How to Write E-Commerce Product Descriptions That Convert

E-commerce product descriptions are comparable to movie trailers — short in duration but highly influential to the success of the venture. And just as a poorly-constructed movie trailer can kill a film’s domestic box office take, poorly written product descriptions can turn off customers and diminish sales in no time. Here are a few factors that will help you craft powerful and effective e-commerce product descriptions with a customer focus.

1. Understand Your Target Buyer

Instead of creating a product description that appeals to everyone, it is important to understand the true buying habits and desires of your target customer. Is your average buyer male or female? Tech-savvy or analog? Categorize the general demographic of your target buyer. Then, incorporate language, visuals, and stories that appeal to this demographic and customer focus.

2. Minimize Gimmicks

There’s a time and place to use phrases like “for a limited time only” and “only $19.95.” If you want to use these phrases for your product descriptions, ask yourself what other value your product has. Descriptions that indicate superior quality, high online reviews, and other similar testimonials will help attract the right kind of attention.

3. Capture Buyer’s Imagination

A company that sells barbeques and outdoor cooking accessories could simply list the dimensions, weight, BTUs, and number of burners for each BBQ on the virtual sales floor. However, a more effective way to capture the online shopper’s attention is to show pictures of the BBQ in action, burgers on the grill, meat on the rotisserie, or vegetables getting the perfect char. User-generated content (photos of grilled items, recipes, party photos, etc.) can act as the perfect side dish to your own creative product descriptions.

4. Make your Message Scannable

E-commerce product descriptions shouldn’t look or read like a novel. Yes, you can pack a lot of information into eight paragraphs worth of text. That would likely answer every potential client’s questions along the way, but shoppers will abandon the page once they realize they have to dig deep to learn more. Instead, create short, bullet-pointed lists that deliver high-impact product specs or attributes that entice readers to continue reading beyond the headline.

Always include plenty of white space, boost font sizes, and embed links to social media reviews, posts and relevant pages to help increase appeal. Have more information to share? Include it in your blog posts, whitepapers, and newsletters.

5. Be Informative, Yet Exciting

Whether an e-commerce company sells automotive parts, cake-making supplies, camping stoves, or any other good or service, create excitement around your products and your product content writing. Create compelling product descriptions that are detailed, broadly-appealing (without being generic), and representative of your brand. The trick is to inject your passion for your business or product into your product description.

E-commerce product descriptions can make or break an online retailer’s bottom line results. If you’re serious about your e-commerce site and are ready to delight your customers with product description writing that is compelling, passionate, detailed and educational, consult with a reputable Internet marketing agency to learn how to win more business.