Retailers have scanned the same type of barcode at checkout for roughly fifty years. That is about to change. GS1, the organisation behind the UPC and EAN barcodes printed on nearly every retail product, has set a global milestone called Sunrise 2027: the point by which retailers should be able to accept 2D barcodes, including QR codes, at point of sale alongside or instead of the traditional linear barcode.
This is not a distant technical footnote. It affects packaging design, point-of-sale software, staff training and how brands communicate with shoppers. Retailers who wait until 2027 to think about it will be doing rushed, expensive work under deadline pressure. Those who plan now can treat the transition as an opportunity rather than a compliance headache.
What Sunrise 2027 actually changes
Today's linear barcodes, the black and white stripes on a can of soup or a box of cereal, carry only one piece of information: a product identification number (GTIN). That number is enough to look up a price, but nothing else.
2D barcodes, including GS1's Digital Link QR codes, can carry that same identification number plus a great deal more: batch or lot number, expiry date, serial number, and a URL that links to a webpage with further product information. A single 2D barcode can therefore do the job of a barcode, an expiry sticker and a marketing link all at once.
Sunrise 2027 is the date by which GS1 member organisations expect retail point-of-sale systems worldwide to be able to scan and process these 2D codes reliably, not as a novelty but as a standard input method alongside existing barcode scanners.
It is worth being precise about what Sunrise 2027 is not. It is not a legal mandate with fines attached, and it is not a single flag-day switch-off of linear barcodes. It is an industry-coordinated readiness target: brands are being encouraged to start printing 2D barcodes on packaging now, and retailers are being asked to make sure their scanning infrastructure can read them by 2027, so that the two rollouts meet in the middle.
Why retailers cannot just ignore it
Several forces are converging that make this harder to sit out than previous barcode updates:
Regulatory pressure on food and pharma traceability. Expiry dates and batch numbers embedded in a scannable code make recalls faster and food waste easier to manage at the till, an increasing expectation from food safety regulators in the EU and elsewhere.
Brand-driven packaging changes. Large consumer goods manufacturers are already piloting 2D barcodes on products. Once a critical mass of products carry them, a till that cannot read them becomes a customer-facing failure, not just a back-office limitation.
Consumer-facing information demands. Shoppers increasingly expect to scan a code and get sourcing information, allergen details or sustainability claims, something a plain linear barcode was never designed to deliver.
Hardware refresh cycles. Point-of-sale scanner hardware is often on a five to seven year replacement cycle. Retailers who time their next refresh without 2D capability in mind will be stuck with old equipment past the point when it matters.
What retailers need to do to prepare
The practical preparation work falls into three categories: hardware, software and process.
Hardware
Most imaging scanners manufactured in the last decade can already read 2D barcodes, including QR codes; the limitation is usually the older laser-only scanners still common on many checkout lanes. An inventory of existing scanning hardware, lane by lane, is the first concrete step. Where laser scanners are still in use, budget for replacement or supplementary imaging scanners well before 2027, not in the year itself when demand and prices will spike.
Software and data
Point-of-sale and inventory systems need to be able to parse GS1 Digital Link data, which structures information differently from a plain GTIN lookup. This is largely a vendor question: ask your POS provider directly what their 2D barcode and GS1 Digital Link roadmap looks like, and get a written timeline rather than a verbal assurance.
Process and staff training
Cashiers and self-checkout systems need to handle a transition period where both barcode types appear, sometimes on the same product, sometimes on different batches of the same product as older stock sells through. Clear internal guidance avoids confusion and till errors during the changeover.
Where dynamic QR codes fit into the transition
It is important to separate two related but distinct things: the GS1 2D barcode used for point-of-sale scanning and product identification, and the dynamic QR codes retailers use for marketing, packaging content and customer communication. Sunrise 2027 concerns the former, but retailers preparing for it are, sensibly, rethinking their whole approach to codes on packaging and in-store signage at the same time.
This is where a well-run dynamic QR code strategy pays off. A dynamic QR code does not encode the destination content directly; it encodes a short redirect URL that you control, and you can change where that redirect points at any time without reprinting the code. For retailers, this matters in a few concrete ways:
Packaging that outlives a single campaign. A code printed on packaging for a product recall or promotional page can be updated later to point somewhere else, without a reprint.
Scan analytics without customer tracking. Retailers can see how many times a code was scanned, and roughly where and when, which is useful for evaluating in-store signage and shelf placement, without needing to build customer profiles to get that value.
Separation of concerns. The GS1 identification code at the till and a customer-facing marketing QR code on a shelf talker or endcap can be run as separate systems, avoiding the temptation to overload a single code with too many jobs.
For any retailer handling EU customer data, where dynamic QR codes are hosted and how scan data is processed also matters under GDPR. A platform that hosts redirects and analytics on EU infrastructure, with no unnecessary data resale or third-party tracking bolted onto the scan, removes a compliance question that otherwise has to be answered project by project. This is the specific gap EUQR is built to close: EU-hosted dynamic QR code generation and management, with straightforward scan analytics and no hidden data-sharing.
Building a realistic timeline
Retailers do not need to solve this in one project. A workable sequence looks like this:
Now to mid-2025: audit existing scanner hardware and get a written 2D barcode roadmap from your POS vendor.
2025 to 2026: pilot 2D barcode scanning on a subset of lanes or stores, and pilot dynamic QR codes for in-store marketing and packaging separately, so both workstreams mature in parallel.
2026: staff training and full-fleet hardware upgrades where needed.
Early 2027: full readiness, with both barcode types supported at every lane ahead of the global Sunrise 2027 target.
Conclusion
Sunrise 2027 is a coordinated, global nudge rather than a hard cutoff, but the retailers who treat it as a slow-moving deadline will be far better positioned than those who treat it as someone else's problem. The hardware and software groundwork is a straightforward, if unglamorous, IT project. The more interesting opportunity sits alongside it: using the same moment to modernise how QR codes are used for customer-facing content in a way that respects privacy and stays within EU data rules. Starting the hardware audit and the QR code strategy at the same time means neither becomes a last-minute scramble.