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How to Write a Killer eCommerce Product Description- 10 Practical Tips!

Pooja Salunke
February 16, 2021 |

Once you’ve crafted a solid product title for your product, the next step is to write an engaging and convincing eCommerce product description. Product descriptions are important to give your customers an overview of what the product is and does. In short,

Why are Product Descriptions Important?

  1. They help the buyers understand your product’s features and benefits ultimately leading them further into decision making.
  2. Clear and concise descriptions help build customer trust.
  3. With consistent descriptions, you build a connection between your product and buyers which helps build customer loyalty.
  4. Customers tend to be more confident about products that have rich product descriptions.

In this blog, you will see how to write compelling eCommerce product descriptions for your business. You’ll cover common areas for both B2B and B2C businesses while you also get exclusive tips for B2Bs.

Here we go.

Understand Your Customers

Have an idea of your ideal customer avatar for your product. This will make it easier for you to write product descriptions and for buyers to connect with your product. For example, If you’re selling dresses, your product descriptions should appeal to women. Look at the image below,

  • eCommerce product description best practice- Dress for womenUsing words such as casual, flowy, soft, cute, modern are appealing to women
  • The use of the “Design” section makes it more convincing.
  • The extra tips on “Occasion” and “Match tips” make them want to buy your product.

If you’re a B2B seller, and you’re selling power tools your product description should speak about its features and benefits. Look at an example below.

ecommerce product description best practice- circular saw

  • The details like brand, item dimensions, weight, and so on give a clear picture of the product.
  • Using descriptive words like “brushless” and “removable” highlights the product features.
  • Conveying the benefits like “hassle-free blade changes”, “increased convenience” highlight the usefulness of the product features thus taking the customer further in his decision making.

Write for Your Buyers

The aim of writing an eCommerce product description should be to convince a potential customer to buy it. Buyers not only look at the title, images, and reviews but also read full product descriptions before deciding to buy.

Depending on who you’re selling to, talk in a language that connects with them. For example, if you’re selling kids’ wear, you’d want to keep the product pages light-hearted and fun.

If you’re selling a B2B product, use a professional tone because your audience is mostly a mid to old age group who’d not like casual slang like “lit AF” in the product descriptions for sure! Write detailed pages like the one shown below.
Including details like shipping time, quantity, contact information, margin calculator help B2B buyers make better-informed decisions, giving you an edge over your competitors.

ecommerce product description-B2B type C receiver

Keep it Simple

Write your eCommerce product descriptions in a simple language such that a high schooler can understand. This makes your buyers’ purchase journey less complex and spares them the dictionary time!

  • The use of a foreign language is best avoided to look relatable.
  • Use of promotional text like “ The best tool is here” unless it has been awarded so, is not a good practice. For example, a bookseller can use facts as highlighted in the image below.

ecommerce product description of a book

  • Using characters like *,^,%,$,#, etc will make your product page look untrustworthy.
  • Using obscene words is never a good choice.

Tell a Story with Your eCommerce Product Descriptions

There are 2 types of eCommerce product descriptions. One that connects a product with a story. The other lists out product details.

I’d say, [bctt tweet=” If there is a story behind the product, it is always a good idea to tell it to the audience because empathy lingers around even after the customer has left your site.”] This will create an instant connection with your customers even before they’ve made a purchase.

A good example of this could be antiques, jewelry, food, garden lighting, home decor that are inspired by someone or something.

ecommerce product description- story telling of an antique box

Another way of writing stories is to make them feel what they’d feel upon buying or using the product. For example, How a pizza melts in your mouth, how a fruit lip balm makes your lips smell good or how buying from a brand helps local artists, and so on. Here is an example.

nike story telling product descriptionBe Concise

This is the second way of writing compelling product descriptions we spoke about in the previous section. This is more suitable for B2B businesses because the buying process involves logic and reasoning. Being concise means listing out your products’ features and benefits in a short way that’s easy to understand. A good way to do this is to use enough white spaces and bullet points.

Given that B2B products can be quite complex, because of variations in quantities, pricing, logistics, and availability, this method would deem fit. Refer to the image below but, before that, here’s a checklist of what details you can include.

  1. Product title
  2. Product images/Videos/360-degree view
  3. Ratings or reviews
  4. In stock
  5. Product Pricing
  6. Minimum order quantity if any
  7. Shipping charges
  8. Delivery time
  9. Trust badge (Like “Amazon verified” for example)
  10. Product variants if any
  11. Variant pricing range (Also called as Pricing schema tag, example From $25to $65 )
  12. Downloadable spec sheets (Refer to the image at the end of this list)
  13. Add to cart or Buy Button
  14. Save for later or Add to Wishlist
  15. Product Details – Features and Benefits
  16. Product SKU
  17. Product Dimensions
  18. Product weight
  19. Product origin
  20. Product packaging
  21. Comparison tables
  22. Cross-sell or upsell products
  23. Customer reviews
  24. Customer photo reviews
  25. FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
  26. Return policy
  27. Warranty information if any
  28. Call to Action- Enquire Now/Buy Now

A downloadable product spec sheet is a unique characteristic of B2B product pages. These spec sheets contain in-depth information, in the .xls, .csv or.xlsx formats, about the product or a group of products. In the case of multiple decision-makers in the purchase cycle and complex product data that are difficult to convey on the product page itself, these downloadable spec sheets are a good way of giving surplus information.  Refer to the image below

B2B spec sheet in eCommerce product description

Above- Downloadable Product Spec Sheet

eCommerce product description of a DVD wall shelf playerof a

Understand the Marketplace You’re Selling on

Every marketplace has a set of guidelines for sellers. Following such guidelines helps your products rank better on the search engine. Marketplaces like Google shopping, Amazon, eBay have a set character limit on the length of the eCommerce product descriptions.

  • Google shopping- 5000 characters
  • Amazon shopping- 2000 characters
  • eBay-4000 characters
  • Etsy- Shows up to 140 characters on the page, the rest can be read by clicking “Read more”

The market places like Amazon business help B2B wholesale manufacturers and distributors sell their products online. It currently has IT supplies, office supplies, cleaning supplies, pantry, industry, and hospitality stores. Other popular B2B wholesale marketplaces include,

  • Alibaba.com
  • X cart
  • Global Sources
  • DH gate
  • e World trade
  • Kinnek.com
  • India Mart
  • Trade Key

Use Good Quality Images and Videos

This is a no brainer. Using high-quality images and videos is important for your brand value. A product title entices the customer to your product page, a product description gives them information about your product, but an image or video allows them to experience your product’s look and feel. With 360 degree views, 3D customization, videos, and so on, they get a chance to get into the product’s journey.

Though white backdrop images are highly professional and everyone’s favorite, a storytelling image is my personal favorite. You would have come across it too. Take a look below.

This is a deodorant for men. Though they haven’t skipped the regular white backdrop image of the actual product, they’ve used an additional image- stating the benefit of the product-” Destroys Underarm Odor for 24 Hours”.

product description for deodrant

White back drop product imageKeep the Most Important First

Some market places like Etsy show only a restricted number of words on the search page. The rest of the content is hidden until clicked. So it is a good idea to keep the best details of your product at the start of it to increase your chances of a sale.

We humans do not read every minute detail, we just scan the information. We do a lot of research before we buy anything. There are statistics that prove this as well. Here’s an interesting stat by Eyethink.

“2-3 letter words are skipped over almost 75% of the time, while 8 letter words are almost always fixated upon.”

Bonus Tips

Don’t worry. Look at it this way. This stat gives you an idea of how you can use this scanning tendency of buyers to your benefit. Make sure you use well-researched keywords at the beginning of and throughout the product description. It needn’t be just one keyword, it can even be a combination of keywords. This way the buyer will find his search terms in your product description thus convincing him that your product is a right fit.

But never use keyword stuffing. It can leave a bad impression of your product.

Use Professional Language and Correct Grammar

This is another no brainer. Use correct grammar and language and keep it consistent through all product pages. This leaves a good impression on the buyers or at least will not make your brand look irresponsible.

Here are two scenarios that could break your brand.

  1. Do not use unacceptable language or wrong spellings like “Cakes here buy online” or “Cake buy free onln”.
  2. Do not use punctuations like this “C*a*k*e*s b*u*y h^e^r^r” or “cakes-cakes-cakes” or any such combination, for the sake of completing the character limit. This isn’t accepted by most marketplaces.

Take Care of Each Product

Keep the language and tone of your eCommerce product descriptions consistent throughout all products. Make sure all your products have a product description. Think about this. You’ve sold a product and the customer liked your website. The next time he directly comes to your website and searches for an entirely different product and there is no product description available. You’ve committed a Himalayan blunder!

Bonus Tips

  1. Do not add links to your website or any other website with your eCommerce product descriptions. Your product descriptions shouldn’t lead your prospect elsewhere.
  2. Do not add interfering links or popups like “Download Now”, “Click Here”, “Get Free Points”, or any other promotional link, and so on in your product pages. These items may lead to the barring of your product from the marketplaces themselves.
  3. If your products have customization options add that below the product title
  4. For bundled products, it is important to mention and describe each product in that bundle.
    For example, “A 16 piece combo set”.
  5. For Multi-unit packs, always mention the number of products within the package.
    For example, “A pack of 5 handkerchiefs”.
  6. For variant products describe the number of variants(5) and the variant type (Colors) that are available. For example, “Available in 5 colors”.
Pooja Salunke

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