Sunrise 2027, explained
What the 2D barcode transition is, the publicly known timeline, and what it means in practice for a small brand.
What is a GS1 Digital Link?
A GS1 Digital Link is your product’s barcode number written as a web address. Instead of a stripe pattern that only a checkout scanner can read, the same identifier becomes a URL that any phone camera can open — and that retail scanners can still use to identify the product.
The short version
For decades, products have carried a 1D barcode (the familiar UPC or EAN stripes). That barcode encodes one thing: a number, the GTIN, that identifies the product. A cashier scans it, the register looks up the number, and the price appears. The barcode itself holds no other information, and a consumer’s phone can’t do anything useful with it.
GS1 Digital Link is an open standard from GS1 — the same nonprofit organization that administers barcode numbers worldwide — that takes that same GTIN and expresses it as an ordinary web URL. When you print that URL inside a 2D barcode such as a QR code, one printed symbol can do two jobs at once:
- At the checkout, a scanner reads the code and extracts the GTIN from the URL structure, so it works like the barcode the store already knows.
- In a consumer’s hand, a phone camera opens the URL like any other link — to a product page, ingredients, instructions, promotions, or lot-level information such as an expiration date or a recall notice.
What one actually looks like
A GS1 Digital Link follows a fixed, published pattern. The GTIN appears
after /01/, and optional extra data — a lot code, an
expiration date — can be appended using numbered labels called
Application Identifiers:
https://example.com/01/0123456789012/10/LOT123?17=270630
Read left to right: a normal web domain, then 01 (the
Application Identifier for GTIN) followed by the 13-digit product
number, then 10 (lot/batch code) followed by the lot
LOT123, then 17 (expiration date) with the
date in YYMMDD form. Any system that understands the standard can pull
those fields back out — no proprietary app required.
A plain QR code can point to any URL at all. What makes a GS1 Digital Link QR code different is that its URL follows this standard structure, so the GTIN inside it is machine-readable by retail systems — not just by the brand’s own website.
How it differs from a traditional barcode
| Traditional 1D barcode | 2D code with GS1 Digital Link | |
|---|---|---|
| What it encodes | The GTIN only | The GTIN plus optional lot, date, and serial data |
| Who can scan it | Store scanners | Store scanners and any phone camera |
| Where it leads | Nowhere — it’s just a number | A web destination you control and can update |
| Changing the destination | Not applicable | Update the link target on packaging you’ve already printed — no reprint needed |
Why the industry is moving to it
Retailers, brands, and GS1 member organizations are coordinating a multi-year transition known as Sunrise 2027: an industry ambition that, by the end of 2027, checkout scanners at retail point-of-sale will be able to read 2D barcodes in addition to the 1D barcodes used today. The drivers are practical — consumers expect on-package access to product information, and supply chains want lot-level data for faster recalls and better traceability. Read the full Sunrise 2027 explainer →
Who needs to care
If your brand sells physical products through retail — food, beverage, supplements, household goods — this transition is aimed at your packaging. It is not an emergency: traditional barcodes keep working throughout the transition, and nothing switches off on a single date. But packaging artwork has long lead times, so the brands that benefit most are the ones that understand the change before their next print run, not after it.
This is the hub page of OriginQR’s learning section. The pages below go deeper on each part; they are written to be useful whether or not you ever use our product.