ANWB Retail is part of the Royal Dutch Touring Club (ANWB), a trusted household name in the Netherlands known for its wide range of mobility, travel, and roadside assistance services. With over 5 million members, more than 70 retail stores across the country, and over80 million annual visits to anwb.nl, ANWB plays a vital role in the daily lives of Dutch consumers.
As a leading retail organization within this ecosystem, ANWB Retail manages a dynamic calendar of promotional campaigns across multiple channels. While the existing processes had served the business well for years, the growing complexity of campaign planning and the need for faster, more integrated collaboration prompted a search for a smarter, more scalable solution. ANWB turned to CLEVR to help transition from a fragmented, spreadsheet-heavy workflow to a fully digital, user-friendly platform that could support real-time coordination and future growth.
By using Mendix combined with our deep experience in the retail sector, CLEVR co-created a solution tailored to ANWB's unique promotional workflows, aimed to set them apart in an increasingly competitive market.
The Challenge: Manual Processes, Disconnected Tools
Even though 30%-35% of daily tasks could be automated by 2030, many consumer businesses are still constrained by disconnected spreadsheets and manual workflows. This often leads to delays, communication breakdowns and missed commercial opportunities, which was exactly the case at ANWB Retail.
"Information was everywhere," says Koen Berends, Project Manager at ANWB Retail. "The whole process was managed in separate excel files, and there was a lot of email communication sent back and forth, making it difficult to track progress and maintain version control."
In addition, consistent approvals were hard to ensure, as many decisions were made in meetings or informal conversations, without a central view of responsibilities, deadlines, or outcomes.
All of this, not only created unnecessary manual work but also significantly delayed the launch of new campaigns. To address these inefficiencies, ANWB needed a centralized platform that could simplify approvals, improve transparency, and enable cross-functional teams to collaborate more effectively in real time.
The CLEVR Solution: Tailored. Scalable. Connected.
To avoid embedding this complexity into a new ERP system, ANWB decided to decouple promotion planning entirely and worked closely with CLEVR to map out a tailored solution that aligned with their specific needs.
“At CLEVR, our process starts with a deep-dive assessment alongside the customer and one of our industry experts,” says Angelo van Dasselaar, Team Lead NL Services at CLEVR. “That’s where our real strength lies, combining sector-specific knowledge with cutting-edge technology and a collaborative approach to turn ideas into scalable, real-world solutions.”
Together we built a custom Promotions Manager, that brings together all key stakeholders into one connected platform — from marketing and buying to merchandise planning and studio teams.
The new Promotions Manager solution was designed to support every step of the retail campaign process, including:
- Marketing calendar planning for annual promotional campaigns
- Real-time collaboration between marketing, buying, and planning teams
- Budget alignment checks by merchandise planners
- Approval workflows with locked steps per role (category, planning, marketing)
- Centralized image management and auto-generated briefings for the design studio
The result? A process that's not only faster, but also far more transparent and collaborative, ensuring everyone is working on the latest version to eliminate double work and unnecessary costs.
“What sets this solution apart is that it's built on CLEVR’s Promotions Manager template; a robust foundation shaped by our team’s extensive industry knowledge and experience serving multiple retailers,” adds Angelo.
This template provides a ready-made starting point that can be tailored to meet any specific business requirement, no matter how unique. By leveraging Mendix low code technology, the solution is not only highly customizable, but also fast and easy to implement, significantly accelerating time to market.
“You can tell it’s really made to support this specific process — tailored to retail promotions," continues Koen. "If you go for a more general campaign manager, you don’t get this level of end-to-end support. Everything you need as a retailer is in there. We couldn’t find that anywhere else.”
The Results: A Streamlined Promotions Engine
By combining low code technology with CLEVR’s deep expertise in the retail sector, ANWB Retail was able to unlock measurable improvements across their operations.
- Higher Efficiency: Lead time to launch a promotion was reduced by 20%, enabling the business to respond faster to market needs.
- Improved Focus: With fewer people required to manage operational tasks, teams can now dedicate more time to planning, budgeting, campaign design, and creative decisions.
- Better Collaboration: Clear role-based approval flows replaced fragmented emails and meetings, ensuring a smoother, more transparent process.
- Controlled Processes: Approval steps are locked by role, so no one can alter promotions once approved. This ensures everyone works on the latest version, eliminating double work, confusion, and unnecessary costs.
- Centralized Information: All relevant data, assets, and tasks are now housed in a single platform, boosting accountability and visibility.
- Fewer Errors: Automation reduces repetitive manual work and minimizes the risk of inconsistencies.
With greater transparency, structured approvals and centralized data, ANWB Retail has laid the groundwork for a more scalable and controlled future, empowering their Promotions Manager to not only optimize planning and coordination, but to also drive business impact with greater agility and confidence.
Partnering for Retail Impact and Operational Excellence
From the very start, CLEVR took on the role of more than just an implementation partner. By combining technical expertise with a deep understanding of ANWB’s operational challenges, CLEVR offered structured guidance and best practice insights tailored to the retail industry, challenging existing processes when needed to reduce complexity.
"It was one of the smoothest implementations we've done recently," adds Koen. "CLEVR supported us not just technically, but with a real understanding of the commercial side of things, helping us make smart process decisions, rather than simply customizing for the sake of it."
Thanks to the "first-time-right" nature of low code technology, CLEVR together with ANWB were able to significantly accelerate the development process, meaning fewer bugs, less rework, and faster testing cycles. This allowed ANWB to stay within deadlines and budget, without compromising quality.
Next Steps: Future-Ready Retail Management
This optimization was part of a broader transformation effort within ANWB Retail, aimed at modernizing core retail operations. With promotions now digitized and streamlined, the company has laid the groundwork for future digital growth.
At CLEVR, we don’t just deliver software, we partner for transformation. As ANWB’s needs evolve, our team remains a trusted guide, helping to scale and adapt solutions that truly serve the business.
The future of retail is agile, data-driven, and customer-first.
Let’s build it—together with CLEVR.
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