The barcode on your product is about to become a web address

What the deadline actually says

By 31 December 2027, retail point of sale systems are expected to be able to read a product number out of a 2D barcode. That means either a QR code carrying what GS1 calls a Digital Link, or a GS1 DataMatrix. The initiative is called Sunrise 2027.

The old UPC barcode is not being banned. Nobody is switching anything off. Through the transition most brands are printing both, which is why you have started seeing packs with a familiar striped barcode and a QR code sitting next to it.

The part that matters more than the date: several large retailers have published their own 2D roadmaps and are tying shelf space to being ready. If you sell through one of them, your real deadline is whatever they tell you, and it is probably sooner than 2027.

A Digital Link is just a URL

This is the bit that gets overcomplicated. A GS1 Digital Link is a web address with an agreed structure. It looks like this:

https://yourbrand.com/01/09506000134376

The 01 says the number that follows is a GTIN, which is the product number you already have. That is genuinely the whole idea. When a phone camera reads that QR code it opens a web page, the same as any other link.

Which means the important consequence has nothing to do with barcodes. Every product you make is about to have a web page, and somebody has to build the thing the code lands on.

Why that is better than it sounds

A printed barcode is fixed forever. A URL is not. Once the code on the label points at a web address you control, you can change what sits behind it without reprinting a single package.

• Ingredients and allergens that stay current when a formulation changes
• A recall notice that appears on packs already sitting in cupboards
• Batch and expiry information pulled from the same code
• A page that shows up in search, instead of a dead end

That last one is the part most people miss. These pages are ordinary web pages. Built properly they get indexed and bring people to you. Built as an afterthought they are slow, generic, and invisible.

Who does what

This is where I would be careful with anyone selling you a complete solution, because the work splits cleanly in two and almost nobody does both well.

The first half is GS1 itself. Membership, your company prefix, allocating product numbers, keeping your records accurate, and getting the barcode printed to the right quality standard. That is between you, GS1, and your packaging and prepress suppliers. It is also where the liability lives, because a code that fails to scan at a checkout becomes a chargeback.

The second half is the web side. The resolver that answers the scanned address, the pages behind it, and the ability to change those destinations later without touching your packaging. That is ordinary web development, and it is the half I do.

If someone offers to handle all of it, ask which of those two they actually employ people for.

Do you need to do anything yet

If you sell direct, at markets, or through independents, probably not this year. Nothing breaks on 1 January 2028 and your existing barcode keeps working.

If you sell through a national chain, ask your buyer what their 2D timeline is. That answer, not the industry date, is your deadline. And if the answer is that it is coming, the web side is worth starting early, because it is the piece that benefits from being thought about rather than rushed two months before a packaging run.

There is a working demo

I built one on this site so you can see what a customer sees rather than take my word for it. Three fictional products, real Digital Link addresses, QR codes you can scan with your phone camera right now.

https://www.zacklovisa.com/gs1-digital-link

If you make something that goes on a shelf and this is turning up in your inbox, send me what you sell and who you sell it through. I will tell you what the web side costs, and if you are too far from the deadline to be spending money on it, I will tell you that instead.