How many times have you been searching online for the perfect doodah, but when you get to it, you can’t quite decide if it’s the right one?

I was looking for beeswax to make my own beeswax wraps (as you do in a coronavirus pandemic) and went to many websites reading their product descriptions wondering which one to buy. Each company blurb and image looked like the same product, with varying price ranges. There’s not much to say about beeswax …but is there?

I eventually decided to buy one, still unsure whether I had chosen the ‘right’ one, as I wasn’t confident in what I had read and felt like I had guessed.

Afterwards, I had a good think about the process I had gone through – why did I buy that product from that company? I looked at the differences and realised the product description was the standout from the crowd. This company’s product description gave me more information about the product than the others.

Writing good product descriptions has never been so important

The coronavirus effect on online businesses

Early statistics are finding that consumers are buying more and more online as governments put in measures to stop the spread of coronavirus - retail store closures and restrictions are placed on people movements to encourage them to stay at home.

Quantum Metric, a US predictive retail analytics firms conducted a study of 5.5 billion anonymous and aggregated US based consumer retailer visits, both on the web and on mobile from Jan 1, 2019 through to Feb 29,2020. It found that US based retailers with both brick and mortar and ecommerce channels experienced a 52% revenue growth rate online between the fifth and eight weeks of 2020 (27 Jan to 23 Feb). This is the period when the coronavirus began its rapid spread outside of Asia.

What’s more enlightening in these findings is many more of the online shoppers who visited the websites made a purchase. This analysis found an 8.8% increase in conversion rates, compared with the same period the previous year.

Looking at why people buy will help you write good product descriptions that sell.

The psychology of shopping

In a retail situation, studies have shown that when a shopper picks up and holds a product, their longing for ownership increases.

As an e-commerce business, think of your product descriptions as the equivalent of the customer picking up the product, looking, feeling and imagining how they are going to use it.

The shoppers are at your website, now get them to buy

You’ve done the research to find the keywords your customers may be using to find a product like this and paid attention to SEO in terms of urls, number of words in the description length and alt tags. This blog isn’t about this.

You now need to spend time and invest in writing good product descriptions.

This blog is about writing product descriptions that sell, they go beyond stating the obvious or purely describing the product.

Here is what you need to write good product descriptions that get into your shoppers head space and imagination to make them press that ‘buy now’ button.

1. Don’t copy and paste from your suppliers or manufacturers product descriptions

Why? Because every company selling the same or similar products are doing that. Tempting as it may be when you have hundreds, even thousands of products, however, it is worth the investment to create and write your own.

The manufacturers product descriptions are simply not written to suit your buyers.

Have a good think about who will be purchasing the product. What are they looking for in the product? Will the manufacturers product description satisfy their needs and the information they want to know about the product?

Manufacturers product descriptions are boring. All they do is state the features and no compelling description about the product or its use. They add no worth, nothing that the image doesn’t. In addition, they are not optimised for SEO either.

If you are still not convinced about the value of not copying the manufacturers product descriptions, think about this. Search engines want fresh, original content. They will rank new, professional product description copy higher than replicated ones. Google is continually improving its algorithm to recognise copied content or content scraping - they know when product descriptions have been copied.

Not only will they prevent good rankings, product descriptions that are copied from elsewhere, will also penalize your website. Simply, don’t do it.

Creating original content is worth the time and investment.

Have a think about this if your target market is Millennials - 62% of Millennial online shoppers feel that content drives brand loyalty. Do you think your product descriptions live up to the Millennials need for compelling content?

2. Give them ideas on how to use the product

In your product description give them different ideas of how to use the product.

By doing this you are encouraging the shopper to imagine using the item. And if they can imagine using it, research has found that this increases their perception of ownership. If they can find many uses for a product, they will be more inclined to buy it.

This is especially important in non-essential or luxury purchases. The different uses for the product help the shopper justify the purchase because the product becomes so much more.

Some examples include, adding a jumper to a dress, turns it into a winter dress. They now have one purchase which can be used over two seasons. Or perhaps, they didn’t really like the dress for summer but love it as a winter dress. The dress now has added appeal.

A vase that can be used for flowers as well as a fruit or serving bowl. Perhaps they didn’t really like it as a vase but hey, they can now see themselves serving their favourite salad in it.

In these days of tight consumer budgets, by providing them with lots of uses for one product, may just be the push they need to click on the buy now button!

Emotions and feelings play a decisive role in purchasing.

"In four studies, we find that merely touching an object increases the feelings of ownership a person has for the object. This, in turn, results in a person being willing to pay more for most objects that they touch versus objects that they cannot touch," the authors write. "We also find that when touch is unavailable, such as shopping online, having people imagine owning a product increases their perception of ownership and how much they are willing to pay for a product."

Here is a great example of a client’s product description showing different styling for the same black marble basin to increase the number of purchasers.

As colour is important in renovating a bathroom, this product description also describes the colour and patterning of the black marble, so shoppers can match the basin to their other bathroom products. I have also included the look and feel of a bathroom with a black sink, so they can picture themselves in their newly renovated bathroom.

Different styling ideas for the basin are included as well, so if the shopper loved the black basin but didn’t know how to incorporate it with the rest of the bathroom, well, there’s plenty of ideas in the copy!

3. Go above and beyond the information they want and need in great product descriptions

Add more information about the product that may be useful in the buying decision. Describe the pattern, texture, smell and feel of the product, any of the outstanding senses of the product. These are all the sensory elements that are lost online.

Again, they want to know more about the product than you think as the shopper may have never seen it.

Describe the colour. Say for example, you are getting a lot of questions about the type of red in a cushion you are selling, this is the time to add what kind of red it is – is it fire engine red, orangey red or a blue red – tell them.

Add dimensions of the product even if it is not important like it is for furnishings and furniture. Sometimes it is hard to determine how small or big the product is from the image, especially if there are no other reference points. Buyers may have a different perception so when they receive the product may be disappointed with it – and we don’t want disappointed buyers.

When you are writing your product descriptions pretend you are trying to describe the product to someone with a blind fold on. This should help you to focus on the important and standout aspects of each product.

In the example of my purchase of beeswax to make beeswax wraps, the product description that finally made me click buy now, gave me lots of ideas of all the different types of beeswax wraps I can make. Small, large, colourful fabric, there was something in this information that sparked my imagination and excitement!

Ready to write good product descriptions?

You’ve researched and set up your website to get traffic and buyers to your website. Don’t have your product descriptions let you down. Your product description should make the reader forget they are being sold to. It should be descriptive so the reader can imagine using the product, and it should be SEO friendly. If your product description ticks all these boxes, you’re good to go!

It’s not easy and you may need help writing good product descriptions. Contact me now and let’s see how you can capitalise on the spike in online shopping and prosper.

Not confident as a copywriter?

Here’s some tips that will make a huge difference in making your product description easier to read, interesting and one that keeps your reader engaged, right to the end - and click ‘buy now’.