The Technology Behind Connected Retail Marketing Execution

The Technology Behind Connected Retail Marketing Execution

Retail marketing technology used to be evaluated largely by the quality of the ordering experience. Could field teams, store managers, corporate users, or other program stakeholders find approved materials, see live inventory, place orders, and track status without manual support?

That functionality is still essential. A strong ordering portal remains a core part of retail marketing execution.

But today, the bigger challenge is everything required to make that ordering experience accurate, efficient, and scalable. Campaigns need to be planned. Assets need to be developed, approved, versioned, and connected to the right programs. Location and user requirements need to be captured before materials are produced or deployed. Inventory, fulfillment, deployment, reporting, and performance data need to flow back into future planning.

That requires more than a user-facing portal. It requires a marketing operating system that connects the full execution lifecycle behind the scenes.

AclaraOS is IMS’s marketing operating system for that work, connecting planning, campaigns, assets, profiles, ordering, deployment, and insights so teams can manage retail marketing execution with greater visibility, alignment, and control.

One system for the full execution lifecycle

Retail marketing execution works better when planning, assets, approvals, ordering, profiles, inventory, deployment, and insights are connected in one system of record.

Without that shared technology layer, teams often manage the work across separate spreadsheets, portals, inboxes, reports, and vendor updates. Each tool may solve a specific task, but the full execution picture becomes harder to see.

AclaraOS creates a connected operating model for the workflows, data, assets, and decisions that move campaigns from planning to in-market execution.

That gives marketing, procurement, operations, field teams, store users, agencies, and supplier partners a shared view of what is planned, what is approved, what is available, what is moving, and what needs attention.

The result is fewer handoffs, clearer ownership, better coordination, and more visibility into how campaign decisions affect execution downstream.

Core AclaraOS capabilities

AclaraOS is modular, so teams can support the capabilities they need while building toward a more connected operating model over time.

Planning

Planning helps teams align calendars, timelines, priorities, and execution needs before work moves downstream, creating earlier visibility into what is coming and what teams need to prepare.

Campaigns

The Campaigns module gives teams a central place to manage requirements, timelines, tasks, approvals, decisions, and status updates from development through launch.

Assets

The Assets module helps teams manage creative, content, templates, product imagery, and approved materials while reducing version confusion, manual rework, and inconsistent field execution.

Profiles

The Profiles module captures store, location, user, market, and endpoint data so execution can adapt to different formats, languages, offers, eligibility rules, and deployment needs.

Ordering

Ordering gives users a controlled way to access and request approved materials, informed by campaign timing, permissions, location profiles, inventory, budget rules, approvals, and fulfillment needs.

Deployment

Deployment helps teams manage how campaign materials move into market across physical and digital endpoints, with visibility into what has been released, where it is going, and what is live.

Insights

The Insights module connects execution activity back to decision-making so teams can understand campaign status, ordering behavior, inventory movement, deployment performance, exceptions, and opportunities for improvement.

What connected execution data makes possible

When retail marketing execution data lives in one place, teams can work from the same source of truth. Marketing can see campaign status, asset readiness, approvals, and deployment activity. Procurement can see spend, usage, inventory, and cost drivers. Operations can see demand, fulfillment activity, shipment status, and exceptions.

That shared visibility creates stronger alignment across the full execution model. Teams can make decisions with more context, identify issues earlier, reduce manual handoffs, and understand how campaign activity affects production, inventory, fulfillment, deployment, and future planning.

The IMS perspective

Retail marketing execution requires more than a collection of disconnected tools. It needs technology that supports the full operating model.

AclaraOS gives teams the ordering and B2B commerce capabilities they expect, while also connecting planning, campaigns, assets, profiles, deployment, insights, and execution data within one marketing operating system.

When teams work in one place and campaign data is captured across the full lifecycle, execution becomes easier to manage and easier to improve. The result is stronger alignment, better visibility, greater agility, and more control across the retail marketing supply chain.