One-dimensional barcodes are transitioning to 2D barcodes, like QR codes, and retailers need to be ready for the change by the end of 2027. GS1 US®, the not-for-profit behind the Sunrise 2027 initiative, is leading the charge and helping both retailers and suppliers prepare for the next dimension of barcodes.  

What hardware upgrades do retailers need for their technology to be ready for 2D barcodes? 

One of the first steps is to take inventory of your existing equipment. An optical scanner is a necessity for reading 2D barcodes, and most current POS scanners include that. But the scanner also needs to be Sunrise capable—what I mean by that is that it needs to be set up to recognize the various barcode types and the syntaxes that will be part of the 2D barcode. 

The syntax is the way the information is constructed in a barcode. There are two different ways to do this that the scanner could see. First is the element string, which is a string of numbers with application identifiers that tell you what a particular product is. And then there is what we call the GS1 Digital Link syntax, which is web resolvable. The scanner has to be able to see the potentially two different syntaxes, recognize the application identifiers that are presented, and then pull out the data and feed it to the POS system. 

What about firmware updates to read these two different syntaxes? 

Upgrades might be required to make sure the scanner can read the barcode, see the proper syntax and feed the right information to the POS. Every system is different and built with different principles over time, so each business’ process might look different. 

You should have clear requirements before figuring out your configuration components for firmware updates. Those will vary based on where you’re starting and where you plan to go—in other words, what data you want to leverage from the 2D barcodes and what you want to use them for. The top scanner manufacturers are preparing the right firmware upgrades for Sunrise 2027, and all of their new scanners can read those syntaxes. Those upgrades are going to continue as retailers begin to have more direct engagement with their customers, loyalty program integrations and build more marketing and personalization strategies. POS firmware upgrades are an important part of that story to help enable those capabilities and can be built into the retailer’s IT project roadmaps to unlock those use cases. 

What are the use cases for 2D barcodes that retailers can consider for the future? What might they have on their roadmap in the next few years? 

There is a lot of data that can be stored in the 2D barcodes, especially if they are web resolvable. Retailers need to decide for themselves what they want to do with it and how much data they want to leverage to reap the benefits. 2D barcodes could include just the product identifier to complete the sale, or they could include expiration dates and batch and lot numbers. From there, they could link that to recall information to quickly identify products that shouldn’t be sold or to generate dynamic pricing for items that may be near expiration, for example. Retailers that produce private label or fresh foodservice in store could load the barcode with information such as net weight, sell-by dates or the sales price. Product information could also be integrated into loyalty apps for personalization, deals or promotions. What retailers need to do on the backend will depend on which business cases they will want to implement with the barcodes.  

How can retailers ensure their systems are set up to handle future capabilities or applications for 2D barcodes? 

Future-proofing in this case is really about ensuring that you have the capability to process the data from these codes and leverage it for advanced use cases. In addition to the hardware and firmware updates to become Sunrise 2027 capable, you’ll want to make sure you have the storage for additional data and the management of it. Ask yourself: What are we going to do with all of this data? Are we going to store it? Are we going to use it one time and then delete it? Do we keep a different record for every potential serialized instance or product? So, there’s a little bit of a data governance and management process to think through. 

It’s really great for retailers to have a long-term vision, and operators can set themselves up well for these future use cases as they configure their hardware and firmware. At the same time, we think of the Sunrise 2027 transition in crawl, walk and run phases. The run phase is long term—you have to learn to walk first. The first step is ensuring that you are prepared for Sunrise 2027, that you have an optical scanner and POS that can process 2D barcodes and that you can complete a sale at checkout. The system just needs to recognize the product and go beep once much like it does today. Plan for what the future might look like for your business so that you’re not boxing yourself in down the line, but it doesn’t mean you have to unlock all the capabilities today.