What is GS1 Digital Link?
What is GS1 Digital Link?
GS1 Digital Link is a standard for writing a product's identifier as a web address, so one QR code does two jobs. A till scans it and pulls out the product number to ring up the sale; a customer's phone scans the same symbol and opens a web page. One barcode, two readers.
Until now those were separate objects. The striped barcode was for the till and meant nothing to a shopper; any QR code on the pack was a marketing addition the till ignored. Digital Link collapses them into one.
What one actually looks like
A Digital Link URI puts the identifier into the path of a normal web address. The domain is the brand's own resolver; /01/ is the GS1 Application Identifier that says “what follows is a GTIN”; and the digits after it are the 14-digit product number:
https://resolver.example.com/01/09520123456788A point-of-sale scanner reads that string, recognises the structure, and extracts09520123456788, the same number the striped barcode would have given it. A phone camera sees a URL and opens it. Neither reader has to know about the other.
What Sunrise 2027 requires, and what it does not
Requires: that retail point-of-sale systems be able to read and process a GTIN carried in a 2D barcode (a QR code holding a Digital Link URI, or a GS1 DataMatrix) by the end of 2027. It is a capability deadline aimed at retailers and the companies that supply their scanners.
Does not require: that you remove the striped barcode from your packaging. That is the misreading that sells unnecessary projects. A transition period exists so both can be carried at once, and most brands will do exactly that.
The practical consequence for anyone printing packaging is timing, not panic: artwork gets revised on its own cycle, and the cheap moment to adopt this is the next revision you were going to pay for anyway.
Why brands want it beyond the deadline
- The pack becomes addressable. Ingredients, provenance, recycling instructions and a Digital Product Passport can sit behind the same symbol that rings up the sale.
- One symbol instead of two. Packaging real estate is expensive and contested; removing a second code is a design win before it is a technical one.
- The destination can change. The identifier is fixed, but what the resolver returns for it does not have to be, a recall notice today, a recipe next quarter.
Where an ordinary short link still fits
Being plain about this, because the category is full of tools implying otherwise:Klip is not a GS1 resolver. A conformant resolver answers the URI paths GS1 specifies and returns different links for different request types. Klip issues short codes on its own domain, which is a different job.
The two live together on real packaging. The Digital Link code is the regulated, identifier-bound one and belongs to your GS1 licence. The campaign code (the one on the shelf-edge label, the promotion, the insert, the outer case) is an ordinary short link, and that is the one worth being able to re-point after printing.
If you are costing a packaging revision, the identifier work goes through your GS1 member organisation. Everything printed around it is the cheap, changeable half.
Questions
The things people ask before they commit something to paper.
Is GS1 Digital Link the same as a normal QR code?
The symbol is an ordinary QR code, the same standard, readable by any camera. What differs is the web address encoded inside it, which is written in a structure GS1 defines so that a point-of-sale scanner can pull the product number back out of it. Same picture, agreed-upon contents.
What does Sunrise 2027 actually require?
That retail point-of-sale systems be capable of reading and processing a GTIN carried in a 2D barcode by the end of 2027, a QR code holding a GS1 Digital Link URI, or a GS1 DataMatrix. It is a readiness deadline for retailers and their scanning equipment, not a law that bans the old stripes.
Do I have to remove the barcode from my packaging?
No, and this is the most common misreading. Sunrise 2027 is about tills being able to read 2D codes, not about linear barcodes becoming illegal. Most brands will carry both through the transition, which is exactly what a transition period is for.
Do I need a GS1 licence for this?
For the GTIN inside it, yes, product identifiers come from GS1 and are licensed through your national member organisation. The web domain that resolves it is yours. That split is the thing to understand before anyone quotes you for a project.
Can I use a link shortener as a GS1 Digital Link resolver?
Not as a conformant one. A resolver has to answer the URI paths GS1 specifies and return the right link for the right request type, which is a different job from redirecting a short code. Klip is not a GS1 resolver. What it does handle is the ordinary campaign code you print next to the GS1 one, and re-pointing that after the pack is on shelves.