Part 53 - AI-Buddy..... Content or product – what does the customer buy?
The product solves the need – the content helps the customer understand why it is right
What does the customer actually buy in an online store?
The most obvious answer is still the product.
The customer pays for the shoes, coffee machine, book, mobile phone or spare part. It is the product that is sent home, picked up in the store or put into use.
But before the purchase happens, the customer often has to go through another process.
She must understand the product.
Assess whether it fits the need.
Compare options.
Reduce uncertainty.
Consider price versus value.
And finally feel confident enough to make a decision.
In this process, the content can become part of the actual value the online store delivers .
The product description explains.
The pictures show.
The specifications document.
The buying guide provides guidance.
The comparison clarifies differences.
Customer reviews can provide experiences from others.
Video can demonstrate usage.
And customer service can fill the knowledge gaps that still exist.
Thus, the question is not really whether the customer buys content or product .
The interesting question is how the content helps the customer understand, choose and use the product.
This is particularly interesting for small and medium-sized online stores.
They can rarely compete with the biggest players in everything, but they can have in-depth knowledge of their products, applications, and customers.
When this knowledge is made available digitally, content can become an important part of competitiveness.
And when artificial intelligence eventually helps customers find and evaluate products, it also needs a good knowledge base.
Magne & the Friend
Magne
Friend...
We ended the previous article with a rather annoying question.
The buddy
Those are often the best questions.
Magne
Content or product – what is the customer buying?
I've thought about it.
And of course the customer buys the product.
The buddy
Yes.
Magne
Oops.
It went quickly.
The buddy
Heh heh.
The customer usually does not pay 2,500 kroner for the product description.
He pays for the product.
Magne
Then we're done again.
The buddy
Not quite.
How did the customer decide which product to buy?
Magne
There you were again.
Before the product comes the decision
The buddy
Let's say you're going to buy a new coffee machine.
Magne
Okay.
The buddy
You have four current models in front of you.
What are you doing?
Magne
Reading about them.
The buddy
Why?
Magne
Because I want to know the difference.
The buddy
And if the online store only shows:
Coffee machine A – 5,990 kroner
Coffee machine B – 6,490 kroner
Coffee machine C – 7,990 kroner
Coffee machine D – 9,490 kroner
What do you know then?
Magne
That D is expensive.
The buddy
Heh heh.
But do you know why?
Magne
No.
The buddy
And then the online store has given you products...
but not enough knowledge to choose between them.
The content explains the difference
Magne
So the product needs an explanation?
The buddy
Often.
Think about how many product features don't mean much until someone puts them in context.
Magne
For example?
The buddy
A laptop might have 32 GB of RAM.
Magne
That sounds good.
The buddy
For whom?
Magne
Good question.
The buddy
A customer who is only going to read email and use online banking may not need it.
A customer working with large video files may have completely different needs.
Magne
So the specification says what the product has .
But the content can explain why it matters .
The buddy
There you have an important distinction.
From property to benefit
Magne
This reminds me of old marketing.
Don't just tell about the property.
Explain the benefit to the customer.
The buddy
The principle is still relevant.
If a rain jacket has a specific technical membrane, it is interesting to some customers.
But many people want to know first of all:
Will I stay dry when it rains all day?
Magne
And maybe:
Will I get clammy when I walk?
The buddy
Yes.
The product data describes the properties.
Good content translates the attributes into meaning in the customer's situation .
But content can't save a bad product
Magne
Now we have to be a little careful.
Because this can quickly sound as if the content is more important than the product.
The buddy
And that would be wrong.
Good content cannot make a bad product good.
Magne
And a fantastic product description doesn't make the wrong size right.
The buddy
Exactly.
The content's task is not to hide the product's weaknesses.
Good content should also help the customer understand when the product is not suitable .
Magne
It's almost the opposite of classic advertising language.
The buddy
It can also build trust.
If an online store says:
"This model is great for this, but if you need this, you should choose the model next to it"...
Magne
...then the store actually helps me.
The buddy
Yes.
It doesn't just try to get you to buy.
It tries to help you buy correctly .
Wrong purchase is not good e-commerce either
Magne
But if the customer buys, the online store has received its conversion.
The buddy
In the short term.
What happens if the product is faulty?
Magne
Return.
Dissatisfied customer.
Customer service.
Maybe bad publicity.
The buddy
And maybe the customer will never come back.
Magne
So the purchase itself is not necessarily a good measure of whether we did the job right.
The buddy
Exactly.
A good customer experience is not just about getting the customer through the checkout.
It is also about helping the customer make a good decision .
Content can be part of the product experience
Magne
But what happens after the purchase?
So the content has done its job, right?
The buddy
Not necessarily.
How do you set up the product?
How do you use it?
How do you maintain it?
How do you solve common problems?
How do you get the most value out of it?
Magne
Instructions for use.
Videos.
Guides.
Questions and answers.
The buddy
Yes.
The content can follow the customer throughout the product's entire life cycle.
Magne
Then the content actually becomes part of the product experience.
The buddy
Just.
The small specialist shop may know more than the large marketplace
Magne
Let's take small and medium-sized online stores again.
The buddy
Certainly.
Imagine a small online store that specializes in binoculars.
Magne
Not the world's largest market.
The buddy
No.
But perhaps the employees have been working with optics for twenty years.
They know which binoculars are suitable for bird watching.
What a hunter needs.
What works in low light.
What the difference between 8x42 and 10x42 actually means in use.
Magne
While a large marketplace may have several thousand products.
The buddy
But not necessarily the same professional guidance.
Magne
Then the small shop can compete on understanding .
The buddy
Yes.
And this is where professional knowledge can become digital competitiveness.
Content is also customer service before purchase
Magne
I have always thought of customer service as something that happens when the customer contacts us.
The buddy
But good content can answer the question before the customer needs to ask.
Magne
So a size guide is customer service?
The buddy
In practice, it can work like this.
So can a comparison table.
A buying guide.
A good product description.
A FAQ.
A demonstration video.
Magne
Then we scale the knowledge.
One employee doesn't need to explain the same thing a hundred times.
The buddy
Exactly.
It is particularly interesting for businesses with limited resources.
And now the content gets a new reader
Magne
The customer?
The buddy
Not only.
Artificial intelligence.
Magne
Ah, yes.
The buddy
If a customer asks an AI-based shopping assistant:
"I need a light sleeping bag for mountain hiking in the summer, but I get cold easily. What should I look for?"
The system must have information to work with.
Magne
Product name and price do not match.
The buddy
No.
It needs properties.
Areas of application.
Differences.
Limitations.
Context.
Magne
So much of the content we create for people can also become the knowledge base for new digital interfaces.
The buddy
Yes.
But we should still start with human needs.
Academic specialization
Content and product perform different tasks
It is useful to avoid an artificial contradiction between product and content.
The product delivers the functional value the customer is looking for.
The content can help the customer discover, understand, evaluate, select, use, and get value from the product .
They therefore perform different but complementary tasks.
A good product with insufficient information can be difficult to choose.
Good information about a product that does not solve the customer's needs also does not create lasting value.
Good e-commerce occurs when product, information and customer experience work together.
From product feature to customer value
Product information is often located at multiple levels.
First we have product data :
weight,
goal,
material,
capacity,
battery life,
size,
compatibility.
Then we can explain the property :
The product weighs 950 grams.
But the customer may need the next level:
What does that mean for me?
If the customer is going to wear the product for eight hours a day, weight can be very important.
If the product is going to be permanently placed on a desk, the same feature may be far less relevant.
Good content therefore creates a connection between:
data → attribute → meaning → customer need.
Content can reduce perceived risk
Buying involves uncertainty.
The risk can be financial:
Is this worth the money?
Functional:
Will the product do what I need?
Practical:
Is it compatible with the equipment I already have?
Timely:
Will it arrive before I need it?
Or social and personal:
Is this the right choice for me?
Information cannot remove all risk, but it can reduce uncertainty by giving the customer a better basis for decision-making.
Decision support is more than product text
When we talk about content in e-commerce, we shouldn't reduce the term to the product description.
Decision support can consist of many different content elements:
product images,
specifications,
comparisons,
size guides,
buying guides,
video,
questions and answers,
customer reviews,
user manuals,
and consulting.
Different products require different support.
A simple standard product may require very little explanation.
An expensive, technical or complex product may require significantly more.
The need for information increases with complexity
The more difficult it is for the customer to evaluate the product, the more important the information can become.
Purchasing a simple cable may require a few pieces of information:
length,
contact,
compatibility.
Buying a camera can involve many more considerations:
sensor,
lenses,
usage situation,
weight,
video features,
experience level,
ecosystem,
price.
Therefore, the amount and type of product content should be determined by the customer's decision-making needs , not by a universal template that is applied equally to all products.
Content before, during and after the purchase
The role of content doesn't end at the buy button.
Before the purchase, content can help the customer discover and evaluate.
During the decision-making process, it can reduce uncertainty and make alternatives comparable.
After purchase, it can help with:
setup,
use,
maintenance,
troubleshooting,
accessories,
and further learning.
Thus, content can contribute to value creation throughout the entire customer journey .
Expertise can be scaled digitally
This is particularly important for small and medium-sized businesses.
A specialty store can rely on significant human capital in the form of product knowledge and customer experience.
The challenge is that this knowledge is often tied to individuals.
When knowledge is documented as good digital content, one explanation can be used by many customers simultaneously.
It is available outside opening hours.
It can be used in multiple channels.
It can be updated.
And it can eventually become part of the knowledge base for digital
advisors.
This is a concrete example of how human knowledge can be scaled through technology without the technology replacing the value of human knowledge .
AI makes structured knowledge more interesting
Traditionally, product content has been mainly presented on the product page and read directly by people.
AI-based interfaces open up a different way to use the same knowledge.
The customer can formulate the need in their own words.
A system can attempt to identify relevant criteria.
Product data and knowledge content can be used to find relevant alternatives.
And the differences can be explained in a dialogue.
This increases the importance of the information being:
precise,
updated,
consistent,
sufficiently structured,
and linked to real customer needs.
AI thus does not create the need for good product knowledge.
It makes the consequences of good or poor product knowledge clearer .
We shouldn't produce content just because AI exists
At the same time, it is important to avoid a new variant of the old SEO mindset.
The goal should not be to produce huge amounts of text because a language model might be able to read it.
Content should exist because it has a function.
It should:
answer a question,
explain a difference,
reduce uncertainty,
document a characteristic,
help with a choice,
or support the customer after the purchase.
If the content doesn't help the customer or add relevant knowledge, more content just becomes more noise .
What does the customer buy – and what does the content help with?
Product and content create value in different ways
Customer needs | The role of the product | The role of content |
Solving a practical need | Performs the function the customer needs | Explains which product is suitable |
Understand the product | Has certain characteristics | Translates the characteristics into understandable meaning |
Compare options | Offers various features and qualities | Make relevant differences visible |
Reducing uncertainty | Must actually deliver as expected | Documenting what the customer can expect |
Choosing the right one | Must fit needs and situation | Provides decision support |
Get value after purchase | Used for the intended task | Helps with setup, use, and maintenance |
Get help | May require knowledge for proper use | Make expert knowledge available before and after the purchase |
From product data to customer value
Information becomes valuable when the customer understands what it means.
Level | Example | Customer's question |
Product data | Battery life: 20 hours | What is the specification? |
Product feature | Long battery life | What characterizes the product? |
Importance | Can be used throughout a long workday without recharging | Why does the property matter? |
Usage situation | Suitable for travel and work without easy access to power | When is this useful? |
Customer value | Less need to plan around charging | What do I get in return for that? |
Decision support | Choose this model if battery life is more important than the lowest possible weight | Is this the right product for me? |
What does this mean for small and medium-sized online stores?
Expertise can be a competitive advantage
Starting point | Possibility | Practical measure |
Employees often get the same questions | Make the answers available to everyone | Build FAQ and guides |
The products are difficult to compare | Making the differences understandable | Create comparison tables |
The supplier offers generic product texts | Add your own professional knowledge | Explain uses, benefits, and limitations |
The customer is unsure what is appropriate | Offer decision support | Create buying guides and needs-based navigation |
The business has limited customer service capacity. | Scaling Recurring Guidance | Document the most common explanations |
The business wants to use AI | Build a better knowledge base first | Structure product data and quality assure the subject content |
Technical terms
Key concepts when connecting product, content and customer decision
Norwegian technical term | English technical term | Explanation |
Product content | Product Content | Text, images, video, specifications, and other content that describes, explains, or documents a product. |
Product feature | Product Features | A specific function, characteristic or technical property of a product. |
Customer benefit | Customer Benefit | The value or utility a product feature can provide to the customer in a particular situation. |
Product data | Product Data | Structured facts about the product, such as dimensions, weight, material, price, model and compatibility. |
Product knowledge | Product Knowledge | Understanding the product's characteristics, application, limitations, differences and what needs it is suitable for solving. |
Decision support | Decision Support | Information or functionality that helps the customer understand options and make a more informed choice. |
Perceived risk | Perceived Risk | The customer's experience of uncertainty or possible negative consequences related to a purchase. |
Information search | Information Search | The process by which the customer searches for information to understand a need, a product, or possible alternatives. |
Purchase decision | Purchase Decision | The customer's choice about whether, what, where and possibly when a purchase should be made. |
Customer journey | Customer Journey | The customer's overall trajectory of touchpoints and experiences before, during, and after a purchase or other relationship with the business. |
Digital decision support | Digital Decision Support | Digital tools and content that help the user evaluate alternatives and choose an appropriate solution. |
Knowledge scaling | Knowledge Scaling | To make professional knowledge available to more people through documentation, digital services, technology or other reusable solutions. |
We have only just begun.
Magne
Friend...
Now I think the answer to our question is pretty clear.
The buddy
What does the customer buy?
Magne
The product.
But the content can be crucial for the customer to understand which product is right .
The buddy
Yes.
Magne
And the more complicated the product is...
the greater the need for explanation may become.
The buddy
Right.
Magne
But then I see something else.
We've talked about content in general.
Buying guides.
Comparisons.
Video.
FAQ.
Product data.
The buddy
Yes?
Magne
But on the product page itself, there is one text that almost all online stores have.
The buddy
The product description.
Magne
Exactly.
And if the product description is to help people understand the product, contribute to searchability, and eventually become part of the knowledge base that AI systems can work with...
The buddy
...then it may have been given a more important job than before.
Magne
That's exactly what I was thinking.
The buddy
Then we have the next question ready:
Why has a good product description become more important than ever?
Magne
Then we continue there.
The buddy
We do.
For friend...
We have only just begun.
Academic background and further reading
This series also builds on my own professional journey through the Web Design study , the eMarketing study , Innovation and Commercialization and professional seminars in San Francisco and Oxford . Here you will find the background, professional environments and experiences that have followed the development from the early years of the web to today's digitalization.
Recommended literature
Developments in artificial intelligence are moving faster than perhaps any other field of study in our time. No single book can provide all the answers, but good books can provide a solid foundation for understanding the technology, the opportunities, and the challenges.
In the KI-Kompis series, we therefore recommend a selection of books that illuminate artificial intelligence from different perspectives – technology, strategy, management, innovation, ethics, digitalization and practical application. Together, they provide a broader understanding of how artificial intelligence affects people, businesses and society.
Click on the book icon to see the full literature overview with recommended books on artificial intelligence.
Recommended books from our library
Generative Engine Optimization: The Definitive Guide to AI Visibility
Author: Dixon Jones
Short review
This book provides a practical introduction to optimizing websites for generative search engines and artificial intelligence. It explains how ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and other AI-based services find, understand, and use content—and what businesses can do to become more visible in the new search landscape.
Why we recommend the book
One of the first books to systematize artificial intelligence search. Perfect for anyone who wants to understand how traditional SEO is evolving into AI Search Optimization and Generative Engine Optimization.
GEO: Generative Engine Optimization – How to Rank in ChatGPT, Perplexity & AI
Author: Chris Carr
Short review
A practical guide that shows how businesses can adapt content and websites to be recommended by generative search engines. The book focuses on how visibility is changing as more and more users get answers directly from artificial intelligence.
Why we recommend the book
This book is well suited for marketers, content producers, and businesses who want to understand how they can work purposefully with visibility in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI-based search services.
Optimizing for AI Search: Mastering AIO & GEO
Author: Amit Kothiyal
Short review
The book shows how traditional search engine optimization is evolving towards AI Search Optimization (AIO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Through practical advice, the author explains how structure, content, and semantics can make websites more relevant to the search engines and language models of the future.
Why we recommend the book
An exciting book for anyone who wants to stay ahead of the curve. It bridges the gap between classic SEO and the new reality where artificial intelligence is becoming an increasingly important source of information and recommendations.
© 2025 - 2026 Portico Publish | The invisible capital Privacy and use of the website | Developed and operated by Magne Bjella | Powered and secured by Wix
Comments