How to Write Product Descriptions to Boost eCommerce Sales?

Image source: Freepiks

It’s always been a challenge to stand out from the competition in the eCommerce industry. With 2020 behind us, that challenge has become exponentially more prominent. According to eMarketer, 82% of customers stated that product descriptions are the driving force behind their purchase decisions. People want to know as much about a product as possible before investing time and resources into it.

Subsequently, Fortunly reported that 50% of US customers would like to see at least three pieces of multimedia before making a purchase. That’s why writing your product descriptions in a more calculated and professional manner will help you generate leads and rank better with global search engines. Let’s look at what goes into product description writing to help boost your sales in 2021.

What are eCommerce Product Descriptions All About?

The role of eCommerce product descriptions is to inform potential customers of a product’s features and benefits. Writing a proper product description is a balance of writing original content in your tone of voice while applying SEO to it for better ranking. 

Good product descriptions will not only boost your sales but help bring international customers to your storefront via Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others. However, bad ones will have the opposite effect and drive away potential customers from your online shop. 

Based on 99Firms, 53% of customers wouldn’t visit a website again after poor first impressions, with 50% willing to pay more for better online experiences. Product descriptions should always be written for people first and search engines second. You can also keep Edubirdie close by for rewriting or editing you may need on product descriptions before publishing them, including writing entirely new content. Only then will you be able to strike a balance between good search ranking and inviting customer experience for end-users. So how do you do that in practice?

Define your Customer’s Profiles

Different people will gravitate toward different products on eCommerce stores. After all, we all have different characters and profiles which make us unique customers. For your product descriptions to captivate the reader, you will need to define who exactly you are writing for. You can do this by implementing the 5W1H method:

• Who – define your customer’s gender, lifestyle, shopping habits, age group, etc.
• What – what kinds of products are you selling?
• Where – where can your product be used by the end-user?
• When – when is your product meant to be used during the day/year?
• Why – why is your product better than that of the competition?
• How – how does your product work exactly?

Answering these questions will give you a great indication of how to write your product descriptions to attract new customers to your store. By talking to specific customer profiles directly, you will be able to boost your eCommerce sales more directly than you would through paid advertising. What’s more, with advanced sales automation software, you can integrate all this information in your data management system and track the sales pipeline fast and in real-time.

Implement KISS Methodology During Writing

There are several reasons why writing long-form product descriptions is a bad idea. For one, people don’t have the patience to read several long paragraphs of text explaining a single item to them. Likewise, many people use mobile and tablet devices for eCommerce shopping, making it difficult for them to read long-form text. Instead of writing fluff, you can use the KISS principle to write shorter, more informative product descriptions. 

KISS, or Keep It Simple Stupid, is a marketing principle that originated in the 1960s and refers to writing simple sales content with everyday terminology. Doing so will enable both tech-proficient and casual buyers to understand what your products are about without feeling left out. This will lead to significant improvements to your eCommerce sales as a result of accessibility and product description legibility.

Make your Product Descriptions Easy to Skim

Speaking of attention spans, ours (people worldwide) are at an all-time low. Beyond making your product descriptions short and on point, you should also facilitate skimming. 

Mobile eCommerce customers tend to skim content and look for keywords to make purchase decisions. By enabling them to do that, you will increase their odds of making a positive purchase decision. Some of the things you can do to make your product descriptions easy to skim include:

• Using bulleted and numbered lists
• Interspersing paragraphs of text with visuals
• Using numbers, percentages, and empiric values
• Including a table of content at the top of the product description
• Highlighting keywords and phrases related to the product’s benefits

Highlight Satisfied Customers’ Reviews on Product Pages

When it comes to eCommerce purchase recommendations, people trust each other more than they do any other brand or influencer. According to Finances Online, 55% of customers consider customer reviews helpful in making purchase decisions, with 93% reading reviews before making such decisions. Once you’ve outlined your products’ features and benefits, you should also highlight any reviews or testimonials from satisfied customers. Implementing a star rating into your eCommerce store is also helpful, since visual indicators of quality work well for social proof. 

You can also contact existing customers and ask them for images of them using your products in exchange for discounts or freebies. eCommerce stores without social proof will always appear suspicious regardless of any positive word of mouth they might have. Integrate reviews and customer comments into your product descriptions to boost your eCommerce sales even further.

Check Every Product Description Before Posting It

Writing errors can happen in writing product descriptions, and you should act on them before publishing content on your eCommerce storefront. Grammar mistakes, poor formatting, broken links, and other errors can leave a very bad impression on your customers’ eyes. To avoid losing their trust, you should go over your writing at least once before posting it online. Proofread your product descriptions and format them to be as legible as possible. 

Eliminate any unnecessary sentences and go over your selection of SEO keywords. Refer to Google Analytics to make sure that you hit the right SEO requirements for your eCommerce store to rank well internationally. Making sure that there are no writing, formatting, or other technical errors on your website is an ongoing effort. Make it a habit to check on existing content periodically and to iron out upcoming product descriptions as best as you can.

Product Description Writing Mistakes to Avoid to Boost Sales

Before we hand things over to you and let you start writing better product descriptions, it’s worth pointing out some pitfalls to keep in mind. Too much of a good thing (too many keywords, too much text, etc.) can be a bad thing in the end. That’s why these points should be at the back of your mind any time you approach writing and optimizing product descriptions for your online storefront.

• Copy/pasting text between different products, even in the same category, is bad for SEO
• Focusing too much on sales instead of focusing the description on the product’s helpful aspects
• Using hyperbolic marketing terms such as “The best”, “Top tier”, etc. – no product is flawless
• Filling your product descriptions with too many keywords will result in you getting flagged as spam
• Poor quality multimedia (images, videos) will plummet your sales – create high-quality visuals

Over to You

You know why your products are good – put that knowledge into writing to boost your eCommerce sales. Keep your sales pitches short and on point while being personable and professional toward your readers. 

Writing good product descriptions will take some effort but you will quickly discover a unique writing style suitable for your eCommerce store. When that happens, customers will organically gravitate toward your shop and purchase items without your reliance on expensive paid ads or influencer campaigns. Believe in the products you are selling and your passion will show in the descriptions you write for each product.