The challenge
A distribution and brand protection company needed a system that went beyond internal warehouse management — they needed to track products across the entire supply chain from manufacturer to end customer, and give end users a way to verify product authenticity with a phone scan.
Existing barcode systems tracked movement within a warehouse. They did not cover multi-tier distribution, did not support consumer-facing verification, and could not detect counterfeits entering the chain at distribution or retail level.
The problem had three distinct audiences:
- Manufacturers — needed to register and serialise product units at production
- Distributors and retailers — needed to log receipt and dispatch, maintaining the chain of custody
- End customers — needed to scan a product in seconds and see a clear genuine/counterfeit result
What we built
KometCode developed ScanSure in collaboration with Lateral Solution as a distribution partner. The platform has three layers:
Serialisation and registration
At manufacturing:
- Batch upload of product units, each assigned a cryptographically unique QR code
- QR label generation for print-at-factory or pre-printed label supply
- Batch-level metadata: product name, manufacturing date, lot number, expiry (where applicable)
Chain of custody tracking
At each distribution stage:
- Distributor and retailer portals log receipt and dispatch events per unit or per batch
- Each scan logs: timestamp, GPS location (optional), operator ID
- Transfer history visible to the brand at all times
Consumer verification
End customers scan the QR code on the product using any smartphone camera — no app required:
- Green confirmation: product is genuine, with origin details and manufacturing date
- Red warning: product is unregistered or has been reported as counterfeit
- Brands receive real-time alerts when an unregistered code is scanned at a known retail location
Brand dashboard
- Map view of verified scans by geography — spots where counterfeit incidents cluster
- Batch-level reports: how many units of a batch have been verified, where, and by whom
- Export-ready audit trail for regulatory or legal use
Technical approach
The platform runs on a modern, cloud-native stack:
- Next.js — consumer verification portal and brand dashboard
- NestJS — API layer handling authentication, chain-of-custody event logging, and verification logic
- PostgreSQL — structured storage for product registry, event log, and user accounts
- QR code generation — cryptographically signed identifiers that cannot be predicted or brute-forced
The verification response time is under 500ms from scan to result, even on 3G connections — a requirement for retail environments in markets with variable connectivity.
Delivery
The platform was built over 18 weeks with Lateral Solution providing domain expertise and pilot distribution network access. The first production batch was serialised and verified in week 14, allowing real-world data to inform refinements before full launch.
Results
- Warehouse team adoption within 3 days of go-live — the scan workflow was designed for speed, not IT literacy
- Sub-500ms verification response for end customers across tested markets
- Counterfeit detection — within the first 60 days of deployment, three instances of unregistered codes were flagged and investigated
- Audit-ready trail — complete chain-of-custody records from manufacturing batch to consumer scan, exportable for regulatory use
ScanSure is now available for early access for additional brands and manufacturers. Learn more about ScanSure or get in touch to discuss your requirements.