For more than fifty years, the barcode on a retail package has done one job: identify the product at the checkout. It does that job with a single number, the GTIN, encoded in a one-dimensional pattern of bars. It cannot tell the register which lot the product came from, when it expires, or where it was made, because it was never designed to. That is now changing, and the change lands on packaging.
Sunrise 2027 is the industry initiative, led by GS1 US, to have US retail point-of-sale systems able to scan two-dimensional barcodes by the end of 2027. A 2D code, such as a QR code built on the GS1 Digital Link standard or a GS1 DataMatrix, can carry the GTIN plus a batch or lot number, an expiration date, and a serial number if required, all in a square of ink that scans at the register. For a brand, and especially for a private-label manufacturer producing for several retailers, that means artwork changes across every item that moves through a checkout, and the artwork is where the engineering happens.
One scope note. Korpack supplies packaging materials and labeling and barcoding equipment, and performs secondary packaging and labeling as a co-packer. Korpack does not design brand artwork, verify a brand’s GS1 registration, or operate retail point-of-sale systems. The subject here is what the transition asks of a package, and what tends to go wrong when it is treated as a graphics update.
What Sunrise 2027 Is, and What It Is Not
The first thing to get right is the thing most summaries get wrong. Sunrise 2027 is not a legal mandate. It is a readiness milestone: an industry initiative, coordinated by GS1 US with retailers and technology standards bodies, to have retail scanners capable of reading 2D barcodes at the point of sale by the end of 2027. No regulator is requiring a 2D code on a package by that date.
The second thing to get right follows from the first. The UPC is not going away. The initiative is described in industry guidance as a sunrise, not a sunset. GS1’s own retail guideline states that linear barcodes will not go away, and that any product carrying a retail 2D barcode on-pack needs to be accompanied by a point-of-sale linear barcode until 2D scanning is widespread; its global standard requires the two to be co-located until all retailers are prepared to scan 2D alone. Industry guidance has put that readiness threshold at roughly 90 to 95 percent of retailers. A package that drops its UPC for a QR code before the registers can read it stops scanning at checkout, which is the one failure the whole initiative exists to avoid.
What makes it feel like a mandate is who is driving it. The initiative is retailer-driven, and as retailers become able to scan 2D and build processes around the data it carries, such as flagging a recalled lot or an expired item at the register, suppliers are being asked to put 2D codes on packaging to meet retailer expectations. Health and beauty products led the early adoption; food and other consumer packaged goods are following. It is not a law. It is a shift in what trading partners expect on the package, which in practice can be just as binding.
Treat Sunrise 2027 as a packaging program with a soft deadline set by your largest customers, not as a regulatory deadline and not as something you can ignore. The question is not whether you are required to add a 2D code. It is when your retail partners will start expecting one, and whether your packaging will be ready when they do.
Why This Lands on the Package, Not the Database
The data side of 2D is largely a systems question: which GS1 identifiers to encode, how to structure a GS1 Digital Link, where the lot and date information comes from. The packaging side is physical, and it is where codes fail in the field.
A 2D code is a dense grid of small modules. Whether it scans reliably depends on things a graphics file does not show: placement on the package, physical size, the quiet zone of clear space around it, the contrast between the code and its background, and the print method and substrate it is printed on. A code that is a crisp vector in the artwork can be unreadable as a low-contrast print on kraft corrugated, a smudged thermal-transfer label, or a code wrapped around a curved container. GS1’s retail guideline is specific about the physical side: the 2D code should sit within 50 millimeters, about 2 inches, of the linear barcode’s center so both scan in one pass; a QR code needs a quiet zone of four times its module size on all four sides; and the 2D module size is set at 1.5 times what is allowed for the linear barcode. Barcode quality has to meet industry grading standards throughout production, not just in the proof.
Dual marking adds a layout problem on top of the print problem. Two codes now have to fit on a panel that was designed for one, each with its own quiet zone, without crowding the regulated label content or the brand’s own graphics. On a small item, that is a real-estate negotiation. On a case, it is a decision about which panel carries which code and whether the case label needs to change too.
In the field, 2D codes fail for ordinary physical reasons: too small for the print resolution, insufficient quiet zone, low contrast on a dark or textured substrate, distortion on a curved surface, and smudging or scuffing in transit. Each is a specification and verification problem. None of them is visible in the artwork file.
What Changes for a Private-Label Manufacturer
For a national brand, Sunrise 2027 is one artwork program. For a manufacturer producing store brands for several retailers, it is several, because each retailer owns its own packaging specification and will adopt 2D on its own timeline and in its own way. One retailer may want a GS1 Digital Link QR code on the primary package this year. Another may add it to the case label first. A third may not have decided. And GS1’s own 2025 position paper adds a wrinkle specific to store brands: retailers may move their private-label and in-store labelled products to a single 2D barcode, without the linear code, as an early step, particularly for products produced and labelled in closed or semi-closed environments, which it notes includes contract-manufactured goods. A private-label manufacturer can therefore be asked to go to single 2D on a retailer’s own brand before any national brand does, while products sold across retailers still need the linear code.
That multiplies the work in three places. Artwork versions multiply, because each retailer’s packaging changes separately. Changeovers multiply, because the same product may run in several packaging versions. And verification multiplies, because each version has to be proven to scan on the substrate and print method it will actually use. A manufacturer that handles this as a series of one-off graphics requests will be managing it for years. One that handles it as a packaging specification program, with placement, size, and verification standards set once and applied across retailers, will not.
What to Do Before the Registers Are Ready
The transition rewards getting the physical side settled before trading partners start asking, because the physical side is the slow part.
- Keep the UPC. Add the 2D code alongside it. Do not remove the 1D code on products sold across retailers until retailer readiness is confirmed, which industry guidance places at roughly 90 to 95 percent of retailers. The exception is a retailer directing single 2D on its own private-label products, which GS1’s position paper allows as an early step; follow that retailer’s specification for those products only.
- Specify the code physically, not just graphically. Set placement, minimum size, quiet zone, and contrast as packaging specifications, per package type and substrate, and apply them across every artwork version.
- Verify on the real package. Scan-test and grade the printed code on the actual substrate, print method, and shape it ships in, including after it has been through handling, not on a proof.
- Decide the case label at the same time. If lot and date data will be carried in a 2D code on the item, decide whether the case label changes too, and keep the two consistent, because the case is what the distribution center scans.
- Treat each retailer as a version. For store brands, map which retailer wants what, on which package level, by when, and manage the versions as a set rather than as separate requests.
How Korpack Fits
Korpack is an engineering-led packaging company with a labeling and barcoding practice alongside its secondary packaging and co-packing work, which is the part of this transition where packaging decisions turn into printed, scannable codes on real cases and real products.
Practically, that means labeling and barcoding equipment specified for the code, substrate, and line speed involved, packaging materials and case specifications that give a 2D code the size, contrast, and quiet zone it needs to grade well, and co-packing and relabeling capacity for the transition itself, when products have to be relabeled or repacked into updated packaging versions without stopping a production line. Korpack supplies the packaging and equipment and performs the secondary packaging and labeling; the brand’s GS1 identifiers, artwork, and data structure stay with the brand and its own systems. The objective is a package whose code scans at the register and at the dock, on every version, every time.
The barcode has been the one part of a package nobody had to think about for fifty years. For the next few, it is a specification again.
The transition is a packaging specification problem before it is a graphics problem. Korpack’s engineers and labeling specialists help set placement, size, substrate, and verification standards, and supply the equipment and co-packing capacity to apply them across every version.
855.567.7225 | korpack.com
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Sunrise 2027 a legal requirement?
No. Sunrise 2027 is an industry initiative led by GS1 US, not a law or regulation. Its goal is for US retail point-of-sale systems to be capable of scanning 2D barcodes by the end of 2027. It is retailer-driven, which means that as retailers become able to read 2D codes, suppliers are increasingly expected by those retailers to provide them. That expectation can be as binding as a rule in practice, but it comes from trading partners, not from a regulator.
Is the UPC barcode going away in 2027?
No. GS1’s own retail guideline states that linear barcodes will not go away and that a product carrying a retail 2D barcode needs to be accompanied by a point-of-sale linear barcode until 2D scanning is widespread; industry guidance describes the transition as a sunrise, not a sunset, and puts the readiness threshold at roughly 90 to 95 percent of retailers. Removing the UPC before registers can read 2D codes would stop the product scanning at checkout. The one exception GS1 allows is a retailer choosing single 2D on its own private-label or in-store labelled products as an early step.
What kind of 2D barcode does Sunrise 2027 use?
GS1’s retail guideline specifies three point-of-sale compliant options: a QR Code carrying a GS1 Digital Link URI, a Data Matrix carrying a GS1 Digital Link URI, and GS1 DataMatrix carrying GS1 element strings. The two most commonly discussed are the QR code with GS1 Digital Link, which a consumer’s phone can also scan to open a web address, and GS1 DataMatrix. Which one fits depends on the application. Both can carry the GTIN plus additional data such as a batch or lot number, an expiration date, and a serial number if required, which a 1D UPC cannot.
What does adding a 2D code change on the packaging itself?
More than it looks. A 2D code’s reliability depends on physical factors the artwork file does not show: placement, size, the quiet zone around it, contrast against the substrate, and the print method. It has to meet industry grading standards throughout production, not just on a proof. Dual marking also means two codes with two quiet zones have to fit on a panel designed for one, and the case label may need to change alongside the item. For a manufacturer producing store brands for several retailers, each retailer’s packaging changes on its own timeline, which multiplies artwork versions, changeovers, and verification work.
- GS1, 2D in Retail Implementation Guideline (ref.gs1.org), and GS1 press release on the first barcode scan (June 26, 1974, Troy, Ohio). Source for the three point-of-sale compliant 2D options (QR Code with GS1 Digital Link URI, Data Matrix with GS1 Digital Link URI, GS1 DataMatrix), the statements that linear barcodes will not go away and that products carrying retail 2D barcodes on-pack need to be accompanied by a point-of-sale linear barcode until 2D scanning is widespread, the ambition for point-of-sale scanning to read the GTIN from both linear and 2D barcodes by the end of 2027, the data a 2D barcode can carry (GTIN plus application identifiers such as expiry date, batch or lot, and serial number), the quiet zone of four times the X-dimension for QR Code, the 2D X-dimension of 1.5 times the linear barcode’s, and placement within 50 millimeters of the linear barcode’s center. The press release is the source for the first retail barcode scan date.
- GS1, Retailers Migrating to Single 2D Barcode for Private Label and In-Store Labelled Products, Position Paper r1.0.0, July 2025. Source for GS1’s position that retailers may implement single 2D barcodes on private-label and in-store labelled products as an early step, particularly in closed or semi-closed production environments including contract-manufactured products, while the agreed global standard requires co-located linear and 2D barcodes until all retailers are prepared to scan only 2D.
- GS1 US Sunrise 2027 initiative, as described by the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), October 2026. Source for Sunrise 2027 as an industry initiative led by GS1 US to prepare retail systems to scan 2D barcodes at the point of sale by the end of 2027, the co-location of 2D codes with the UPC on packaging until retailer readiness of roughly 90 to 95 percent, the description of the transition as a sunrise rather than a sunset, retailer use cases such as identifying recalled or expired items, and early adoption led by health and beauty products with food and other consumer packaged goods following.
- Packaging-industry guidance on GS1 Sunrise 2027 (Esko; Keyence, 2026). Source for the statement that Sunrise 2027 is not a legal mandate but a retailer-driven readiness initiative, the two common GS1-compliant 2D formats (QR codes using GS1 Digital Link and GS1 DataMatrix), the data a 2D code typically carries (GTIN plus batch or lot, expiration date, and serial number if required), the coexistence of 1D and 2D codes through dual marking during transition, and the physical factors governing scan reliability (placement, size, quiet zones, color contrast, print method) and the requirement to meet industry grading standards throughout production.
- Korpack Marketing Guidelines and Value Propositions, November 2023, and Korpack labeling, barcoding, and contract packaging service descriptions. Source for Korpack’s labeling and barcoding equipment practice, packaging materials, and secondary packaging and co-packing capacity. Korpack does not design brand artwork, manage GS1 registrations, or operate retail point-of-sale systems.
Korpack is a technologically advanced packaging materials, contract packaging, and automation supplier that approaches solutions with an engineering mindset. Founded by a packaging engineer, Korpack serves growth-oriented food, beverage, and consumer brands across North America from its Chicagoland headquarters. Sunrise 2027 is an industry initiative and its timelines and retailer expectations may change; confirm current requirements with GS1 US and your retail partners.
