A 2026 timeline for brands: what to do about Sunrise 2027 this year
Sunrise 2027 is next year, and if you make or distribute a physical product, the question to ask in July 2026 is not “do we need to redesign our packaging” — it’s “which of our retail customers are going to ask us for a 2D barcode, and when.” Here’s what to do about it between now and January. Most of it is checking, not spending.
First, the framing that keeps this sane: 2027 is not a cliff. GS1’s Sunrise 2027 initiative is a phased transition to 2D barcodes (QR codes with GS1 Digital Link, GS1 DataMatrix) readable at retail point-of-sale — not a date after which 1D UPCs stop scanning. The actual risk is slower and more boring: a trading-partner requirement arriving faster than your packaging refresh cycle can respond to it. That’s why waiting until 2027 doesn’t work. The deadline hiding inside the non-deadline is artwork lead time.
Q3 2026: find out what your customers are actually doing
Before you touch packaging, ask your retail customers — buyer or vendor-compliance contact — two questions: are your POS scanners 2D-capable, and do you have a date for requiring 2D symbols from suppliers?
Don’t expect dramatic answers. As of mid-2026, no major US retailer has published a dated, hard 2D packaging mandate for suppliers that we can find — GS1 US’s own Sunrise 2027 page names none. What exists is softer: Wegmans is featured by GS1 US as exploring 2D barcodes, P&G has publicly endorsed the transition, and industry coverage counts dozens of retailers piloting 2D-capable checkout. The concrete milestone so far is overseas: Tesco moved an entire own-label product range to GS1-powered QR codes in 2026, a preview of the private-label-first pattern to expect here.
The point of asking isn’t today’s answer. It’s that you’ll learn which customers have someone thinking about it, and you’ll hear about a mandate months before it shows up in a vendor guide.
Q3 2026: confirm your GTIN house is in order
Adding a 2D symbol encodes your GTIN in a new format. If your GTINs have problems, the 2D symbol inherits them.
Two specific checks:
- Licensing. If your UPCs trace back to a GS1 company prefix you license directly, you’re fine. If they came from a resold prefix or you’re not sure where they came from, resolve that before you print them into new artwork.
- One GTIN, one product. Reused or recycled GTINs across variants will cause exactly the kind of data mismatch 2D barcodes are supposed to eliminate.
This is an afternoon of desk work, and a prerequisite for everything after it.
Q4 2026: run one dual-marked label through your own building
The cheap test that tells you more than any webinar: take one SKU, add a GS1-compliant 2D symbol next to the existing UPC, and run it through your own operation end to end. Print it on your label stock, scan it at receiving, at pick, and at whatever passes for checkout in your world.
You’re looking for three things: whether your label templates can render the symbol at a scannable size, whether your existing scanners read it at all (warehouse laser scanners can’t read 2D symbols, period), and whether the systems behind the scanners do something sensible with what comes back. Any one of those failing is a 2026 finding you’d rather have than a 2027 surprise.
If you run an inventory system like Fishbowl, this test is where the software questions start — that’s its own post.
Q4 2026 → 2027: make the artwork decision
If any customer conversation from Q3 produced a date — or if your packaging is due for a refresh anyway — the artwork decision belongs in 2026. Packaging redesign, print vendor scheduling, and sell-through of existing packaged inventory add up to months, not weeks, between “we decided” and “it’s on shelves” — ask your print vendor for their number before assuming you have time.
And this isn’t hypothetical for us: trading partners are already asking brands we work with to deliver 2D barcodes carrying GTIN, lot, and expiry on packaging. We recently shipped a label solution that prints a customer’s packaging artwork with exactly that symbol on it. The asks are arriving ahead of any published retailer mandate — which is the whole point of doing the Q3 conversations early.
The move GS1 recommends, and the one that costs the least, is dual marking: keep the UPC, add the 2D symbol alongside it. Nobody serious is suggesting removing the 1D barcode in 2027.
What can safely wait
Consumer-engagement QR experiences, encoding lot and expiry into the symbol, and anything sold only through channels without retail POS — all of it can wait until a customer asks or a refresh makes it free. Do the checks above first.
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