Checking in with Beontag, BrightSign, Impinj, Manhattan Associates, Sensormatic Solutions, Simbe, SmartSense, Wiliot, and Zebra
The retail landscape is constantly shifting. To stay ahead, businesses need technology that doesn’t just react to change but anticipates it. At the 2026 NRF Big Show in New York City, industry leaders gather to shape the future of commerce.
RFID and IoT companies used the occasion to showcase technologies aimed at improving retail and supply chain operations, emphasizing advancements in real-time tracking, inventory management, and customer engagement. These technologies are enabling retailers to achieve new levels of efficiency, accuracy, and personalization, addressing critical challenges such as inventory shrinkage, operational inefficiencies, and evolving consumer expectations.
Following are some of the companies that we visited today at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.
Beontag Showcase Next-Generation Solutions for Customer Experience,Supply Chains
Temera, a Beontag company, unveiled the next generation of retail experiences aiming to help retailers elevate their operations in future shaped by RFID and IoT innovation.
Powered by Beontag and Temera’s next-generation IoT and RFID solutions—combining advanced hardware and intelligent software—visitors experienced firsthand how each product’s story, from sourcing and logistics to in-store engagement, is seamlessly tracked, visualized, and optimized in near real time.
This connected-store ecosystem demonstrates how data-driven insights can enhance the customer experience and simplify retail operations, enabling truly omnichannel, fact-based strategies, said Andy King, Sr. Sales Manager, Beontag. Retail leaders discovered a future where supply chains are transparent, inventory is always visible, and customer engagement is elevated through data-rich, personalized experiences.
Whether optimizing logistics, enhancing product authentication, enabling digital product passport (DPP) compliance, or unlocking new levels of customer insight, Beontag’s end-to-end approach gives retailers the tools to build efficient, connected, and sustainable retail journeys, said Francesco Pieri, Beontag’s Luxury Division Director and Temera’s Managing Director.
“In 2026, the future of retail is not a vision—it’s a reality we are building together with our partners, powered by the full potential of RFID and IoT,” said Pieri. “NRF is the ideal forum for us to showcase the tangible impact of these technologies, connect with our peers, and inspire the industry to think bigger and act smarter.”
Crave Retail Exhibits Zebra’s Smart Fitting Room & Store Engagement Platform
Crave Retail, the engagement and insights platform that powers the digital layer of physical retail, demonstrated its smart fitting room and storewide engagement solution running seamlessly on Zebra’s retail displays, associate mobile devices, and RFID technology at Zebra Technologies.
The Crave Retail platform transforms in-store moments into measurable sales by combining RFID, interactive touchpoints, and AI-driven recommendations across fitting rooms, sales floors, and mobile experiences. Shoppers can request sizes, styling support, or product information instantly, while store teams gain real-time visibility into demand, service responsiveness, and product performance. Retailers leverage Crave’s insights to reduce missed sales, improve labor efficiency, and better align assortments with true shopper behavior and intent.
“The unique technological synergy between Crave Retail and Zebra Technologies helps retailers capture what’s always been invisible — the moments between traffic and transaction,” said Matthew Cyr, CEO, Crave Retail. “By connecting real-time shopper activity, merchandise data, and associate response, we help brands unlock measurable sales growth, higher conversion, and smarter operations.”
Simbe Unveils Tally 4.0
Simbe has launched Tally 4.0, its most advanced generation of its shelf-scanning robot and the flagship data capture method of its Store Intelligence platform.
Built on a decade of partnership with the world’s leading retailers and cutting edge technology organizations, Tally 4.0, available to Simbe customers starting mid-2026, introduces major advancements in runtime, vision, sensing, and edge AI, turning every shelf into a real-time source of ground truth.
With up to 12 hours of runtime, new ultra-high-resolution and specialty cameras, expanded 3D and 360° coverage, and next-generation NVIDIA edge compute, Tally 4.0 captures more of the store, more often, and delivers insights into what’s in stock, how it’s priced, and where it’s placed faster than ever before, according to company offcials.
“Tally 4.0 represents what ten years of collaboration with the world’s best retailers makes possible,” said Jeff Gee, Simbe Co-Founder and Chief Design Officer. “While the robot is faster, sharper, and more capable, its design has stood the test of time. Tally 4.0 stays true to the principle that has guided us since day one: technology should serve people.”
Impinji’s Supply Chain Integrity Outlook 2026
In 2026, supply chain integrity has become a cornerstone of operational success, ensuring the reliable, secure, and accurate delivery of products and services.
Impinji published their Supply Chain Integrity Outlook 2026 report that delves into the evolving challenges and opportunities within supply chains, drawing insights from a survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers and 750 supply chain leaders across retail, manufacturing, and food sectors. For RFID professionals, the findings underscore the transformative potential of RAIN RFID technology in providing the real-time visibility and high-quality data needed to build resilient, transparent, and data-driven supply chains that can adapt to market pressures and sustain growth.
Key trends include the rising demand for faster, more flexible delivery options, with 56% of supply chain leaders under pressure to meet these expectations. Additionally, 51% of consumers are likely to abandon brands that fail to offer convenient pickup and delivery choices. Viral commerce, driven by social media and influencer trends, has created unpredictable demand spikes, with 52% of leaders identifying rapid demand shifts as the top threat to supply chain integrity.
Food supply chains face unique challenges, including compliance with FDA traceability requirements, food waste, and safety concerns as 59% of food supply chain leaders worry about meeting regulatory deadlines, and food brands lose an average of $79 million annually due to waste, often relying on outdated manual tracking systems.
The report underscores the need for resilient, transparent, and data-driven supply chains. For RFID professionals, this presents a significant opportunity. RAIN RFID technology is highlighted as a key enabler, providing high-quality data to enhance visibility, improve operational efficiency, and support AI and automation initiatives. With 68% of supply chain leaders planning to invest in these technologies, RFID solutions can play a pivotal role in overcoming data quality issues and maximizing the value of these investments.
Wiliot Unveils Next-Generation IoT Pixel, Powering the Data Layer Behind Physical AI
Wiliot introduced its Gen3 IoT Pixel, the newest generation of its battery-free sensing technology, that provides retailers, logistics providers, and supply chain companies with the real-time data foundation needed to understand the location, temperature, humidity, and movement of goods across complex, distributed networks.
Building on Wiliot’s proven Gen2 design, the Gen3 IoT Pixel delivers higher performance, expanded energizing and read ranges, improved harvesting efficiency, and significantly lower unit costs.
Its dual-band architecture — operating across 2.4 GHz and sub-1 GHz— supports longer-range energizing, more consistent broadcast reliability, and greater adaptability across supply chain environments, from distribution centers and trailers to retail backrooms and store floors.
“The Gen3 IoT Pixel represents the next leap forward in how real-time data can be captured across supply chains,” said Julien Bellanger, President, Wiliot. “Its enhanced performance and cost profile allow companies to deploy ambient IoT at new levels of performance and scale – fueling our AI platform with the continuous, high-fidelity data required for more efficient operations, lower waste, and smarter execution.”
Roughly the size of a postage stamp and requiring no batteries, the Gen3 IoT Pixel broadcasts encrypted BLE signals that can be read by certified devices and access points. This creates an always-on sensing layer that streams real-world data from the physical environment directly into AI systems that can analyze and act on it instantly.
The Gen3 IoT Pixel is the primary data source for the Wiliot Intelligence Platform, which transforms raw sensor signals into actionable intelligence. By analyzing continuous streams of location, temperature, humidity, light, dwell-time, and movement data, the platform provides real-time visibility and automated decisioning that enable a new generation of Physical AI applications.
“Physical AI is becoming a defining capability for modern supply chains,” concluded Bellanger. “The combination of our Gen3 IoT Pixels and Intelligence Platform equips enterprises with continuous, ground-truth data at scale – transforming how they manage freshness, availability, logistics, and asset flows across their networks.”
Smart Sense Launches Food Safety Platform
SmartSense by Digi, on the heels of Digi’s acquisition of Jolt and the integration of its food safety and operational improvement platform into the SmartSense business, has launched SmartSense ONE.
A modular, scalable solution that unifies the strengths of SmartSense and Jolt’s platforms by connecting their monitoring, operations, safety, and quality capabilities through a shared data model and a common user experience, SmartSense ONE help grocers, convenience stores, restaurants, and healthcare organizations protect revenue and reduce risk by ensuring critical assets and environments stay within compliance and operating standards.
Their unified solution delivers prescriptive analytics, automated monitoring, and actionable workflows that help teams prevent spoilage, avoid equipment downtime, maintain food safety and regulatory compliance, and respond faster to issues, before they become costly disruptions.
“SmartSense and Jolt have always shared a vision to raise the standard for operational excellence through intelligence and execution,” said Guy Yehiav, President of SmartSense by Digi. “That vision, reinforced by customer insight, shaped SmartSense ONE, a connected intelligence platform that predicts risk, validates compliance, and operates anywhere, even offline, to drive safer, more profitable operations across every environment.”
Manhattan Associates Announces Commercial Availability of its AI Agent Workforce
Manhattan Associates rolled out the commercial availability of its AI Agents that live within the Manhattan Active Platform, enabling them to take real-time action with full operational context, transforming supply chain commerce execution, optimization, and user experiences.
Purpose-built for modern retail and supply chain operations, Manhattan’s AI Agents unlock faster decision-making, higher productivity, and continuous improvement from the get-go. Their Interactive Agents are digital assistants, designed for key user roles across Manhattan Active solutions, helping associates work faster and more accurately by simplifying tasks, guiding decisions, and boosting daily productivity. Our Autonomous Agents function intelligently in the background, continuously monitor operations, automate repetitive work, identify operational issues and automatically remedy them – dramatically reducing manual effort while improving service levels.
As part of Manhattan Active Agents, customers gain access that enables customers to easily build new agents using simple natural language or quickly customize an existing agent from Manhattan using our wide array of API and other platform capabilities that fit their unique needs.
“Our AI Agents represent a fundamental shift in how efficiently retail and supply chain solutions function,” said Sanjeev Siotia, EVP & CTO, Manhattan. “We’ve combined deep domain intelligence with agentic automation to move beyond the hype of chatbots. With their operational readiness, these agents diagnose root causes and orchestrate workflows to fix them efficiently. They don’t just assist – they act. In this competitive and fast-paced ecosystem, our agents’ workforce gives our customers a simpler, faster, and more efficient way to function and succeed.”
Sensormatic Solutions Rolls Out a Series of New Innovations
Sensormatic Solutions introduced a series of advancements that promise to redefine loss prevention and shopper engagement. By leveraging advanced machine learning, cloud flexibility, and modern aesthetic design, these solutions offer a holistic approach to store operations.
The company has upgraded its cloud-based Shrink Analyzer application with four cutting-edge machine learning (ML) features. These additions—Track and Trace, At-Risk Merchandise Forecast, ORC Activity Predictions, and a generative Chat Bot—are designed to give retailers unprecedented visibility into the “what, when, and where” of loss. Instead of simply recording losses after they happen, the system now helps unify operational data to predict threats before they escalate. For example, the new ORC Activity Predictions tool leverages trends across different territories to identify time slots with high theft probability, allowing managers to adjust staffing accordingly.
Flexibility is the cornerstone of modern retail infrastructure, and the new TrueVUE Cloud PaaS offering delivers just that. Sensormatic Solutions has taken its leading inventory intelligence solution and made it available as a Platform-as-a-Service. Rather than being locked into a rigid software ecosystem, businesses can now utilize a decoupled, RESTful API-first approach. The PaaS model leverages and other operational data to help global enterprises maintain high inventory accuracy across all channels. By extending access to critical analytics tools, TrueVUE Cloud PaaS enables businesses to build refined, custom systems that reflect their specific goals.
With the storefront prime real estate, the new Sensormatic Flexible Loss-prevention & Engagement Experience (FLEX) system is designed to maximize its potential. FLEX is a modular system that combines loss prevention technology with visual merchandising and digital content management. FLEX blends seamlessly into the store’s aesthetic, allowing retailers to use the entrance not just for security, but to set the tone for the entire customer journey. This system supports the growing trend of “store-as-a-media-business.” The modular design offers digital advertising and marketing teams the canvas to create dynamic displays that align with brand campaigns. While it captivates shoppers and increases foot traffic, it does not compromise on security; optional AM, RF, and RFID capabilities ensure that loss prevention remains top-tier.