ComQi
Reinventing Retail with IoT

Ifti Ifhar has an audacious goal: help retailers make their stores smart and their customer messaging both dynamic and impactful.

Ifti runs ComQi, which provides a cloud-based content management system (CMS) that top global retail brands use to optimize the timing and relevance of visual messaging, like digital signage displays, in their stores.

“We give our clients the benefit of a robust scalable CMS, along with our Smart Hub media player technology, to move beyond smart digital signage to a smart store,” says Ifti, ComQi’s CEO. “EnGage users are tapping into valuable real-time data that feeds analytics, to create a better setting for decision making by the retailer.”

“There are huge efficiencies to be gained when devices collect, present and use real-time information in meaningful, actionable ways,” says Ifti.

While most content management systems are based around operators manually developing playlists and sched¬ules for content, ComQi is built to dynamically schedule and target based on what real-time data in the store is reporting. Data from store systems, like Point of Sale, and from IoT sensors and smart devices, can be steadily mined and analyzed to shape and trigger what appears on screens. That can shape everything from upping the promotional rotation on underperforming stock to running flash sales, or managing cashier lines and telling shoppers when dressing rooms become available.

“ComQi sets itself apart from the rest of the CMS platforms out there,” says Ifti, ”by helping merge this sensor information with a platform that provides retailers with insight and operational efficiencies, and shoppers with meaningful content.”

ComQi’s flagship product EnGage has been the in-store communications platform of choice for many top retail brands for more than a decade. ‘Cloud-based’ before that was a buzzword, the EnGage CMS is specifically designed to support smart integration across multiple communications platforms, including digital signage displays and transactional kiosks.

EnGage’s Smart Hub connects the information steadily generated by technologies like beacons, RFID, NFC, ePOS, and other IoT devices, and provides the sorts of insights and content triggers that make a difference on the sales floor.

Instead of seeing messages planned and scheduled days or weeks in advanced, shoppers see EnGage Smart Hub messaging that’s tuned to what’s happening in the store, at that time. Highly contextual, relevant, and accurate messaging provides shoppers with deeper information about their choices, and in turn, drives buying decisions, from up-sells to impulse purchases.

“Based on decades of industry experience, we have a unique understanding of our customer’s current and evolving needs to deliver on this promise,” explains Ifti. “Our platform is all about leveraging IoT-driven systems and making shopping better for the retail customers through seamless, effective visual messaging.”

EnGage Smart Hubs are already installed in Fortune 500 retailers, including Gap, H&M, Victoria’s Secret and McDonald’s.

“ComQi’s core mission has al¬ways been about delivering an end-to-end solution that will optimize in-store messaging, but also offer the lowest total cost of ownership,” says Ifti. The company’s seasoned R&D is steadily assessing and testing new technologies coming into retail. “We integrate them all under one platform, saving the retailer the hassle and costs of addressing them separately."