Enabling spec-driven B2B buying journeys with Gen AI search and smart merchandising
Discover how Experro helped Cook & Boardman Group build a faster, scalable headless digital foundation — and upgrade their B2B product discovery with Gen AI search, smart merchandising, personalized recommendations, and intent-driven product journeys.
increase in AOV in <4 months
increase in units per order over ~120 days
Experro has been a game-changer for us at Cook & Boardman!
Experro helped us rebuild our digital experience on a headless foundation that’s fast, scalable, and enterprise-ready. What used to be slow and dependent on outside teams is now something we can manage confidently in-house.
The biggest win for us was discovery. Search used to be frustrating, especially for spec-driven queries, but now it understands what buyers mean. And from an operations side, it’s been a huge relief! Our team can create collections, control merchandising, and push the right products up without waiting on dev support. Overall it just makes the site feel more structured, more relevant, and much easier for customers to shop.
Cook & Boardman Group
The Cook & Boardman Group stands as a leading manufacturer and distributor of building materials in the United States. With an extensive network of more than 40 distribution centres and over 25 subsidiaries nationwide, they have gained recognition for supplying high-quality doors, frames, hardware products, and other specialized items tailored to accommodate both new construction projects and renovations.
Overcoming the chaos of managing multiple sites on disconnected platforms
See The Impact- Rigid CMS Slowing Down Content Operations Their legacy content stack made updates slow and operationally heavy. Even small changes required dependencies on technical resources or external teams — limiting speed-to-market for campaigns, updates, and ongoing site improvements.
- Inconsistent Site Experience Across Journeys As the product catalog and content footprint grew, the site experience needed stronger structure and consistency. Without modular content and scalable templates, teams struggled to maintain a clean, modern UX across key pages.
- No Personalized Recommendations Without AI-powered upsell, cross-sell, and tailored product recommendations, the storefront lacked guided discovery. This reduced basket size and limited AOV growth opportunities.
- Outdated Search Logic for B2B Intent B2B buyers search differently, with technical terms, product specs, and use-case language. The existing search experience relied too much on keywords, making it difficult for buyers to quickly find relevant products and solutions.
- Merchandising that Didn’t Adapt Product ordering and category visibility weren’t dynamic enough to support business priorities. High-value categories, strategic products, and high-performing solutions weren’t consistently placed where buyers would discover them first.
- No Guided Discovery for Complex Catalogs With technical products and multiple decision variables, buyers needed guided exploration. Without smart filters or curated collections, discovery felt overwhelming, increasing drop-offs and slowing down path-to-conversion.
How Experro reimagined the experience
Experro deployed its Headless CMS and Discovery Suite to bring speed, flexibility, and intelligence to Cook & Boardman’s digital commerce experience.
- Headless CMS Foundation Built for Enterprise Scale We modernized the digital foundation with Experro’s Headless CMS — enabling modular content, reusable templates and a faster way to build, manage, and publish pages without bottlenecks.
- Website Builder for Faster Launches & Updates Using Experro’s website builder, Cook & Boardman teams gained drag-and-drop agility to manage web experiences faster. Pages could be created, updated, and optimized quickly, eliminating the operational lag common in legacy enterprise stacks.
- Gen AI-powered Semantic Search Experro replaced rigid keyword search with Gen AI-powered semantic understanding. Whether customers searched “commercial door hardware”, “fire-rated access solutions”, or “hospital security system”, the engine understood intent and returned results aligned with what the buyer actually meant and not just exact terms.
- Smart Filters that Match How B2B Buyers Decide We introduced smart filters built for spec-driven discovery. Buyers could quickly narrow down options using product attributes and decision criteria — reducing frustration and improving the speed of evaluation across categories.
- AI-driven Merchandising Experro enabled intelligent merchandising that aligns discovery with business priorities. Products could be pinned, boosted, buried, or reordered using automation and rules, ensuring the right products appear earlier in the journey without constant manual reshuffling.
- Collections that Guide High-intent Journeys Instead of forcing buyers through rigid catalogs, Experro enabled structured collections that align with use-cases and buying intent. This helped customers explore faster and discover the most relevant solutions without getting lost.
- Personalized Recommendations and 1:1 Experiences Experro introduced personalized, context-aware recommendations across discovery and product journeys — so buyers instantly see related products, compatible solutions, and next-best actions. The experience also adapts for returning visitors based on what they browse and engage with, helping them pick up faster, stay relevant, and convert with less friction.
Cook & Broadman unlocked substantial ROI after implementing Experro’s CMS and product discovery suite
With Experro powering Cook & Boardman’s digital experience, C&B replaced a rigid, slow storefront with a fast, scalable, B2B-ready commerce platform. Headless performance delivered faster browsing at scale, while self-serve collections and merchandising gave teams real-time control. The result: deeper buying journeys, larger bulk orders, and reduced checkout friction — driving higher order values and lower abandoned revenue across key categories.
66.9%
increase in AOV in <4 months
78%
drop in abandoned carts within the first 3 months
410%
increase in units per order over ~120 days
53%
reduction in abandoned revenue in <4 months
Abandoned revenue reduced by 53%, recovering millions in potential lost sales through improved checkout and purchase confidence.
Units per order increased by 410%, reflecting a shift toward bulk purchasing and significantly higher basket depth per transaction.
Average order value grew by 66.9%, indicating higher-value purchases driven by improved product discovery and buying confidence.
Abandoned carts reduced by 78.5%, recovering lost revenue through streamlined checkout and improved purchase intent.
