Marijuana Dispensary Collective Cannabis Enhances Operational Efficiency With Wings' EXO Delivery System

Massachusetts cannabis dispensary Collective Cannabis announced on Thursday that it has chosen Wings' EXO delivery system to streamline logistics, foster a happier workforce and enhance the consumer experience. Wings is a robotics artificial intelligence startup working on autonomous sustainable retail.

The EXO system is the first B2B product in the EXO family of systems designed to automate retail logistics and workflows with extensibility, versatility and sustainability in mind. The new system will be installed and operational in the second quarter of 2022 at Collective Cannabis’ Littleton, Massachusetts branch.

“The introduction of automation, artificial intelligence, and robotics systems between the vault and bud-tenders creates a highly scalable model that hyper focuses on vault security, efficiency, labor reduction through contactless logistics, and streamlined on-premise and online orders and customer service,” Haitham Al-Beik, founder and CEO of Wings told Benzinga. “In addition, having an open hardware platform between the back and front office creates opportunities to integrate other automation tools automating operations in either direction. Overall, the industry benefits bring about a lower barrier to entry for entrepreneurs and investors in the cannabis space with more focus on new products and innovation, revitalizing its economy and accelerating growth more than what is currently being projected."

Collective Cannabis has been working on improving its customer services through quality product offering as well as reducing congestion and minimizing waiting times.

‘Template For All Future Retailers’

At its first location in Littleton, the business plans to operate with eight budtenders and dedicated stations for mobile and online orders - a first, especially in a regulated market. The company will utilize the EXO system in other stores as they scale.

The EXO system was designed to intuitively automate the flow of products from the assembly to multiple delivery zones while taking no floor space from the vault, budtenders and customers. In addition, Collective Cannabis opted for three distribution modules that can store and deliver up to 90 orders whenever needed, especially useful during peak hours. As a result, customers can place online/to-go orders early in the day and pick them up at any time without worrying about the security of high-value products left outside the vault.

"The EXO system revolutionizes the last ten feet of the retail journey," Jim McDermet, Wings' advisor and former vice president of Starbucks SBUX. "Satisfying the customer experience while simplifying and improving the employee experience is what the EXO Delivery system is all about. It's a template for all future retailers to adopt."

Photo: Courtesy of Wings