PINC, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology company, has begun powering its drones with air-cooled fuel-cell systems provided by Intelligent Energy as an alternative to batteries, in order to offer lower-weight, longer-flight-time solutions that have less impact on the environment. The fuel cells will help enable the use of drones indoors to track inventory and other details about products in the tight quarters of a warehouse.

After several months of piloting smart fitting rooms at a single store, a global sports apparel retailer is now installing the technology at 350 of its stores across Eastern Europe. The solution consists of a touchscreen and an RFID reader within each fitting room, as well as software to manage the data and smart watches for employees.

A study conducted worldwide by Zebra Technologies Brazil and released in São Paulo indicates that 70 percent of retailers plan to invest in Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to improve the customer experience. By 2021, the study indicates, smart technologies will provide consumers with new levels of customization, speed and convenience.

Field service technology company Servicemax has partnered with software and services firm PTC to offer an Internet of Things system using radio frequency identification, satellite, long-range low-power (LoRa) RF or Wi-Fi technology to report when a piece of equipment starts to malfunction - even, in some cases, before a user notices the problem.

North Carolina drug retailer Drugco Discount Pharmacy has employed an RFID light stick for pharmacy will-call. The Suncrest Solutions system - new to U.S. drugstores - automates the retrieval process for prescription drugs when customers arrive at the counter to pick them up.

According to RFID solutions provider SML RFID, the apparel market is still in the earliest steps of a long race toward universal RFID tag use. In fact, the company estimates, apparel market penetration is a conservative 4 to 8 percent thus far. This is considerably less than indicated on some reports, such as one from GS1, which estimate the adoption percentage at more than half.

Leal Indústria e Comércio, a manufacturer of personal protective equipment (PPE), says it has reduced its customers' ordering times by 20 percent. This result was achieved thanks to the use of a radio frequency identification solution developed by PC Sistemas, a company acquired by Totvs, which also provides the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system used by Leal.

Italian footwear retailer Store of the Future (SOTF) opened its new Florence shop in September 2016, with an EPC ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID-based system to bring more personalized service to customers as they try on shoes, while also enabling omnichannel sales.

Jameson Irish Whiskey celebrated St. Patrick's Day with a near field communication (NFC)-enabled system to provide consumer engagement with each of its limited-edition bottles. The whiskey brand, owned by global beverage firm Pernod Ricard, has launched its Limited Edition Bottle 2017, with technology to enable consumers to connect with content about the company and its product, and to be included in a drawing for several prizes specific to Ireland.