Greenvale, NY (August 17, 2016) – Five years ago, with the launch of their innovative Cloud 9 Mobile Point-of-Sale, KWI transformed the retail community. The industry’s leading cloud technology for specialty retailers changed the game for retailers and their customers by offering a real-time mobile solution that went beyond the functionality of existing applications. This milestone arrives on the heels of the 30th anniversary of their Cloud 9 Retail Technology Platform, which was celebrated last year.
KWI’s journey into Cloud 9 Mobile POS began shortly after Apple integrated their iPod as a POS device within their brick-and-mortar stores. Inspired by the heightened shopping experience, Jerry Kohl, CEO of Brighton Collectibles approached KWI, with a major challenge. “Jerry immediately came to KWI and asked if we could develop a similar experience for all their stores by the 2011 holiday season,” recalls Sam Kliger, Founder and CEO of KWI. “There were definitely obstacles, but with an experienced and talented team in place, along with the longtime partnership KWI established with Brighton, we delivered.”
Not only did KWI deliver the shopping experience Brighton was searching for within one year, they’ve since delivered the first cloud based unified commerce platform to encompass merchandising and POS, all in a single platform. “Together, with our vision and KWI’s expertise in cloud technology, we looked forward to enhancing and transforming our customers’ experience during our launch. Their mobile POS devices began changing our world, and continue to change the way people shop in our stores,” said Kohl. With 170 Brighton stores successfully deployed during the height of the holiday season, KWI brought its innovative platform to the National Retail Federation (NRF) Expo & Conference in January 2012, and the ground-breaking technology took center stage upon its introduction.
In the following years KWI invested significant R&D into Cloud 9 functionality, across a full POS system, including fixed and mobile. The application, along with KWI Merchandising and Back Office, now delivers real-time omni-channel functionality in a complete suite that empowers store staff to achieve their sales goals and complete operational tasks. Client sales data across KWI’s portfolio of brands show mobile POS achieves significant increases in Units per Transaction and Average Dollar Sales. Through their success with KWI, clients are now arming every sales associate with their own mPOS unit so anyone can service a customer, regardless of their location on the sales floor. In addition, KWI also revealed that with their soon-to-be-released UI/UX redesign, retailers will have even more flexibility in how they deploy KWI’s solution, which will eliminate the overall need for old school registers.
“Five years later, and with tens of millions of completed transactions, we have a proven track record in mPOS. In fact, a vast majority of our clients have switched to mPOS from legacy registers. This is a real testament that our clients have truly embraced technology.” says Kliger. “They understand that innovation and change are intrinsic to the success of their business.” Looking towards the future, Kliger promises an aggressive roadmap that will continue to maintain KWI’s position as the leader and innovator within the retail community.
ABOUT KWI
KWI, located in Greenvale, NY, offers a complete, customizable portfolio of Cloud-based enterprise solutions for specialty retailers. Pandora, Brighton Collectibles, David Yurman, Tom Ford, Nars, Intermix and Aerosoles are among a few clients who look to KWI for technology innovation and leadership in POS, CRM, Clienteling, Merchandising and Loss Prevention. Created by Sam Kliger in 1985, KWI remains a privately held company committed to its clients by providing game-changing technology to drive their success.
Many of KWI’s original team has been with the company from day one, contributing to an extraordinary depth of knowledge and demonstrating their most important belief: People are the difference!