8 Tips for Writing E-Commerce Product Descriptions that Sell

Eric Pong
e-commerce product descriptions - Floship

Selling a product doesn’t rely merely on the quality of that product. Instead, the process involves a well-constructed product content strategy. With it, you promote the product and raise awareness about its presence with both customers and competitors.
To do so, you need a good product description. It’s the first thing that a customer sees after observing the product. But how effective are product descriptions for your business?
Very much. According to a survey conducted by Retail Touch Points, 87% of eCommerce buyers have stated that a product description has swayed their decision. It’s a number that you can’t ignore if you wish to increase your sales and accomplish all your goals.
To help you in establishing a presence with quality product descriptions, we’ve come up this guide. Follow each of these eight tips to write an outstanding product description that boosts your sales.

1 – Know the purpose of your product

No matter how advanced your literary skills are, one element of a product description determines their success. It is, of course, the purpose of the product and the goal it’s set to achieve.
To write an eCommerce product description that sells, you need to do much more than the actual writing. Therefore, a significant amount of preparation is in order.
First, write down the five goals of your product. Ask yourself – what problems does it solve? By knowing what the product is aimed at, you will be able to expand it. An expanded list of goals makes a product description that sells.
Customers will see the meaning and purpose behind the words, calmly proceeding to purchase their desired items.
Always seek to highlight why the customer’s life will be better by using your product. Don’t focus on why your product is better than what the competitor is offering.

2 – Pay special attention to the benefits of the product

The main body of the description is reserved solely for giving a general overview of the product. On eCommerce sites, it’s not enough to focus on the general and the obvious. You need to expand and “give a nudge” to the customers, pointing out the benefits of the product. What should a “benefits” section contain?

  • If the product had a previous version, highlight all the improvements in comparison that version. State what you’ve changed, how and why.
  • Make sure you don’t make a mistake discerning between features and benefits. Features are an introduction of the product and are placed in the general description. Benefits are small, crisp points, stating how does your product help the customer.
  • Remind customers about the value. Highlight the availability of the product in combination with the existing benefits to close out this section.

3 – Define your brand voice

As we’ve already mentioned, it’s a mistake to explicitly state why and how you’re better than your competitors. Still, it’s important to differentiate yourself from the rest of your niche. How do we accomplish this?
Using your brand voice, of course. It is perhaps the most efficient way of turning an inefficient description into a description that sells. Additionally, you can use brand voice to engage with a specific group of customers you’re targeting.
After reading more than one description, customers will identify the tone, vocabulary and other elements of your eCommerce website. If you’re targeting older customers, it’s easy to change your vocabulary to appeal to their certain affinities.
For millennials and other younger generations, it’s more challenging because there are trends in expression that you have to follow. Nevertheless, it’s necessary that you accommodate your tone to match the group you’re targeting.

4 – Have a consistent voice across your entire eCommerce website

As important brand voice is, there’s more to having it than just going through the initial search. Once you’ve defined the verbal approach your brand has, it’s time to apply it on a wide scale.
The product descriptions on your ecommerce store that convert into sales, should not give you just one single sale.
The descriptions should echo a voice that sets the mind of a customer alight. A customer should remember what (s)he experienced while visiting the product page the previous time. Make it an experience for them.
The key to increasing your revenue lies in the unison of all descriptions, more precisely – the consistency of your brand voice. One sale should lead to another, and that’s how returning customers give you new business.

5 – Make the brand visible, not just the product

In the beginning, it’s crucial that you gain customer loyalty using brand consistency. According to a survey by LinkedIn, 48% of customers have stated that the first purchase is the most important for establishing loyalty with the brand.
By having descriptions that will match your advertising or presentation tone, you strengthen your brand identity. Have you ever thought why do successful companies manage to sell versions of the product that are subpar?
It’s because of the name. Due to engaging product descriptions that not just speak of the product but the brand as well, customers will begin identifying your brand with quality, trust, and other positive characteristics.

6 – Don’t hesitate to outsource eCommerce descriptions

Creating a viable marketing campaign that will give you a CTR above average is a tasking job. In fact, it’s so tasking that it prevents marketing teams from properly focusing on product descriptions.
By investing insufficient amounts of effort, many eCommerce websites feature product descriptions that don’t sell. If your marketing team is burdened with creating campaigns, you can always outsource product descriptions by using these tools:

  • Essay Writing Lab. It’s one of the most reliable writing tools, giving you the opportunity to order custom descriptions.
  • SuperiorPapers. With this writing tool, you can order quality product descriptions even if the deadline is tight. They have an emergency writing team for these purposes.
  • BestEssays. Another good writing service that specializes in all sorts of product marketing projects. It’s akin to others successful assignment writing help

Finding good help with essay writing in Australia is a proven method of improving the quality of your product descriptions. With professionals writing them, your product descriptions will not be of subpar quality just because you were overburdened with other matters.

7 – Invest time in eliminating buyer’s remorse

What is a buyer’s remorse? It’s a known psychological phenomenon, a form of cognitive dissonance. When we buy something, no matter how useful the product is, we feel guilty because we have spent our money.
Oftentimes, buyer’s remorse will be the deal breaker when potential customers are still undecided whether to purchase your product or not. Product descriptions for eCommerce websites often fail because marketers stop caring about easing the process for customers.
Instead of making them feel better and lessening their guilt, marketers just go on and on about the features. A product description that sells is successful because it contains methods to ease the buyer’s remorse. Here are some ways you can accomplish this:

  • Let customers know that the offer is one time only, motivate them into making the decision.
  • Focus on saying that it’s a bargain and that the price is much lower than it usually is.
  • Add additional incentives to “compliment” them on finding such a good deal.
  • Describe a vision of their future life with the product, focusing on how much better it really will be.
  • Avoid using words that are too “flashy.” It sends the wrong message to the customers, indicating that your goal is to only sell as much as possible and not to help them.

By applying these simple tips into your product descriptions, you can increase ROI and every other sales metric.

8 – Have the text motivate and incite action

Not too long ago, the Harvard Business School application review committee decided to analyze the best application letters. The team at Harvard wanted to know what made them so successful and whether there is a formula for success.
Upon concluding their research, the understood that verbs are much more effective than adjectives or a myriad of adverbs.
Thus, you should use more verbs and less adjective and adverbs in your product descriptions. They shorten the next and insert more calls to action, especially if they’re in the imperative voice. Verbs make your product descriptions have a melodic rhythm, constantly motivating customers into giving them a chance.

Concluding thoughts

If you wish to improve your sales, product descriptions can be the best method to reach those goals. Improve their structure, give them purpose and don’t hesitate to ask help. They’re one of the pillars of every successful eCommerce website.

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Floship is one of Asia’s largest eCommerce order fulfillment businesses and the number one in Crowdfunding fulfillment. We help clients from all over the world store their products in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, pick & pack orders as they flow in through our fully automated, award-winning API that integrate seamlessly with leading eCommerce platforms such as Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce. Companies that sell on average, 300 orders or more a month, are welcome to request a Free Consultation with us.

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