High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Customer cost refers not only to the price of a product, but also encompasses the purchase costs as well as use costs and post-use costs. Purchase costs mainly consist of the cost of searching for a product, gathering information about it and obtaining it. The highest use costs usually arise for durable goods with high demand on resources, such as energy or water, or high maintenance costs. Post-use costs encompass the costs for collecting, storing and disposing of the product.