Wiliot, the Internet of Things pioneer whose IoT platform is enabling trillions of “things” to gain intelligence, announced that it’s debuting at Shoptalk Europe 2023 the latest version of its ambient IoT Data Platform, which provides a baseline and path to the new ambient IoT standards that will revolutionize retailing.
Wiliot, in partnership with the world’s largest technology and retail companies, is creating an ambient IoT that connects all products and packaging to the internet. This addresses some of the retail industry’s biggest problems, across omnichannel, sustainability, and food safety.
Already, many of the world’s largest retailers are now implementing ambient IoT standards and technologies within their retail operations and the implications are proving to be profound.
“The retail industry is being challenged like never before. Supply chains are constrained; society is demanding greater carbon accountability; consumer shopping preferences are shifting; and governments are instituting new traceability regulations,” stated Steve Statler, Wiliot’s CMO. “To tackle these challenges, and to thrive in this new, more dynamic marketplace, retailers require an entirely new technology paradigm – the ambient IoT – that can deliver what’s never before been possible.”
As the pioneer of ultra-high volume low-cost battery-free sensors, Wiliot provides the best path to capitalize on the emerging ambient IoT standards with its IoT Data Platform. The platform features the company’s breakthrough IoT Pixels, stamp-sized compute devices that cost pennies and feature a fundamental breakthrough in ambient computing technology – or computing that’s self-powered, harvesting power from radio waves that are all around us.
These battery-free IoT Pixels can attach to any product or packaging to connect it to the internet; not just expensive things like cars, appliances, and shipping containers, but the things inside them: fruits, veggies, vaccine vials, clothes, crates, and just about everything else.
Once attached, products push out item-level information about their location, temperature, carbon footprint, and more – equipping retailers with the high-definition real-time data they need to make more profitable, sustainably-minded decisions.
IoT Pixels also enable retailers to track the carbon footprint of their entire supply chain in real-time – offering an effective alternative to today’s annual reporting cadence, which is proving insufficient for retailers looking to make more rapid progress and a material impact on their carbon footprint.
Furthermore, IoT Pixels are also used by retailers to generate the traceability data that will soon be mandated by the FDA as part of its Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), designed to save lives in the event of food chain contamination.
“With real-time tracking, instant traceability, and embedded intelligence, food is safer and fresher, carbon footprints can be tracked and managed, and pallets and cases don’t get lost,” continued Statler. “The ambient IoT is illuminating what was once in the dark by providing retailers with real-time high-definition visibility into the status of every product at every moment – and the implications for people, profits, and the planet are profound.”
Three complementary ambient IoT standards are now being defined by the Bluetooth SIG, IEEE, and the 3GPP (as part of what will be 5G Advanced). Wiliot is contributing and committed to supporting them all.
At Shoptalk Europe Booth #D41, Wiliot will demonstrate the world’s first applications powered by the ambient IoT. The apps, which are currently being piloted by some of the world’s largest retailers, stream data from IoT Pixels to show the real-time location, traceability data, and carbon footprint of inventory within a store.
Even today’s most sophisticated tracking systems deliver only an imperfect picture of inventory location, which makes omnichannel and BOPIS retailing a challenge. However, with these ambient IoT apps, inventory is tracked in real-time with 100% visibility, allowing retailers to more effectively deliver on their omnichannel, food safety, and sustainability business objectives.
