Smart Vending & Unattended Platforms

for Retail, CPG, QSR & Consumer Services companies

Retail, CPG, QSR, and consumer-services leaders are reimagining the physical-digital interface through smart vending, micro markets, connected machines, unattended PoS (point-of-sale) and AI-enabled platforms & operating models. Such leaders pursue strategy & GTM, product development, payments innovation, and operational transformation to unlock new revenue and business models while improving customer experience and operating efficiency.

Key Themes

Scroll to explore all 5 themes

Smart Vending & Unattended Commerce

Design next-generation vending, micro-market, smart cabinet, and self-service retail experiences.

Connected Retail Platforms

Connect assets, operators, and consumers through digital platforms that create recurring engagement and data-driven value.

Payments & Omnichannel Experiences

Modernize PoS (point of sale) experiences while integrating physical and digital customer journeys.

Consumer-Centric Business Models

Transform B2B transactions to create B2B2C ecosystems powered by consumer insight and scalable platform economics.

QSR Growth & Operations

Improve store performance, labor productivity, customer experience, and digital ordering capabilities.

Industry Verticals & Segments

Laundry

Route-based common laundry rooms · Apartments & campuses · Hotel guest services · Laundromats

Vending

Vending machines · Micro markets · Arcade games & kiosks · Merchandise vending · Coolers & freezers · Coffee kiosks · Smart cabinets

Services

Coin-operated devices (e.g., massage chairs) · Parking meters · Donation boxes · Teller machines · Portable & coin-operated restrooms

Retailers

Major retailers · Specialty retailers · Convenience & corner stores

CPG & Specialty Brands

CPG brands · Specialty brands

QSRs

Fast casual · Sit-down restaurants

Ecosystem Partners

Technology suppliers · Payment providers · Equipment OEMs · Operators · Distributors · Property owners/managers · Location partners

Case Studies

Business Model Transformation from B2B to B2B2C

For a PE-backed, $2B multi-family residential services company with 50+ branches, led the implementation of IIoT and new payment technology and managed the transformation from a B2B to a B2B2C business model.

Coached the EVP-led client team on the implementation playbook; piloted 8 value levers in Chicago and Southern California—including convenience, service optimization, dynamic pricing, and asset utilization—and scaled the solution in the Indianapolis branch. Conceptualized field marketing to residents, hired teams to conduct pilots, dynamically captured results to validate the technology, and developed web- and mobile-based training materials for branch deployment.

Demonstrated value: Drove 20–30% new revenue with close to 50% average adoption in under four weeks during pilots; managed the broader rollout to drive a 10–20% overall increase in revenue and set the company on a path to creating $150M in new EBITDA.

SaaS Platform for Unattended Vending

For a $40M legacy devices and hardware company selling payment hardware for unattended vending to route operators across North America, created a comprehensive digital platform covering product discovery, product definition, design, development, and go-to-market.

The platform replaced a free, low-quality software offering that created friction for customers and end users and presented data-integrity and security issues. Worked with the client’s global team and on-demand experts, used modern collaborative product-development tools, and coached agile methodology as part of the product-management cycle. Built functionality covering sales growth and decline, new accounts and installations, field and consumer marketing, service needs, refund processing, and data quality and cleansing.

Demonstrated value: Went from product discovery to commercialization in under 18 months; enrolled 15+ B2B pilot customers, converted 3 customers into paying users, and projected approximately $100M in recurring revenue.

Cooler Asset Tracking Across a U.S. OOH Network

Supported a Fortune 500 CPG company in improving the tracking and operational visibility of freezer assets deployed across its U.S. Out-of-Home distribution network.

Enhanced an Excel-based reconciliation tool to track freezer movements across distributor and internal systems, incorporating prioritized distributor workflows and Power Query-based automation to flag discrepancies and reduce manual reconciliation work. In parallel, led a medium-term transformation initiative to design a scalable freezer asset-tracking solution, including evaluation of off-the-shelf asset-management platforms and improved workflows for freezer lifecycle tracking, distributor coordination, and operational reporting.

Retail Execution & Asset Visibility

Supported a Fortune 500 consumer packaged goods company in improving retail execution across its nationwide Out-of-Home freezer network.

Leveraged AI-generated image data to identify product compliance issues, detect competitor products, and prioritize distributor engagement. Designed reporting and reconciliation across four enterprise systems to improve data integrity, operational visibility, and issue resolution, strengthening the foundation for AI-enabled retail execution.

AI-Powered Consumer Analytics & Churn Reduction (CSC)

Applied advanced analytics and machine learning using 7 million transactional records from 250K+ users across 10K+ properties.

Built personas and journey maps, identified churn triggers and upsell opportunities, and intervened at critical touchpoints.

Demonstrated value: 40% reduction in consumer churn and 22% net new revenue through complementary product sales.

Payment Technology Platform Modernization

Reengineered data architecture of the payment tech vendor, preserving relational databases from ad hoc developments.

Acted as the primary resource for mapping legacy IT systems, identifying backend architecture, processes & workflows, and data ownership; introduced data rationality and processes with hand-off-point checks across legacy systems (of client and vendor) to enhance scalability, speed, and reliability.