Cromwell Transforms Product Discovery with Constructor
With over 50 years of experience, they provide more than 750,000 industrial and trade products to sectors including manufacturing, engineering, and facilities management. As a trusted partner to businesses across the UK and internationally, Cromwell combines extensive product knowledge with value-added services to help their customers improve efficiency and productivity.
With over 50 years of experience, they provide more than 750,000 industrial and trade products to sectors including manufacturing, engineering, and facilities management. As a trusted partner to businesses across the UK and internationally, Cromwell combines extensive product knowledge with value-added services to help their customers improve efficiency and productivity.
To compensate for these suboptimal results, Cromwell was forced to implement a resource-intensive workaround strategy. The company dedicated two full-time searchandisers solely to managing and improving their search functionality.
These searchandisers spent their days monitoring and analyzing high-volume search terms, then making subjective judgments about result quality. "It was a very manual process," Powell explains. "They would perform the search themselves and make a judgment call about relevancy, rather than using a data-driven approach."
When problematic searches were identified, the team would implement manual overrides and redirects. Often, this meant directing customers away from search results entirely and toward category pages with pre-applied filters — effectively pushing users into a browse journey rather than fixing the underlying search issues.
To compensate for these suboptimal results, Cromwell was forced to implement a resource-intensive workaround strategy. The company dedicated two full-time searchandisers solely to managing and improving their search functionality.
These searchandisers spent their days monitoring and analyzing high-volume search terms, then making subjective judgments about result quality. "It was a very manual process," Powell explains. "They would perform the search themselves and make a judgment call about relevancy, rather than using a data-driven approach."
When problematic searches were identified, the team would implement manual overrides and redirects. Often, this meant directing customers away from search results entirely and toward category pages with pre-applied filters — effectively pushing users into a browse journey rather than fixing the underlying search issues.
Facing mounting evidence that their search capabilities were hampering customer experience and business growth, Cromwell began evaluating alternatives. The first decision point was whether to enhance their existing in-house solution or partner with a specialized vendor.
"It was primarily a buy versus build consideration," Powell explains. "We started by talking to Elastic about improving our current implementation, and also explored options with AWS." Interestingly, during these consultations, AWS actually suggested looking at Constructor as a potential solution.
Cromwell proceeded with a formal RFP process, inviting several search vendors to demonstrate their capabilities. Throughout this evaluation, the limitations of the in-house approach became increasingly clear.
"We quickly realized that building internally would cost too much in both financial terms and time," says Powell. "We didn't feel like we'd be solving new problems and felt it would take us years to build the feature set customers expected us to have."
In contrast, partnering with a specialized vendor offered the opportunity to leverage existing expertise and accelerate their journey. "A vendor has already gone through these challenges and built solutions. We could leverage their experience rather than reinventing the wheel," Powell notes.
Facing mounting evidence that their search capabilities were hampering customer experience and business growth, Cromwell began evaluating alternatives. The first decision point was whether to enhance their existing in-house solution or partner with a specialized vendor.
"It was primarily a buy versus build consideration," Powell explains. "We started by talking to Elastic about improving our current implementation, and also explored options with AWS." Interestingly, during these consultations, AWS actually suggested looking at Constructor as a potential solution.
Cromwell proceeded with a formal RFP process, inviting several search vendors to demonstrate their capabilities. Throughout this evaluation, the limitations of the in-house approach became increasingly clear.
"We quickly realized that building internally would cost too much in both financial terms and time," says Powell. "We didn't feel like we'd be solving new problems and felt it would take us years to build the feature set customers expected us to have."
In contrast, partnering with a specialized vendor offered the opportunity to leverage existing expertise and accelerate their journey. "A vendor has already gone through these challenges and built solutions. We could leverage their experience rather than reinventing the wheel," Powell notes.
Cromwell is now focused on building upon this foundation to drive continued innovation.
"The implementation of Constructor isn't the end of our journey — it's really just the beginning," Powell explains. They're working closely with Constructor's data science team on a continuous optimization plan, analyzing search patterns and customer behavior to identify opportunities for further refinement.
Cromwell is particularly excited about the potential of natural language and conversational search capabilities. "Natural language, conversational search is a huge opportunity for us," Powell notes. In the industrial tools industry, customers often approach product selection from a job-based perspective: "I'm doing this job, what do I need?"
Constructor's AI Shopping Assistant capabilities align perfectly with this vision. Powell envisions a future where customers can ask questions like "What tools do I need for installing industrial shelving?" and receive not just product recommendations, but also helpful context about specifications and best uses.
"People are rapidly changing how they search for products," Powell observes. "With Constructor, we feel well-positioned to evolve alongside these changing patterns and continue delivering exceptional experiences for our customers, no matter how their search behaviors evolve in the future."
Cromwell is now focused on building upon this foundation to drive continued innovation.
"The implementation of Constructor isn't the end of our journey — it's really just the beginning," Powell explains. They're working closely with Constructor's data science team on a continuous optimization plan, analyzing search patterns and customer behavior to identify opportunities for further refinement.
Cromwell is particularly excited about the potential of natural language and conversational search capabilities. "Natural language, conversational search is a huge opportunity for us," Powell notes. In the industrial tools industry, customers often approach product selection from a job-based perspective: "I'm doing this job, what do I need?"
Constructor's AI Shopping Assistant capabilities align perfectly with this vision. Powell envisions a future where customers can ask questions like "What tools do I need for installing industrial shelving?" and receive not just product recommendations, but also helpful context about specifications and best uses.
"People are rapidly changing how they search for products," Powell observes. "With Constructor, we feel well-positioned to evolve alongside these changing patterns and continue delivering exceptional experiences for our customers, no matter how their search behaviors evolve in the future."