GS1 Digital Link: link types explained
A single QR code on a pack can do more than open one web page. The GS1 Digital Link standard lets one code point to many destinations, and the mechanism that decides which destination a scanner gets is the link type. If you are preparing for GS1 Sunrise 2027 and trying to work out how one code serves a consumer, a regulator, and a supply chain partner without printing three codes, link types are the answer. This article explains what a link type is, the named link types you will actually use, and how the default link decides what a phone camera sees.
What is a link type in GS1 Digital Link?
A link type is a label that tells a GS1 Digital Link resolver which resource to return for a given scan. It describes the relationship between the product and the destination, for example a product information page, an instruction leaflet, or traceability data. One identifier can hold many typed links, and the resolver picks the right one per request.
The standard separates two things that older barcodes combined. The identity of the product lives in the URI structure itself, in the GTIN. The destinations the product can point to live as a set of links, each tagged with a link type. GS1 maintains a published vocabulary of these labels at ref.gs1.org/voc/linkType, expressed as compact identifiers such as gs1:pip. Because the labels are standardised, any compliant resolver and any compliant scanning app interpret them the same way. That is what lets a brand register one code and serve a product page to a shopper, a certificate to an auditor, and a data feed to a retail partner from the same physical mark. For a wider view of the standard, see our GS1 Digital Link standard overview.
What are the most common GS1 link types?
The link types you will use most are gs1:pip for the consumer product information page, gs1:certificationInfo for certificates and compliance documents, gs1:traceability for supply chain and origin data, and gs1:recipeInfo for preparation instructions. All are defined in the GS1 Web Vocabulary.
For food and drink brands, gs1:pip carries most of the work. It is the page a shopper lands on when they scan with a phone camera, and it can hold ingredients, nutrition, allergens, and brand story. gs1:traceability matters where origin claims need backing, which is exactly the use case behind the ZENKO Superfoods seed-to-snack journey captured through GPS trackers. gs1:certificationInfo suits regulated disclosures, from heavy metals testing to organic certificates. The point is not to use every link type. It is to map each audience you serve to the one label that routes them correctly. Our guide to GS1 barcode formats covers how these codes are encoded on-pack.
How does the default link decide what a scan returns?
The default link is the destination a resolver returns when a scan does not request a specific link type. When someone scans a GS1 Digital Link QR code with a standard phone camera, no link type is named, so the resolver serves the default. For most consumer products the brand sets the default link to the gs1:pip product information page.
This is where the resolver does its work. When a scan arrives, the resolver reads the request to decide what to send back. It checks the requested link type, the language the device prefers, and other context, then returns an HTTP redirect, usually a 302 or 307, to the matching page. A specialist app might ask for gs1:traceability and be routed to a data view. A phone camera asks for nothing specific and gets the default. The same code, scanned two ways, returns two pages. None of this affects checkout. A point-of-sale scanner reads the GTIN straight out of the URI structure and never contacts the resolver at all, which is why a properly built code works at the till even offline. Understanding what sits behind each link helps when you plan what data goes inside a digital product passport.
Why do link types matter for multi-market brands?
Link types let one code obey different rules in different places. A wine sold in the EU must serve compliant ingredient and nutrition content. The same product sold elsewhere can serve brand content. A resolver routes each scan to the correct destination by market, so a brand prints one code and stays compliant everywhere it sells, without redesigning packaging for each region.
This is not theory. Small Things Wine, an independent Australian producer and one of the first in the country to adopt GS1 compliant 2D barcodes, hit this exact problem when a Swedish customer rejected a label because the code led to a single global marketing page. Founder Ian Batt put the fix plainly.
The contextual routing that makes this work sits in the resolver layer, mapped against link types and market rules. Set it once, and the same code behaves differently in Stockholm and Sydney.
FAQ
What is a link type in a GS1 Digital Link?
A link type is a standardised label that tells a resolver which destination to serve for a scan. It describes the relationship between the product and the resource, such as a product page, a leaflet, or traceability data. One identifier can carry many typed links, and the resolver selects the right one per request.
What does gs1:pip mean?
gs1:pip stands for product information page. It is the GS1 link type for the consumer-facing page a shopper reaches when they scan a product with a phone camera. Most brands set gs1:pip as the default link, so a normal camera scan lands on ingredients, nutrition, allergens, and brand content without naming any link type.
How does a resolver know which link to return?
The resolver reads the incoming scan request. It checks the requested link type, the preferred language, and other context, then returns an HTTP redirect to the matching page. If no link type is requested, it serves the default link. This lets one code return different pages to a phone camera, a regulator app, or a supply chain tool.
Do link types affect barcode scanning at checkout?
No. A point-of-sale scanner reads the product identifier, the GTIN, directly from the GS1 Digital Link URI structure. It never resolves the URL or contacts a resolver, so checkout works offline. Link types only matter for the web layer beyond the till, where the resolver routes scans to consumer, compliance, or supply chain content.
Can one QR code use more than one link type?
Yes. A single GS1 Digital Link identifier can hold many typed links at once, each tagged with a different link type. The resolver stores them together and returns whichever one a given scan requests. This is what lets one printed code serve a product page, a certificate, and a traceability view to three different audiences.
Where are GS1 link types defined?
GS1 publishes the link type vocabulary at ref.gs1.org/voc/linkType. Each link type is a subproperty of the abstract property gs1:linkType and is expressed as a compact identifier such as gs1:pip or gs1:certificationInfo. Because the list is a shared standard, any compliant resolver and scanning app interpret the labels the same way.
Is a resolver required to meet GS1 Sunrise 2027?
No. GS1 Sunrise 2027 asks retailers to scan 2D barcodes at point of sale by 31 December 2027, and a QR code with a properly structured GS1 Digital Link URI satisfies that on its own. A resolver is only needed for the web layer, serving consumer content, compliance responses, and traceability data beyond checkout.
