contact.
Sources and Studies
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