Bigcommerce Product Description

There’s no doubt product descriptions can help take your business to the next level, but what should they say? How long should they be? Which format is best? How do you make the products rank high for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Here’s a product description template to follow:

1. Think about the who, what, when, where, why and how before writing

• Who is this product for? The target audience can be gender (i.e. male or female), an age group (i.e. college students or retirees), a lifestyle demographic (i.e. new mothers or car enthusiasts) or some other defined group of people.
• What are the product’s basic details? This includes attributes such as dimensions, materials, product features, cost and functions.
• When should someone use the product? Is it meant to be used during a certain time of day, seasonally or for a specific type of occasion? 
• Where should someone use the product? Is it meant for indoor or outdoor use, for your car or your home?
• Why is this product useful or better than the competition? This can be anything from quality to value to features. Think about the product benefits to your customers and consider how images can complement your product copy.
• How does the product work? This may not be necessary for every product, but it’s a must-have feature if you are selling anything with moving parts or electronics.

2. Determine the best format to describe your products

It might be helpful to use bullet points that cover the most important product details. Bullet points should generally be used for specs (like dimensions) or short phrases (like features) so they are quick and easy to read.

Be a little creative and establish a voice (personality and tone) for your brand. Just imagine you’re at a party, telling someone you’ve just met about the product. How would you describe it so that they would understand how great it truly is?

In fact, following this simple formula below is a great way to writing compelling product descriptions:

[Paragraph(s) of Prose] + [Bulleted List of Specs or Product Features] = [Engaging Product Description]

3. Choose goals and KPIs to measure success of your product descriptions

If you can commit to writing product descriptions using the formula above, you can begin to see a variety of benefits:

• An increase in conversion rate.
• A decrease in cart abandonment.
• A lower return rate.
• Fewer calls from shoppers.
• Improved organic search rankings.

4. Make your product descriptions short and sweet

Use conversational paragraph-long descriptions to engage fans and ideal customers as well as quick bullet points with need-to-know specs to concisely convey the most important information.

5. Use storytelling to your advantage

Does your product have a backstory that’s particularly special to you? Use that story in your product description to add more character to your item, engage your audience and win hearts and minds.

6. Don’t be afraid to boast

Here’s how you take the product description formula above one step further. Is your product differentiated through a founder’s expertise? Is your product better because of years of testing? Is it hand-crafted? Does it get strong social proof with testimonials and product reviews?

Call that out!

7. Get technical to win trust when needed

If you have a more technical product, don’t be afraid to get in the weeds with your product description. Prove to your customer your brand’s expertise in the industry by providing all possible details they’d need to know before they ever even have to ask.

8. Know when to show and not tell

Text isn’t always the best way to describe your product. If you are getting too wordy, think about how you can simplify.

9. Know when to show, tell and describe

Other than graphics, videos can be an effective way to showcase how to use a product or why it is better than others. Many brands use videos, graphics and text to drive the point home.

10. Don’t be afraid to be unique

Every industry and online business is unique. 

Example: