The retail industry has operated for decades on a well-understood model. Brands need retailers to move product at scale. Retailers need brands to stock their shelves with goods consumers want. Both sides have built their businesses around that relationship — and both have developed sophisticated strategies to make it work in their favour.
Sunrise 2027 is about to change the underlying mechanics of that model in a fundamental way. The GS1 initiative to replace 1D barcodes with QR codes on every retail product will, as a direct consequence, give brands an unprecedented mechanism for direct consumer engagement — inside the retailer's own store. That development creates a genuine need for brands and retailers to work out a new arrangement: one that reflects the changed landscape and is deliberately designed for mutual benefit.
The GS1 Sunrise 2027 initiative is the global retail industry's commitment to support 2D barcodes — specifically GS1 Digital Link QR codes — at point-of-sale scanning systems by 2027. Major retail groups, grocery chains, and point-of-sale (POS) technology vendors across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific have committed to the transition.
The numbers are significant. There are approximately 1 trillion product scans at retail checkouts globally each year. Every one of those products will carry a GS1 Digital Link QR code that any smartphone can read — not just a POS scanner. That is a step change, not an evolution.
The 1D Universal Product Code (UPC) and European Article Number (EAN) barcodes that have been on product packaging since the 1970s were built exclusively for retailer use. The checkout scanner reads the Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) encoded in the barcode, looks up the price, and moves on. Consumers had no reason to scan them, and no tool to do so even if they wanted to.
The GS1 Digital Link encodes a web URI directly into the QR code. Scan it with a smartphone camera and it resolves to a destination on the internet — a destination controlled by whoever manages the resolver behind the code. In almost every case, that is the brand or manufacturer.
This is where the need for a new arrangement begins.
Consider a consumer standing in front of a grocery shelf, picking up a product and scanning the QR code on the back. They are curious about ingredients, sustainability claims, or allergen information. It is a reasonable, increasingly common behavior — QR code scanning by consumers increased substantially during the pandemic and has continued to grow. According to Statista, over 89 million Americans scanned a QR code in 2022, and that figure has grown every year since.
When that scan happens inside a Kroger, a Walmart, a Tesco, or a Carrefour, what occurs next is not under the retailer's control.
The consumer enters a direct digital conversation with the brand or manufacturer. That conversation can include:
None of these outcomes is inherently unreasonable from a brand's perspective. But each one has implications for the retailer's business model that deserve to be discussed openly — not avoided.
The loss of third-party cookies has been one of the defining challenges in digital marketing over the past five years. Brands that relied on behavioral data from advertising networks found themselves disconnected from their end consumers. They knew what they sold, but not to whom — because the retailer sat between them and the customer, and the retailer kept that relationship data proprietary.
Sunrise 2027 gives brands a new path to first-party data.
Every in-store QR code scan, if directed to a brand-owned digital experience, generates first-party data: device type, geolocation, time of scan, browsing behavior. If the consumer opts into a loyalty program or product registration, the brand captures personally identifiable information — name, email, purchase history — without the retailer being involved.
Retailers have understood this dynamic. They have responded by building Retail Media Networks (RMNs). The largest retailers in the world — Walmart Connect, Kroger Precision Marketing, Amazon DSP, Tesco Media — now operate sophisticated advertising platforms that sell CPG brands access to their first-party consumer data and advertising inventory. Retail media is now a multi-billion dollar industry precisely because retailers recognized that consumer data is an asset brands need.
The GS1 Digital Link QR code, at scale, changes the context in which that data relationship operates. If a brand can capture first-party data in-store through a QR code scan, the traditional data dynamic between brands and retailers shifts. That shift is neither inherently good nor bad — but it does need to be acknowledged and planned for by both sides.
The public discourse around Sunrise 2027 has been almost entirely operational: How do POS systems need to be upgraded? Which retailers are on track? What happens to legacy UPC infrastructure? These are legitimate concerns, and they are receiving appropriate attention.
The strategic implications for the brand-retailer relationship are receiving far less.
There are understandable reasons for this. First, the transition is still in progress. Brands and retailers are focused on the near-term logistics of getting new QR codes onto product packaging and ensuring checkout scanners can read them. The question of what happens when consumers start scanning those codes at scale is still somewhat prospective — even though the technology to enable it is already in place.
Second, raising this issue directly requires a degree of candor that commercial relationships do not always make easy. Brands may not want to signal to retail partners that they intend to use the new QR code to build direct consumer relationships. Retailers may not want to acknowledge that this represents a meaningful change to the data landscape they have built their media businesses around.
Third, standards bodies — including GS1 itself — are appropriately focused on technical interoperability and compliance timelines. The commercial and strategic implications of the standard are not within their scope to resolve.
The result is that the industry is moving toward a significant structural change without much deliberate planning for how to manage it as a shared challenge.
Yes — and this is where the picture becomes genuinely encouraging. The GS1 Digital Link standard already includes context-aware resolution capabilities that allow the same QR code to resolve to different digital destinations depending on who is scanning it and from where. The technical infrastructure for a well-designed brand-retailer arrangement already exists.
The GS1 Digital Link standard is more sophisticated than most people realize. It is not simply a URL in a QR code. The standard supports context-aware resolution — the ability for the same QR code to serve different content to different audiences depending on the scanning context.
This means the following scenarios are technically achievable today:
App-based contextual routing. If a consumer scans a product QR code using a retailer's own mobile app — say, the Target Circle app or the Walmart app — the resolver can detect the referring context and redirect the consumer to a retailer-hosted product experience page, rather than the brand's own site. The retailer maintains the consumer relationship; the brand's content is still surfaced.
Geolocation routing. A resolver can use the GPS coordinates embedded in a scan request to determine that the consumer is inside a specific retailer's store. The brand can configure the resolver to serve a retailer-specific digital experience — a coupon redeemable only at that chain, or a rich content page co-branded with the retailer — when the scan originates from within that location.
Link type negotiation. The GS1 Digital Link specification defines a mechanism called linkType that allows different content types to be served from the same code. A POS scanner requesting a price lookup gets a machine-readable product data response. A consumer smartphone gets a human-readable product page. A regulatory authority gets a Digital Product Passport (DPP). The same QR code serves all three audiences correctly.
These capabilities exist within the standard as it is currently defined. The challenge is not technical. The challenge is that brands and retailers have not yet sat down together to agree on how to use them — who controls what, when, and under what circumstances.
The window for establishing this proactively is shorter than it appears. Sunrise 2027 is not a distant deadline. POS infrastructure upgrades are underway today. New product packaging with GS1 Digital Link QR codes is being printed now. Consumer scanning behavior is already established. The conditions for this to become a live strategic question are coming together quickly.
Brands need to make a deliberate choice about how they deploy GS1 Digital Link at retail. A QR code strategy built with retail relationships in mind — where the scan benefits the consumer, the brand, and the retail partnership — is more durable than one designed purely around direct acquisition. Brands that invest in retailer-collaborative digital experiences now will be in a stronger position when the data conversation becomes explicit. Those that do not will likely find the conversation harder to have later.
Retailers need to engage with QR codes as a consumer digital touchpoint — not just a POS technology upgrade. The productive response is not to slow down the Sunrise 2027 transition, which brings real operational and data quality benefits. The productive response is to engage with brand partners now: to establish data-sharing frameworks, co-branded digital experience standards, and clear expectations around resolver behavior at retail. Retailers that lead this conversation will help shape the norms; those that wait will inherit whatever norms brands set unilaterally.
Standards bodies, including GS1, might usefully consider whether additional guidance or recommended practice documents around contextual resolution in retail environments would be appropriate. The technical capability is in the standard. A recognized framework for applying it responsibly in a retailer-brand context would give both parties a constructive starting point.
The broader industry — including GS1 member organizations, retail trade associations, and CPG industry groups — has a genuine opportunity to shape how this unfolds. A coordinated, proactive approach to the commercial implications of Sunrise 2027 serves everyone better than leaving it to emerge ad hoc through individual brand decisions and reactive retailer responses.
What is GS1 Sunrise 2027? GS1 Sunrise 2027 is the global retail industry initiative to ensure that point-of-sale systems at retail checkouts can read 2D barcodes, specifically GS1 Digital Link QR codes, by the end of 2027. It replaces the 1D UPC and EAN barcodes that have been the retail standard since the 1970s.
How does Sunrise 2027 affect the brand-retailer relationship? When a consumer scans a GS1 Digital Link QR code in-store, they enter a digital interaction managed by the brand or manufacturer — not the retailer. This creates a new direct channel for brand engagement inside the retail environment. Brands and retailers need to agree on how that channel operates to ensure it works for both parties and serves the consumer well.
Can the same QR code resolve differently for different users? Yes. The GS1 Digital Link standard supports context-aware resolution, meaning the same QR code can redirect to different digital destinations depending on who is scanning it — a POS scanner, a consumer using a retailer's app, or a consumer using a standard smartphone camera. This is a technical capability that exists today but requires deliberate configuration by the brand or their technology platform.
What is a Retail Media Network and why does it matter here? A Retail Media Network (RMN) is an advertising platform operated by a major retailer — such as Walmart Connect, Kroger Precision Marketing, or Amazon DSP — that sells CPG brands access to the retailer's first-party consumer data and advertising inventory. RMNs are worth tens of billions of dollars annually because brands need consumer data that retailers hold. GS1 Digital Link QR codes give brands a new mechanism for capturing first-party data in-store, which changes the context in which RMN value propositions operate. This makes open dialogue between brands and retailers about data-sharing arrangements more important, not less.
What does a collaborative QR code strategy look like in practice? A well-designed approach uses GS1 Digital Link's contextual resolution capabilities to serve retailer-specific experiences when a consumer scans in-store: geolocation-triggered content, co-branded product pages, or loyalty offers redeemable only at that retail partner. Scan analytics are shared with retail partners under agreed terms. Direct-to-consumer promotions that redirect consumers away from their current retail environment are avoided. The result is a QR code strategy that builds both brand equity and retail relationships simultaneously.
TrackVision AI's GS1 Digital Link resolver and Scan Analytics capabilities give brands the infrastructure to deploy GS1 Digital Link QR codes at scale — and the visibility to understand exactly what is happening when consumers scan them. The platform's resolver supports the contextual routing capabilities described in this article, enabling brands to configure different digital experiences for different scan contexts: retailer app environments, geofenced store locations, or standard consumer smartphone cameras.
For brands thinking through their Sunrise 2027 strategy, that scan data is the starting point for the retailer conversation. Where are your products being scanned? What are consumers doing with the digital experience? Which retail environments generate the most engagement? These are questions that TrackVision's Scan Analytics can answer today — before the commercial arrangements need to be formalized.
The brands that will navigate Sunrise 2027 most effectively are the ones that treat the GS1 Digital Link QR code as a shared asset with their retail partners, not a private channel. Building that capability on the right infrastructure makes the difference. Contact us to learn more about how TrackVision supports GS1 Digital Link implementation for brands operating in complex retail environments.