Introduction
Most product descriptions are poor. Who really reads the text on your product pages? There are many other things that can be done on the website in terms of optimizing conversion rates that product descriptions can’t really affect sales, right?
Wrong. In fact, evidence from an e-commerce study conducted by Nielsen Norman Group indicates that 20% of failed purchases are due to a lack of relevant information in the product description.
Both e-commerce business owners and marketers are prone to a common mistake in writing descriptive text (even professional writers make it sometimes): writing product descriptions that simply describe your products.
Why is this wrong? Because great product descriptions need to enhance your product pages by selling your products to real people, not just being a distributor of information for search engines (although SEO can’t just be an afterthought, of course).
Let’s take a look at how to write a product description that convinces visitors on your online store to buy.
Writing the Perfect Product Description
What is a product description? How to write product descriptions that sell. Creating your own product description template. A compelling product description will always drive you. Frequently asked questions about product descriptions.
What is a Product Description?
A product description is a written text that provides essential information about a product or service being sold online. It typically includes details such as features, benefits, specifications, and usage instructions.
The purpose of a product description is to inform potential customers about the product, persuade them to buy it, and enhance their overall shopping experience.
A well-written product description can significantly influence sales, customer satisfaction, and brand reputation.
A well-written product description can guide buyers through your conversion funnel. If you add a little creativity, your product pages will instantly become more compelling, leading to more conversions from passing shoppers.
To succeed in writing a product description, you need to answer the questions customers have about your products: What problems does your product solve? What do customers gain from your product? What makes it better than the competition? The product description should answer these questions in an engaging and interesting way.
How to Write Product Descriptions That Sell
E-commerce store owners often make the mistake of leaking product features when writing product descriptions. This likely leads to lower conversion rates because people don’t understand how the product helps them.
Let’s take a look at how to create the perfect product descriptions that sell for you: focus on the ideal buyer. Tempt with benefits. Avoid “yes, yes” phrases. Justify using superiority. Target your readers’ imagination. Cut rational barriers with small stories. Tempt with sensory words. Tempt with social proof. Make your description skimmable. Set goals and key performance indicators.
Writing a Specific Title That Attracts Target Customers
When you write product descriptions with many buyers in mind, your descriptions become vague and end up not targeting anyone at all.
The best product descriptions address your target audience directly and personally. They ask and answer questions as if you’re having a conversation with them. You choose the words that your ideal buyer uses. You use the word “you”.
Here’s how The Oodie starts the product description for the I Love Plants Oodie in one example of a product description. “? Can’t stop buying plants? Unbelievable. Don’t worry – so can we! Wrap yourself in your favorite I Love Plants Oodie! With every sale of the I Love Plants Oodie, a tree is planted across Australia.”
When
You are writing product descriptions for your online business, start by imagining your ideal buyer. What kind of humor do they appreciate (if any)? What words do they use? Are there specific words they dislike? Can they use words like “bad” and “poor”? What questions do they ask that you need to answer?
Think about how you would talk to your ideal buyer if you were selling your product in-store face-to-face. Now try to incorporate that language into your e-commerce site so you can have a similar conversation online that receives a greater response. Get your free e-commerce text writing template.
Tease With Benefits
When we sell our own products, we get excited about individual features and specifications. We live and breathe our company, website, and products.
The problem is that potential buyers are not equally interested in boring features and specifications. They want to know what it will do for them – how it will solve their major problems. Writing effective product descriptions requires highlighting those benefits for each feature and overcoming cognitive biases.
A great example of a product description comes from Dr. Squatch. “Made with real pine extract, this amazing bar is as strong as a new whisk. It’s one of the best shower bars, scrubbing away dirt with its rough texture and manly scent. Adding in soothing oatmeal and shea butter for natural ingredients will leave your hair feeling flexible and soft (no hard or coarse hair here). This product works well to keep you looking good all day. Whatever your style, wear it confidently with Beardbrand Styling Balm.”
Dr. Squatch points out that the benefit of its soap is not just in cleaning you in the shower, but that the soap is strong enough to overcome any bad odor, no matter how tough your day has been. They also add some product benefits including “natural ingredients” and “exfoliating oatmeal” to appeal to the ideal buyer.
Consider the benefits resulting from each feature you have. How does your product make customers feel happier, healthier, or more productive? What problems and annoyances does your product help solve?
Don’t just sell a product, sell an experience.
Avoid “Yes, Yes” Statements
When we find ourselves stuck for words and don’t know what to add to the product description, we often add something boring like “the quality of the product is excellent.”
This is a “yes, yes” statement. As soon as the potential buyer reads “the quality of the product is excellent,” they think to themselves “yes, yes, of course. That’s what everyone says.” Have you ever heard anyone describe their product quality as mediocre, not very good, or even bad?
It becomes less convincing when the potential buyer reads your product description and starts saying “yes, yes” to themselves. To avoid this response, be as specific as possible.
No shopper in a recent study was able to find the information they needed in the product description, so they left the site to search Google for more information about the product. During their search, they found another site selling the same product, with a more complete description and a lower price. NN/g
For example, Beardbrand doesn’t describe its quality as excellent. Instead, it details every aspect along with its benefits. “Regardless of your style, Beardbrand Styling Balm is versatile enough to handle it. Designed to work with all hair types, it provides enough hold to keep dense, curly hair in check, prevent fine hair from falling flat, and keep stubborn beards in line – all while keeping hair flexible and touchable (no hard or coarse hair here). This product gets the job done in keeping your look intact all day. Whatever your style, wear it confidently with Beardbrand Styling Balm.”
Adds…
Product details matter. Product details sell your product. You can never include too much technical detail in your product descriptions. Be specific.
Justifying with Superiority
Superior qualities sound insincere in product descriptions unless you clearly demonstrate why your product is the best, easiest, or most advanced.
Amazon illustrates why the Kindle Paperwhite is the thinnest and lightest e-reader in the world.
The word “signature” gives the reader the impression that this is something special. Amazon continues to quote the pixel density (300 pixels per inch) and how the reader has a glare-free screen and double the storage compared to previous generations.
If your product is truly the best in its class, provide specific evidence that this is the case. Otherwise, tone down your product text or quote a customer saying that your product is the coolest they’ve ever used.
Targeting Your Readers’ Imagination
Scientific research has shown that when people hold a product in their hands, their desire to own it increases.
You are selling things online, so your website visitors cannot hold your products. Large, clear pictures or videos can help, but there’s also a trick to writing e-commerce text to heighten desire: allow your reader to imagine how they will feel owning and using your product.
This is how Firebox sparks your imagination by describing its Fizzics DraftPour product. It explains how the product solves common problems associated with going to the pub for a pint of beer. “Nothing beats a fresh pint of beer at your favorite pub – except maybe a fresh pint of beer in your very own home. No struggling with the crowds, no fighting for a seat, and no waiting outside on the sidewalk just to enjoy your favorite brew again! Fizzics DraftPour gives you bar-quality nitro-infused beer from any can or bottle. Even the cheap economy brews can be transformed into a premium pint with just a pull on the lever. The DraftPour may be a sleek piece of equipment, but it has high-tech technology under the hood, using sound waves to convert the natural carbonation in the beer into a silky micro-foam. Those little bubbles create optimum density to enhance aroma, flavor, and silky mouthfeel. Get some fruit machines and a few piggy banks and you’ll have replicated your local spot perfectly. No sticky bar and no suspiciously stained old carpet.”
To practice this technique in writing, start the sentence with the word “imagine,” and end the sentence (or paragraph) with an explanation of how the reader will feel when owning and using your product.
Breaking Rational Barriers with Short Stories
Incorporating short stories into product descriptions reduces rational barriers against persuasive techniques. In other words, you forget that you are being sold to.
For example, wine sellers like Laithwaites, based in the UK, include short stories about winemakers. “The Dauré family owns one of the best estates in Roussillon, Château de Jau. One Christmas, they agreed that it was time to expand and seek new horizons for their wines. The women (Las Niñas) loved Chile and finally won, realizing their dream when they established a vineyard in the Aputal Valley in Colchagua. The soil is excellent and close to Chile’s star neighbor, Montes winery.”
When it comes to using your product description to tell a story about your products, ask yourself: Who makes the product? What inspired the creation of the product? What obstacles did you have to overcome to develop the product? How was the product tested?
Tempting with Sensory Words
Restaurants have known this for a long time: sensory words boost sales because they engage a greater amount of brain processing power. Here’s a great example of a product description from chocolate maker Green & Blacks.
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The sensory attributes of Green & Black refer not only to taste but also to sound and touch: “crunchy” and “smooth”.
Adjectives are tricky words. Often, they add little meaning to your sentences, and it’s better to eliminate them. However, sensory adjectives are powerful words because they make the reader feel the product text while reading.
Amaze your readers with vibrant product descriptions. Think of words like “smooth” and “creamy” and “crunchy” and “brilliant” if you’re selling food products.
Temptation with Social Proof
When visitors to your website are unsure of which product to buy, they look for suggestions on what to purchase. Often, they are persuaded to buy a product that has the highest number of positive reviews and testimonials.
The gym clothing retailer Gymshark includes customer reviews on every product page. It also displays a rating system so shoppers can get product information quickly and easily.
Try to include a customer image to add credibility to the offer. It also makes you more relatable and empathetic. You can even integrate a social media feed filled with user-generated content showcasing real people sharing success stories about using your products.
Make Your Description Scannable
Does the design of your website encourage visitors to read your product descriptions?
Here’s a great example of a product description from Kettle & Fire. The brand uses bullet points to quickly and easily communicate the benefits of the product. It replaces the standard heading “Benefits” with “Why You’ll Love It”, personalizing the shopping experience on the product page.
Packing your product descriptions with clear and scannable design makes them easier to read and more appealing to potential customers. Leaving questions unanswered for shoppers can hinder the sales process or even cause shoppers to abandon their purchase and your site altogether. NN/g
Here are some areas to focus on when designing your product descriptions: entice your website visitors with headlines. Use easy-to-read bullet points. Leave plenty of white space. Increase font size for readability. Use high-quality product images.
Set Goals and Key Performance Indicators
The goal of a product description is to move the shopper towards purchase. But how do you know if your descriptions are working or not?
You’ll want to establish a set of metrics to track on your product pages. Defining these metrics will help you understand which product descriptions perform best and optimize those that underperform.
Common key performance indicators to monitor include: conversion rate, cart abandonment rate, return rate, support inquiries, and organic search ranking.
You can then run different A/B tests using a tool like Trident AB, leading to increased conversion rates and more sales for your e-commerce site.
Create Your Own Product Description Template
Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all template that can write product descriptions for you. Every product and audience is different and has different purchasing influences. This is a good thing because you want your product descriptions to be unique to your brand.
If you’re struggling to write a product description, here are some suggestions that can help you create a template that works for your products and business.
First, answer the following questions: Who is the ideal customer? Knowing who your product is for is key to writing a good description. What are the core features of your products? Write down any dimensions, materials, functions, care instructions, and size details (if you’re selling clothing). When is the product best used? Is a cozy blanket perfect for cold winter nights with a cup of hot cocoa by the fireplace? Or is it more for chilly fall evenings when the sun goes down? Highlight the ideal scenarios of when the customer should use your product. What makes your product special? Think about the unique benefits of your product and why it’s better than your competitors.
Once
With this information in hand, use the following template to write your product description. Write a specific title that grabs the attention of your target customers. Keep your ideas simple while presenting an instant benefit of the product. For example, if you are selling a yoga shirt with a specific pattern, name it Fleck Studio Shirt. Write a short paragraph based on the core features and usage information mentioned above. Look at the examples above for inspiration to craft an engaging description. Add a bullet point list of the product’s features and benefits. Include any required technical details. Add social proof. You can use a customer review app to capture product reviews on your website and integrate them with reviews from third-party sites like search engines or Facebook.
Now you are ready to add a product (or adjust an existing product) to your online store!
A compelling product description will always sell
As you prepare to write compelling product descriptions for your online store, remember: Share your knowledge of your product. Tell stories and explain even the smallest details. Make an effort to be interesting, and instead, dazzle your website visitors with enticing descriptions. And above all, write with enthusiasm, as your passion for your products is contagious.
Let Shopify Magic write product descriptions for you
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Frequently asked questions about product descriptions
How to write an effective product description? Focus on the ideal buyer. Tempt with benefits. Justify with superiority. Target the imagination of your readers. Break down rational barriers with small stories. Tempt with sensory words. Tempt with social proof. Make your description scannable.
What is the purpose of a product description? The purpose of a product description is to provide shoppers with essential information to help them make a purchasing decision. Consider the product description like a salesperson working on your product pages to sell your products.
What is the format of a good product description? A specific product title. A short descriptive paragraph. A bullet point list of features and technical details. Social proof. A call to action.
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