Reelables lets you track packages using paper-based electronics

Reelables is showing a new way to track shipped packages using inexpensive paper-based electronics that are on one side of a shipping label.

Making its debut at CES 2025, the tech uses paper-based electronics that have been around for a while — I wrote about them when Xerox partnered with Thinfilm in 2015 to make printed circuits on thin materials. But almost a decade later, the cost for this kind of infrastructure has come down so that Reelables can embed 5G and GPS tracking electronics, along with a coated zinc battery, in a shipping label.