Playbook
Writing product pages an SI agent can shortlist
When a buyer's agent looks for a supplier, the question does not start with your company presentation. It starts with the buyer's conditions: size, quantity, lead time, certificate. The agent then reads your product page and checks it against them. Kaan Gülten's rule for exporters is that the agent looks for each of these details on your site, and where it cannot find them, it eliminates you. This playbook turns that rule into a way of writing product pages.
“SI recommends not the best company, but the best-described one.”
Branding and Marketing in the Age of SI, slide 93, UİB Academy 2026 · translated from Turkish
By Kaan Gülten · Based on talks given in Turkish · Published · 5 min read
The buyer describes a situation, not a product
Search used to start with a product name. A question to an SI assistant starts with the buyer's situation and constraints.
“We used to type ‘trainers’ and search. Now it's: recommend trainers for a 40-year-old who spends this many hours a day walking, paying attention to these features. Because searches have diversified, our websites and their content need to improve accordingly.”
The Change in Search, slide 6, Ankara E-Export Summit 2025, from the recorded talk · translated from Turkish
The same happens in business-to-business buying. In a fictional example from the UİB training, a buyer who once typed “hotel towel” now asks for towels for an 80-room boutique hotel, resistant to industrial washing, 500 g/m², within eight weeks, OEKO-TEX certified. A buyer who once typed “EPDM seal” now asks for a car door seal working between −40 and +120 °C, IATF 16949 certified, shipped to Germany within a week. If the page only says “hotel towel”, it cannot even be a candidate.
Five questions every product page answers
| Question | What it covers | Example (fictional values from the talk) |
|---|---|---|
| Who is it for? | User, sector, scale | Double mattress, up to 120 kg per person |
| In which situation? | How and where it is used | For someone who sleeps hot and on their side |
| What does it solve? | The need or problem | Pocket springs that do not pass on movement, breathable fabric |
| On what terms? | Price, quantity, time, delivery | 160 × 200 cm, delivered in 10 working days |
| What is the proof? | Certificate, test, record | Firmness and durability test report, 10-year guarantee |
“An adjective does not answer a personalised question. Measurements, conditions and proof do.”
Branding and Marketing in the Age of SI, slide 18, UİB Academy 2026 · translated from Turkish
Delete the adjective, write the number
The same towel can be described in two ways. Both are true; only one can be matched against a buyer's specification.
| Information | What the site says today | What the agent wants to see |
|---|---|---|
| Product | 100% cotton, 70 × 140 cm bath towel | 500 g/m², double-twist cotton, washable at 60 °C, size loss under 3% after 40 washes |
| Who it suits | Not stated | Hotel and spa chains; withstands frequent washing; suitable for industrial laundries |
| Situation | Only “bath towel” | Daily use, guest bathroom, spa, gym: each written separately |
| Difference | Not stated | Dries faster than a thick towel, lasts longer than synthetic fabric |
| Commercial terms | On the shipping page, somewhere else | Minimum 2,000 pieces, 15 working days, 4 days to Germany by road, 30 days' payment terms |
“Both are true. But the one on the right matches the German buyer's specification. The one on the left does not.”
The New Digital Customer, slide 14, IGEXX 2026 · translated from Turkish
The same discipline applies to claims about the company. “We are a flexible manufacturer” becomes, in the talk's fictional ready-to-wear example, “We start a new collection from 300 pieces per colour, with samples, in 3 weeks.” A sentence to fill in for your own business: “My customer should consider us in ……… situation because of our ……… feature. We can show this with ……….” Every value must rest on a document, a test or a record. If there is no proof, do not write it.
One product, one code, the same values everywhere
A product usually lives in four places: the visible web page, its structured data, the product feed or catalogue, and the quoting or ordering system. A human notices that “MD500-W”, “MD-500”, “500WHT” and “Towel 70x140 White” are the same towel; an agent sees four products. (These codes are the training's fictional example.) Give every product one code and use it everywhere: the barcode (GTIN) if there is one, otherwise your own part number. Never invent a code.
Every field needs an owner: composition belongs to product development, production time to planning, customer price to sales, stock to the ERP or warehouse. Each record should answer six questions: which product and variant it applies to, its unit, which country and customer group, when it was verified, who may change it, and who corrects it if it appears wrong outside.
Make it readable by machines
- Put critical information in the first HTML. Price, size and delivery details that load later through JavaScript may not be seen by some systems. A five-minute check: open the normal view and the page source of the same product, and search for the product code and one technical value.
- Add structured data for three layers: identity (who you are and where), product (what you sell), offer (on what terms). Typical types: Organization, Product, Offer (including minimum order quantity), OfferShippingDetails, ProductGroup for variants, BreadcrumbList.
- Do not put anything in the schema that is not on the page. No artificial zero price for products sold on quotation, no exposed dealer prices, no ratings that do not exist, no certificate claims beyond their scope. Google has no special schema for SI, and schema does not guarantee visibility.
The threshold test
If a buyer's agent came to your site tonight, it should be able to request a quote without a human.
- Find: product, size, minimum order and lead time are written on the page.
- Request: the quote form is a single page and works without a login.
- Get an answer: requests are answered the same day, with a price range and delivery information.
If all three hold, you have crossed the threshold. If one is missing, start there. The New Digital Customer keynote sets the longer goal: answer incoming requests in 5 minutes, not 42 hours, and build a system that gives an instant price range for standard products.