Creating new tools for Stockwell Ai's franchise model
Giving business owners the power to have their very own Stockwell stores, along with the solutions to make them successful.
Oakland-based Stockwell AI designed smart vending machines that used advanced AI and computer vision. Shoppers could unlock a store with their phone, select items, and were automatically charged—no lines, no hassle, no checkout. When I joined the team, Stockwell had deployed over 1,000 stores across major U.S. metropolitan areas, all fully owned and managed by the company. To expand its reach, Stockwell wanted to introduce a franchising model, enabling franchisees to stock their own inventory while leveraging Stockwell's proprietary software to run their business.
Up until this point, Stockwell stores were 100% owned, maintained, and stocked by Stockwell. As a new way to offer Stockwell stores to market, a new business model we were looking to roll out was to allow people to franchise a Stockwell store themselves. So, franchisees could store their own inventory and utilize Stockwell’s proprietary software to manage and order their items, monitor the transactions and sales data of their stores, and enable their own staff to restock the stores properly.