Why STIIIZY chose Flowhub to power rapid multi-state retail expansion

About STIIIZY

If you’re anywhere near the California cannabis market, you've probably heard of STIIIZY.

STIIIZY (pronounced STEE-ZEE, like “STIIIZY made easy”) is a cultural movement making cannabis a household name. With cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, and retail assets across the supply chain, STIIIZY’s mission is to bring cannabis culture to the world.

STIIIZY is the largest cannabis retailer in California currently operating 37 stores across the state and growing. The brand has also expanded into Michigan and is rapidly entering new markets.

STIIIZY has built a strong brand reputation and following of loyal consumers who come back for their best-in-class cannabis products and competitive price points.

“We’re always determining how we can be better and how we can be more for the people. If that means price cuts and giving the best deals possible, even when others are like, ‘How is STIIIZY doing this?’ then that’s what we’ll do. It keeps people coming back, and that’s why people love the STIIIZY brand. We are absolutely for the people,” said Courtney Thompson, District Manager at STIIIZY.

STIIIZY evaluates major POS vendors

STIIIZY evaluated every cannabis POS provider after hitting scalability issues and security concerns with their previous system.

Maintaining data hygiene and security across multiple stores became unsustainable. Garrett explained, "We had data challenges across the product profiles as well as user profiles. Before we moved over to Flowhub, if you went to any of our 40 different stores, you would have 40 different consumer profiles. It made it difficult for us to provide recommendations, and it also made it difficult for us to provide a high level of customer service."

Integrations were another pain point. “Since we had trouble pulling data out of the previous system, that also created challenges with integrations and building a system around their API," Garrett shared. "We wanted to reduce our administrative costs to run these systems."

On the retail floor, technical reliability was tough to predict.

“It was difficult to do any deal launches. During the day of the launch, we never knew if everybody was just going to be in a full panic,” she continued. “Because deals were overlapping, we weren't able to test deals.”

Once STIIIZY decided to transition away from its current dispensary point-of-sale system, it was time to decide which one to choose.

STIIIZY needed a long term partner that could support their strategy for growth and cultural impact in the cannabis industry. That’s why STIIIZY spent a few months trying different point-of-sale platforms across several pilot locations to determine which one performed at the level it needed before making a final decision.

Garrett added, "The DSAs (dispensary sales associates) liked Flowhub the most. Teaming up with Flowhub felt more like a partnership and less like a typical vendor relationship."

Onboarding and training STIIIZY on Flowhub

STIIIZY’s go-live needed to move as fast as possible to begin reducing operational costs immediately.

“We needed to optimize our costs. Giving the best price to our consumers is always priority number one. Cutting costs operationally starts at headquarters, so that’s where we looked,” said Garrett.

With over 2,000 employees total, including 535 retail team members, Flowhub worked hand-in-hand with STIIIZY to swiftly transition all retail locations from the old POS platform to Flowhub.

“The Flowhub team was moving as quickly as our team could. Much of the work was cleaning up data and preparing it to pull into the system. It required close syncing between the Flowhub and STIIIZY teams to ensure we both understood the data and the next steps.” Garrett told us, "When we moved off the old point of sale system, we were close to 2.7 million customer profiles. After the de-duplication we're at about 1.7 unique customers now."

Once the data was clean and ready, Flowhub and STIIIZY executed on an aggressive schedule to get all stores live.

Courtney echoed, "Training people on the Flowhub software was easy, almost too easy. It has such a user-friendly database. When you go into the system, everything is what it says. You don't have to click around."

Life at STIIIZY with Flowhub

Now that STIIIZY is fully onboard with Flowhub, the partnership is going strong.

“I have the Flowhub team on speed dial,” said Courtney with a laugh. “Any big or small question I have, I know I can call them. Flowhub has adapted to the way we want our operations to run.”

For STIIIZY, adaptability and reliability are critical. Flowhub’s ability to quickly implement new features based on feedback means STIIIZY can keep operations running while Flowhub works behind the scenes.

“Flowhub made some changes to the product checkout process for us. STIIIZY doesn’t use Metrc’s Destination UID for our products. We use the source package which required some retooling from the Flowhub team. Flowhub turned that around in less than 12 hours, and we were ready to operate the next day.”

Garrett emphasized, “That’s one of the reasons we chose Flowhub. It’s less of a business relationship and more of a partnership. You guys also want to grow with us.”

Beyond the partnership, Flowhub’s technical capabilities were far above what STIIIZY had seen.

One central system to manage multiple stores

Managing over 40 dispensary locations is no small feat, especially when striving for consistency across stores.

One standout example of this is Flowhub’s ability to centralize deal management. For a brand like STIIIZY that is constantly running and testing complex, often overlapping promotions, this feature has been a game-changer.

“Our deals are a little crazy,” Cindy laughed, recalling the chaos they used to face on deal launch days. “Now we're able to launch a deal, feel confident in the system, and know that everything will be okay. Flowhub gives us peace of mind that all our stores will run smoothly.”

Since Flowhub Deals automatically apply in the cart, DSAs are able check customers out much faster and with the best possible price every single time.

“We run a lot of BOGOs and overlapping deals, and one of the great things about Flowhub is that it automatically picks the greater deal,” Cindy explained. “Even if five deals apply to the same product, the system recognizes the best discount for the customer. We no longer have to remove deals or figure it out at the register.”

Simplified compliance workflows and inventory management

As the 1st and #1 integrator with Metrc, Flowhub delivers best-in-class Metrc compliance workflows.

“Once you check your product drops into Metrc, it automatically updates on the manifest tab within Flowhub. It’s so user-friendly that it color-codes your progress to completion. As a visual person, this helps me a lot,” added Courtney.

Previously, STIIIZY was importing inventory one-by-one.

"It was pretty tedious, especially for big locations, sometimes checking in over 1,400 pieces," Courtney described. "Having the bulk import option has been great because it's giving back to the team. They're not stuck on operational tasks all day anymore, and then we're getting product out faster to our customers.”

Empowering growth with data and analytics

For a rapidly growing brand like STIIIZY, data and analytics are essential to maintaining operational excellence across multiple locations. Flowhub’s robust reporting tools and the View app have become indispensable for their team, providing real-time insights that drive smarter decisions.

Cindy shared her appreciation for monitoring key metrics on the go.

The app allows her to respond proactively to operational challenges in real time." I can open the app and check any of my locations at any time to see where we're at for the day. I can also see how many customers I have waiting in line and see, ‘Whoa, we're stacked. Where do we need to find some more coverage? Do we need to call anyone in?’ I can also see what deals we are mostly selling through. I don't even need to pull my laptop out. It's perfect. It's convenient for me,” she said.

Flowhub’s analytics capabilities go even further, enabling the STIIIZY team to customize reports that deliver actionable insights. Since Flowhub is SOC 2 compliant, customer data is secured with the highest standards of protection.

“My favorite feature is the analytics tab. I love being able to customize my own reports and share them with the team. I can even schedule that report and get it at 3 A.M.,” Cindy said.

Garrett echoed the importance of simplicity and efficiency in Flowhub’s reporting tools.

"Previously, we were spending a lot of money on cloud infrastructure just to pull raw data and make it useful—or to match reports to other systems. Simplicity is essential, and time to insight is key for us,” he said. “Since we’re reducing our labor costs, every employee and the information they consume becomes that much more valuable. We need to ensure we’re delivering valuable information quickly."

With Flowhub, STIIIZY has the tools to act on data in real time, fueling smarter decisions, better customer experiences and security, and continued growth.

STIIIZY’s keeping it easy with Flowhub

Flowhub and STIIIZY’s committed partnership means more people can access legal cannabis.

Garrett summed it up, "We're a large organization and we've found that Flowhub works the best for us."

As STIIIZY continues to expand, Flowhub is honored to be your trusted POS partner. Thank you for letting us be part of your incredible journey. We’re excited to grow together!