{"id":202224,"date":"2025-09-05T11:55:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T11:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/202224\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T11:55:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T11:55:11","slug":"dallas-tech-firm-grabs-customers-ears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/202224\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas tech firm grabs customers\u2019 ears"},"content":{"rendered":"

Retailers may care about what you see when you\u2019re shopping, but a Dallas technology startup wants stores and restaurants to focus more on another crucial sense: your hearing.<\/p>\n

Qsic<\/a>, which relocated its headquarters to North Texas last year, is enabling some of the biggest companies in the world to improve the audio experience for visitors with better quality and tailored tunes. At the same time, it\u2019s offering simple tools to let brands leverage in-store marketing for products that can be literally be at an arm\u2019s-length.<\/p>\n

\u201cAudio is \u2026 a very powerful emotive medium, so it adds a lot to the environment,\u201d said Matt Elsley, CEO and co-founder of Qsic. \u201cYou can grab people\u2019s attention really well. \u2026 They don\u2019t have to be looking at a screen or something. If you\u2019re anywhere in the store, we can capture your attention very easily.\u201d<\/p>\n

Qsic, which is another example<\/a> of the many corporate relocations<\/a> to North Texas, is helping retailers find new ways to maximize their physical locations for the many customers who still make trips to stores \u2013 even amid the rise of digital options. According to the U.S. Census<\/a>, e-commerce makes up less than one-fifth of sales nationally. The startup \u2014 while leveraging AI skills and its own audio prowess \u2014 has landed some big-time customers such as 7-Eleven and McDonald\u2019s. <\/p>\n

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\u201cRetail media has become a real powerhouse for the retailers,\u201d Elsley said.<\/p>\n

Qsic got some help with growth with a \u201cB\u201d <\/b>funding <\/b>round for $25 million, according to a statement earlier this year<\/a>. Elsley said the company has roughly doubled the number of employees in the past year to approximately 80 to 85 people. It should see about that same rate of expansion in the next 12 months or so. <\/p>\n

Qsic is playing in a market that\u2019s getting more attention from retailers around the country. That includes companies such as Walmart Radio, which enables in-store ads, along with home improvement giant Lowe\u2019s, which also enables audio messaging for shoppers. <\/p>\n

For 7-Eleven Inc., Qsic\u2019s audio service \u201cauthentically connects\u201d with in-store customers to drive measurable results for brand partners, according to a statement from Mario Mijares, vice president of marketing, insights, loyalty and monetization platforms. <\/p>\n

\u201cAudio is the easiest and most cost-effective way to influence consumer behavior within the convenience store environment,\u201d Mijares said in a statement from the start-up. \u201cQsic has already proven its value in our stores.\u201d<\/p>\n

At one 7-11 in recently in Dallas, an upbeat song with a poppy feel played for customers. Then a promotion for bacon lovers pizza followed by other promotional materials. From there, another song with happy vibes serenaded shoppers.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"ExteriorMaking beautiful music<\/p>\n

Broadly, Qsic\u2019s audio platform reaches over 100 million shoppers at the point of purchase monthly, and it has tens of thousands of speakers pumping out audio.<\/p>\n

The company specializes in \u201cbranded curation\u201d for its customers, helped by demographic data on a brand\u2019s customers, it can ensure the audio soundtrack has the right voice and mood. The technology also enables its clients to scale up the service at multiple locations.<\/p>\n

And Qsic\u2019s service goes further, helping figure out the best time to play a series of songs. It programs a playlist schedule to ensure the music is most appropriate. Qsic also ensures the same songs won\u2019t be played in the same order each day. <\/p>\n

\"CEO<\/p>\n

CEO Matt Elsley poses for a photograph at the Qsic office in Dallas, Texas, on Jul 23, 2025.<\/p>\n

Jason Janik \/ Special Contributor<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the speakers themselves. They are designed to address the challenges of the retail shop, providing a platform that dynamically adapts volume levels to keep a consistent listening experience. So, an area of the store that\u2019s noisier might get the audio at a higher level.<\/p>\n

Sound of a sale<\/p>\n

At the same time, the in-store audio has spaces for advertising products for shoppers using technology tools that predict the right message at the right time. At the same time, there are AI tools for crafting marketing spots.<\/p>\n

So, if it\u2019s the right time for a snack or soda company to promote their products, the in-store network can run spots. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve developed a whole bunch of AI tools that will sense when products are in high-demand periods,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019ll place the correct ad content to capture that high-intent period, to drive over-the-counter sales.\u201d<\/p>\n

From there, there are tools for tracking how the sales actually performed for their suppliers. Retailers can segment results by store location, product category or time period to understand what\u2019s driving sales.<\/p>\n

The promotions, which include internal marketing spots, are working at 7-Eleven through its \u201cGulp Media Network.\u201d Stores with the in-store feature have shown better sales on products, Mijares said during a panel interview that was posted on YouTube<\/a>. For example, an energy drink introduced a new flavor several months ago \u2014 and the stores that had radio ads showed an 8% unit higher lift than the stores that didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

The \u201csonic logo\u201d with the branding captures the attention of shoppers, Mijares said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re relying less on cardboard in the stores and more on audio,\u201d Mijares said.<\/p>\n

Moving to Dallas<\/p>\n

With those services in hand, Qsic is now taking care of customers from its headquarters in downtown Dallas, where it <\/b>has been since last year. <\/p>\n

The move made sense for Qsic, with the U.S. being a hub for innovation in its industry, Elsley said. It\u2019s also home to some of the biggest chains in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re an in-store technology that can drive value in retail media, America is the pinnacle of this space,\u201d Elsley said. <\/p>\n

Elsley settled on North Texas even though it also had a presence in Silicon Valley. The Texas hub is nestled in a part of the country that enables easy travel to client sites in every corner of the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cDallas is just so strategically well located in America that you can fly sort of point to point anywhere you need to be very quickly,\u201d Elsley said. Also, \u201cI could get on a plane this afternoon and be back in Melbourne within 17 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsley said it\u2019s been a good move for him and the company \u2014 including on a personal level. People have been \u201cso welcoming,\u201d he said. For example, when Thanksgiving came around after the move, he admitted to neighbors that he didn\u2019t know much about it \u2013 and was soon invited to a home to experience the annual tradition. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s that kind of thing that just seems to happen all the time,\u201d Elsley said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Retailers may care about what you see when you\u2019re shopping, but a Dallas technology startup wants stores and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":202225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,975,6270,2107,158,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-202224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-retail","12":"tag-shopping","13":"tag-technology","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-tx","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115151564059082516","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}