How to Write Compelling eCommerce Product Descriptions

When it comes to effective product description optimization, boring doesn’t sell.  Successful eCommerce vendors know that how you portray your products in your descriptions is just as important as the quality of images or your website’s load time. The dull, generic descriptions often provided by suppliers tend to miss the mark when it comes to grabbing your customers attention- let alone enticing them to buy. If you are looking to create top-quality product descriptions that bring your Shopify store to the next level, we’ve compiled four critical tips worth considering.

Originality is key

Get creative. While it is essential to keep appropriate keywords for search engine users, that does not mean you have to sacrifice originality for optimization. Great e-commerce branding strategies start with creativity and originality. Create descriptions that stand out from your competitors and represent what makes your brand unique. You know your customers better than anyone. Tailor your descriptions to appeal directly to your clientele. Personalization and customization in e-commerce helps to connect your brand with your audience. If your descriptions are the same as most other eCommerce vendors in your niche, you miss out on an opportunity to give customers a reason to see why your product is a clear choice over your competitors.

Make it voice-enabled

“Alexa find…” Voice-enabled searching is changing how people find products,subsequently making a significant impact on eCommerce businesses. E-Commerce growth projections are through the roof, and they aren’t going anywhere. Just look at Amazon, a multi-billion dollar company and the impact they’ve had on online shopping. Think about how you would ask a voice-enabled device about your products and incorporate potential queries into your product description strategy. Having your Shopify mobile optimized is important in today’s day and age. Just take a look at Siri! Integrating the language effectively can lead to effortless matches to your wares.

Utilize sensory vocabulary

The human mind has an incredible ability to connect words to feelings and experiences. Use it to your advantage by allowing your customers to experience your products’ appeal via your descriptions. Get their senses involved and you will engage their minds and imaginations. Let them experience the sumptuousness of your food items and be tempted by the irresistible smells and flavors until they start drooling onto their phones and keyboards. Pictures do wonders but the deep, silky decadence of a dark chocolate trifle can sometimes be lost without a little linguistic encouragement. Similarly, if you are selling clothing, give your buyers an opportunity to feel the texture and quality of the materials slide onto their skin via your word choices. Is it heavy? Satiny? Luxuriously soft? If they can feel themselves wrapped in your wares, your description and products have come alive with nothing but a little time investment.

Social Proof

Aristotle once said, “Man is a social animal” and we are happy to say it holds true even in product description optimizing.  Social proof works wonders in adding intrigue to an item. Is your product a top seller on Amazon or in your online store? Flaunt that fact in your product description! Customers will be curious about what makes your product so fantastic that so many others are hooked by it. They will be encouraged to purchase just because others are so impressed with it.

Don’t believe us? We spoke with Tracy Damas, a product description writer from the high-end, designer fashion site, THE OUTNET.  After her nearly 10 years of sales-oriented writing experience, she can’t stress the importance of engaging copy enough. She writes, “Although there are millions of eCommerce websites that include descriptions that state the bare minimum, the ones that incorporate creative copy with factual information are the ones that pull in the most traffic.” She explains further, “a certain online fashion retailer geared towards teens and young adults can easily sit on the laurels of the multi-billion dollar revenue they earned last year based on product images alone. However, they successfully set themselves apart from other fashion sites by describing their clothing in a way that not only tells them that it is cool but how cool it’d look on you!” Equal parts sales-worthy and informative, the best product descriptions, Ms. Damas declares, are the ones that resonate with buyers long after they’ve clicked on the ‘Purchase’ button in the checkout cart.

The moral of the story? The more effort you put into crafting your product descriptions, the higher your eCommerce ROI (return on investment) will be. It may take longer to create compelling product descriptions but the survival of your online business may depend on your wordsmithing skills. Remember these tips and you’ll be surprised at how your eCommerce store starts to outrun its bland competitors.