Myths vs facts

A GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) is an identifier: a number, licensed through your GS1 company prefix, that says which product this is. A barcode is a data carrier: a pattern of bars or squares that encodes data for a scanner. The digits printed under an EAN-13 barcode are the GTIN; the bars are simply how it travels.

The distinction matters because the same GTIN can be carried by several different symbols. A bottle of shampoo might show its GTIN in an EAN-13 barcode, and the very same GTIN inside a QR code carrying a GS1 Digital Link, or a GS1 DataMatrix that also holds the batch and expiry date. Adding a 2D code does not mean the product needs a new number.

Mixing the two up causes real problems. Teams "buy barcodes" that turn out to be unlicensed numbers, or assign a fresh GTIN every time the artwork changes. Decide the identifier first, following GS1's GTIN rules, then choose which carriers will print it.

Services such as Verified by GS1 sit on top of GS1 registries filled with data that key owners upload through their local GS1 office. They answer questions about the number: is it properly structured, was it issued by GS1, which company is it licensed to, and do the core product attributes match? GS1 US lists seven core attributes, including GTIN, brand name, product description and net content.

Nothing in GS1's published material describes it holding individual serial numbers, batch records, prices or event data. EPCIS, GS1's traceability standard, is designed for businesses to capture event data and share it with their trading partners. GS1's guidance on 2D codes describes product information remaining in the data owner's own systems, with resolvers acting as a discovery layer.

So if a cosmetics brand serializes a million jars, it, or a provider it chooses, must generate, store and protect those serials and their history. That is a responsibility to plan for, and also a point of control: the brand decides who sees which data.

A QR code is printed ink. Anyone with a photocopier or a phone can reproduce one exactly, and the copy will decode to the same GTIN, batch and serial as the original. Checking the GTIN in Verified by GS1 confirms who owns the number, not whether this particular bottle came from that company. Even the GS1 Web Vocabulary's gs1:verificationService link type is for checking the status of an identifier, not product authenticity.

What a serialized, standards-based code does give a brand is a foundation. With a unique serial per item, the brand's own system can see when a serial has never been commissioned, has been scanned an implausible number of times, or turns up in two distant places within minutes.

Imagine a perfume house whose counterfeit bottles carry a copied code. A consumer's scan returns the same product page, because the code is real. Only by comparing that scan with the serial's history can the brand flag it. Authentication is a programme built on identity, not a property of the barcode.

A GS1 Digital Link looks like a web address, so it is natural to assume the till opens it. It does not. The scanner, or the software behind it, converts the Digital Link URI into standard GS1 data and passes the GTIN to the POS. GS1 states that these identifiers can be decoded and passed to the host system "without any need for an online connection".

From there the checkout works exactly as it does with a linear barcode: it looks up the product name and price in the retailer's own database. The resolver, and the web pages behind it, are for people and applications that want more information, such as a shopper's phone or a service app.

Picture a busy supermarket lane with patchy connectivity. A jar of jam with a Digital Link QR scans in the same instant as one with an EAN-13, because nothing leaves the store. GS1 also requires codes meant for retail POS to use the uncompressed form of Digital Link.

GS1 describes the goal as retail point-of-sale scanning being globally capable of reading and processing the GTIN from both linear and 2D barcodes by the end of 2027. It is a target for scanning capability, and it mostly asks retailers to upgrade software and, where needed, buy imaging scanners. GS1 globally calls it "Ambition 2027 (also called Sunrise 2027)"; GS1 US uses "Sunrise 2027"; GS1 India uses "Ambition 2027".

GS1 standards are voluntary unless a specific regulation applies, and GS1 US says it is not necessary to implement all 2D capabilities by that date. GS1 India presents 2D and Digital Link as a business choice, not a government requirement. Linear barcodes are not being switched off.

That does not make it irrelevant. A snack brand planning a packaging refresh in 2026 may sensibly add a QR code with GS1 Digital Link beside its existing barcode, because retail partners are preparing for 2D and the code can serve consumers too. The reason is opportunity and readiness, not legal compulsion.

Serialization gives every individual item its own identity: a GTIN plus a unique serial number. It is powerful, but it changes the packaging line: every unit needs a different code, printed at line speed, read back and recorded. Sunrise 2027 does not require it; the retail checkout only needs the GTIN.

Batch-level identification, GTIN plus batch or lot and perhaps an expiry date, covers a lot of ground. It supports targeted recalls, stock rotation and quality investigations, and it can be carried in a 2D barcode without printing a unique code on each pack.

Serialization earns its cost where unit identity matters: high-value or frequently counterfeited goods, one-time loyalty rewards, warranty registration, or regulated sectors. A cable manufacturer, for example, might serialize each reel so electricians can claim rewards per reel, while keeping cable ties and connectors at batch level. Start from the business question, then choose the level of identity.

An industrial coder reports that it received data and fired the print head. Smudged ink, a blocked nozzle, a skewed carton or a missing label can all produce a code that nobody can scan, while the coder still reports success. On a serialized line that means a serial recorded as "used" may sit on an unreadable pack, or on no pack at all.

There are two separate checks. In-line, a camera or reader confirms that each code decodes and contains the expected value, so failures can be rejected and only good codes commissioned. Formal barcode verification is different again: grading samples against ISO/IEC 15415 (2D) or ISO/IEC 15416 (linear), where retail POS needs at least grade 1.5 (C). A code that scanned once on a phone has not been graded.

Consider a laminates maker printing QR codes on boards. If the line trusts printer acknowledgements, a run of faint codes can reach dealers before anyone notices. A read-back step catches it at the line.

A typical marketing QR code holds a short campaign URL that redirects somewhere; the code itself means nothing outside that campaign. A GS1 Digital Link is structured: the path contains the GTIN after /01/, then optionally the batch after /10/ and the serial after /21/, in a fixed order. Any GS1-aware scanner can extract those identifiers without visiting the URL.

Behind the web address, a GS1-conformant resolver does more than a single redirect. Each identity has a default link, but can also offer typed links, such as product information, instructions, recall status or traceability, so different users and applications can ask for different things. Links set at product level can be inherited by batch- and serial-level identities.

Picture a kettle. A shopper's phone opens the product page; a service technician's app asks the same code for the user manual; the retailer's till simply reads the GTIN. One printed code, three uses, and the brand can change destinations later without reprinting the box.

An ERP (enterprise resource planning) system runs the business: orders, inventory, production planning, invoicing and finance. EPCIS is not software at all. It is a GS1 standard describing events, what happened to which identified objects, when, where and why, in a format every trading partner can understand.

In practice the two work together. The ERP may create a production order and allocate serial numbers; the packaging line and warehouse generate events such as commissioning, packing and shipping; those events are recorded in EPCIS form and shared with the distributor or retailer who needs them. EPCIS 2.0 adds JSON and REST, which makes that exchange easier for modern systems.

Suppose a detergent brand's retailer asks which pallets contained a recalled batch. The ERP knows what was ordered and invoiced. The EPCIS event history shows which serialized cartons were packed onto which SSCC and where those pallets went. The brand needs both answers.

Many packs today carry two unrelated codes: an EAN-13 for the till and a marketing QR for shoppers. A QR code or Data Matrix carrying an uncompressed GS1 Digital Link can do both jobs. A 2D-capable scanner extracts the GTIN for the POS, while a phone opens the brand's web content from the same mark.

That does not mean removing the linear barcode now. GS1 rules require retail 2D codes on general retail items to be used in addition to EAN/UPC or GS1 DataBar until 90% of POS scanning solutions can read the approved 2D codes. The 2D code should sit within 50 mm of the linear barcode, and both must carry the same GTIN. GS1 says linear barcodes will coexist with 2D for as long as people use them.

A juice brand redesigning its carton can therefore replace its separate campaign QR with one GS1 Digital Link QR next to the EAN-13. That is two codes during the transition, not three, and the 2D code is ready for both audiences.