How Product Descriptions Lead to an Increase in Conversions

How do you write product descriptions that boost conversions without overpromising? 

Many eCommerce stores don’t have the answer to this question, so they end up creating cheesy, dull, or misinformative info content. According to the report, 40% of consumers have returned an online purchase because of poor product content.

If you want to increase sales and protect brand reputation, you have to do better than that.

A well-planned product description can make all the difference between you and your competitors. In this post, you will see:

• The basics of product descriptions
• Benefits of writing quality product description 
• Key industry stats 
• How AX Semantics can help you write product descriptions
• Practical tips on writing product descriptions
• The don’ts of this process
• Examples of good and bad product descriptions

We have a long way ahead of us, so let’s dive straight into the topic.

What Is a Product Description?

A product description is a short, persuasive text that attempts to persuade potential buyers of the benefits of a product. It usually includes the product features, benefits, and specifications.

A good description should convince potential buyers to purchase the product. It has to be clear, concise, and engaging. At the same time, it must accurately reflect the product, so there are no surprises once the customer receives it.

A typical eCommerce product description should be like this:

• Clear and concise: No one wants to read a 15-page product description. You should keep it as short as possible, stating the most important facts, technical details, and benefits.
• Informative: Your customers want to learn the basic product features. That’s the main purpose of product descriptions, so remember to keep them informative and up-to-the-point.
• Able to solve problems: People purchase different items because they need to solve a particular problem. When writing product descriptions, you need to address user issues and explain how it solves practical problems.
• Readable: Do you see how we write this blog post? We use bullet points, short paragraphs, and bolded words to break up the text. That’s also how product descriptions must be: easy to read and well-structured.
• Stylish: They might seem dull, but product descriptions can also reflect your company's style.

Take this billiger.de’s product description as an example. They put in hints, pros and cons, a summary about the product in one sentence, and they explain all the features like a salesperson would do in a store— it’s in German, but you get the point based on the structure.

You can read everything quickly and get answers to typical questions about the product, and the writing style is professional.

Sales Benefits of Writing Product Descriptions

Product descriptions lead to an increase in conversions because they influence customers in many ways. We can identify multiple benefits of well-written product content that often help companies boost profit.

1. Improve Discoverability Through SEO

Online stores launch marketing activities before their clients actually visit the website. We know this part of the game as search engine optimization (SEO), a feature critical for the discoverability of an eCommerce business.

A report reveals that the first five organic results account for almost 70% of all the clicks. If you write product descriptions using the right keywords, you can drastically improve your position in engine searches. It will bring you more website visitors and, ultimately, more conversions. 

2. Provide Product-Related Information

A good description must contain accurate product-related information. Your job is to confirm that online searchers have found the product they were looking for. Don’t leave room for interpretations—customers get confused quickly, so you have to write sharply and precisely. 

3. Minimize Bounce Rates

The last thing you want is to successfully attract potential customers only to see them bounce after a few seconds. That’s precisely what happens when the online store writes product descriptions that don’t match user intent. 

High bounce rates will jeopardize website reputation and ranking, which means you have to craft content that glues readers to your pages. You can only achieve this if you master product description writing.

4. Help Users Create a Mental Image

The main advantage of traditional retailers is the ability to showcase their products to the customers. On the other hand, eCommerce stores have to describe products to help users create a good mental image.

The goal is to combine product descriptions with images and videos to make your products feel tangible and real. If you do it right, users are more likely to end up buying your items. 

5. Use Descriptions to Evoke Emotions

Who says product descriptions have to be dry and dull? If you sell unique brands with alternative marketing strategies, feel free to take advantage of it! Don’t be afraid of being a bit creative in product descriptions if it suits the brand's overall style.

6. Product Descriptions Help You Stand Out

Finally, great product descriptions help you stand out from competitors. They allow eCommerce stores to prove they are different and better than other companies in the same niche. 

You should identify common pain points to write unique product descriptions. Website visitors will notice that you pay attention to their needs, so they’ll reward you with regular purchases.

Key Industry Facts and Stats

The impact of product descriptions on eCommerce sales results is evident, but we want to support the claims with evidence. After all, it is necessary to make your content marketing decisions based on real-world data. 

Many industry facts and stats show the overwhelming influence of writing product descriptions.

• More than 80% of users conduct online research before purchasing a product.
• Nearly 90% of consumers rate product content extremely or very important when deciding to buy.

• Another study claims that 64% of users return online purchases due to poorly written product descriptions.
• That is precisely why almost 80% of customers demand free return shipping.

All those facts prove one thing—you can’t afford to write lousy product descriptions. If you don’t pay attention to this aspect of content marketing, it will backfire quickly. Your website bounce rate will spike, sales will drop, and your reputation will deteriorate.

How Can AX Semantics Help You Write Better Product Descriptions?

Most companies can write a few high-quality product descriptions, but what about hundreds or thousands? Writing product descriptions at scale is extremely challenging, especially if you do it manually. 

But there is a more efficient solution: AX Semantics. 

Our tool uses Natural Language Generation (NLG) to automate content writing. This product description generator does almost all the work for you. The process results in unique product descriptions that search engines and readers will love.

How Come? 

The platform relies on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide automated content creation. The most often used part of the tool is the automated content generation based on structured product data from an external data source like a PIM system. It does it in three steps:

1. Upload Your Data

Upload data from your PIM system or another source, such as product features and information, to create the information basis for your content.

2. Configure Your Rules

Implement your preferred product description project and specify how your uploaded data will appear and be understood in the texts (for example, tonality).

3. Generate Creative Product Descriptions

The last step is pretty simple. At the stroke of a button, you can generate thousands of individual texts for all of your data records. You are free to change and refresh your content as frequently as you desire!

Now that we have the automated content generation part explained, let’s see how the personalization part of the tool works since that topic is relatively new and abstract to individuals.

It leverages real-time user data to generate content tailored to each website visitor. The system analyzes multiple parameters to make content-related decisions:

• Product visits (recurring visits in particular)
• Customer status
• Last page views
• Time and location
• Shopping basket status
• Local history
• Other behavioral data

This is a critical feature because 80% of consumers are more likely to purchase when brands offer personalized experiences. More importantly, studies show that 72% of consumers only engage with marketing messages that are customized to their specific interests. 

AX Semantics crafts product descriptions using a four-step process. It begins with data gathering, so the program can understand how and why your website visitors behave in a certain way.  

The second step is data analytics, a process in which the Metrics system identifies content objectives. The goal is to create hyper-personalized content that matches the needs of each user individually. Instead of generic content, you get thousands of unique product descriptions.

The third step is the actual content generation. Our platform does everything in real-time, responding to the requests and interests of your website visitors. The last step is to display content, so your customers can enjoy the on-site personalized text.

The best thing about AX Semantics is that you can use performance analytics. That way, you will learn how unique product descriptions influence customers and your sales results.

10 Tips For Writing Persuasive Product Descriptions

Do you think you can do better than AX Semantics? That’s ok; we’re still here to give you a hand! Some tricks can help you become a better product description writer. We picked the top 10 tips that can lead to excellent descriptions for your eCommerce portfolio. 

1. Understand the Target Audience

Every product has a typical buyer with an entire set of needs, interests, and characteristics. Your job is to understand the target audience for each product in the portfolio. That is one way you can approach audience analytics:

• Demographics: It includes personal features like gender, income level, education etc. 
• Psychographics: This segment includes strictly individual traits like beliefs, mindset, personality, etc.    
• Purchasing habits: The history of purchases can tell you a lot about your customers. 
• Location: Where does your ideal buyer live? This is important because people from different regions usually have other interests and cultural differences. 

Crafting superior product descriptions will be much easier if you figure everything out.

2. Learn 5W+H About the Product

Are you aware of the basic 5W+H formula in journalism? A simple rule tells you to answer the most important questions: Who does what, where, when, why, and how? 

As it turns out, you can apply the same formula to product description writing. Who is this product for? What are its key features? Where do you sell it? When does a customer use it? Why would they buy it? How can they use the product? 

You need to answer all these questions in your product descriptions. If you do it properly, rest assured everyone will have a clear idea of what you are trying to sell. 

3. Take Advantage of Power Words

Some words are more powerful than others, especially in digital marketing. When you write product descriptions, remember to take advantage of the so-called power words. We are talking about expressions such as:

• Special, unique, astonishing
• Free, cheap, incredible 
• Economical, instant, in record time

These and many other power words are influential because they evoke feelings and trigger emotional responses. Copywriters who use potent words are more likely to convince potential buyers to take action. To put it simply, power words help you boost conversions with product descriptions.

4. Use Product Descriptions to Strengthen SEO

You can’t grow conversions if no one can find your store online. That’s why product descriptions only work well in pair with SEO. Apart from using the most popular keywords, you should test additional tactics:

• Keep your texts natural and avoid keyword stuffing
• Try to find keywords with high frequency but low competition 
• Optimize headings and subheadings
• Add meaningful tags wherever applicable

Sometimes a slight variation in your SEO tactic can make a big difference. Don’t be afraid of experimenting until you find the right formula for all descriptions.

5. Point Out the Benefits

Most retailers go too technical with their product descriptions, but you shouldn’t forget to highlight the benefits. What’s in it for the actual user? Does your product solve a critical pain point? How? 

Remember to answer these questions because that’s what the average buyer wants to find out through the product description. 

6. Mind the Structure And Formatting

The structure of a product description is essential. Even the finest piece of copywriting can’t make a difference if you compress everything into a single chunk of text. 

The first rule is to break up the text into smaller segments. Secondly, use bullet points to improve readability and help users skim through the description quickly. We also encourage you to bold important words or phrases—it helps them stand out from the rest of your content. 

And don’t be afraid of using whitespace. It is simply the space between text, graphics, images, and blocks. Whitespace allows you to create a clear distinction between certain parts of the content, making it more readable. 

7. Go Easy With Superlatives

How often have you heard businesses marketing products are the best or the most efficient? Did you believe them? You can rarely find a product that can be named the best in any category. That’s why we don’t recommend using superlatives in product descriptions.

The only reasonable solution is to use superlatives you can confirm. For instance, your product might be the smallest in the niche, so you can mention it in the description. However, make sure to provide evidence and clarify dimensions—it will sound more credible and convincing.

8. Add Social Proof

According to the report, social proof and testimonials can increase conversion rates on sales pages by 34%. If you have excellent user reviews, feel free to mention them in product descriptions. Take AX Semantics as an example:

• Our software scores 4.3/5 on G2
• Cuspera gives it a score of 4.37
• At the same time, the program earned a reputable 93 out of 100 on Think Big Analytics 

If your products have similar user reviews, don’t hesitate to add them to the product content. It’s strong social proof, and it convinces customers that your product is trustworthy.  

9. Tell A Story

Stories are a highly efficient copywriting tool because they give the audience something to relate to. A good story usually describes a problem that your target audience is going through. Of course, the point is to tell them how your product helps solve the problem.

A good story doesn’t even have to be too long. On the contrary, a sentence or two is usually enough to engage the audience and convince them to keep reading a product description.

Huggies starts all of its product descriptions with an engaging line. The tactic is simple, but it works great because parents can relate to those little stories.

10. Combine Text With Other Content Formats

A picture is worth a thousand words. Although ancient, this statement remains valid and applicable. The best product pages combine text with images to provide users with a complete picture. 

You can also add a video to support product pages, but only if it’s high-quality. Together, these three content formats will help users learn everything about a product without seeing it in person.

The Don’ts of Creating Product Content

There are some things you just cannot allow when writing a product description. Common copywriting mistakes will skyrocket bounce rates and lower your conversion rates. That’s why you need to remember the don’ts of creating product content.

Don’t Make it Too Extensive

Copywriters with a clear idea of what they want to say will never make a lengthy product description. The purpose of this task is to focus on important features and benefits. On the other hand, long product-related pages only show that you are unaware of its main advantages. 

Don’t Use Buzzwords And Tech Jargon

Some people like to show off by using complicated terms and phrases. That’s not the right thing to do with product descriptions. Why not? 

Well, keep in mind that the average customer is not an expert in your field of work. Don’t bother your clients with buzzwords and industry jargon unless you are selling high-tech gear.

Don’t Forget to Give Solutions to The Problem

How does your product solve a practical problem? That’s one of the most important questions you need to answer in product descriptions. Customers want to know the practical capabilities of your products, so don’t forget to explain solutions.

Don’t Exaggerate 

We already discussed the drawbacks of using superlatives, but this tip goes beyond that. You should never exaggerate and promise something your products can’t fulfill. The tactic will backfire and give you lots of negative reviews if you do that.

Product Description Examples

We already talked about how to write great product descriptions, but it’s important to see a few examples as well. We picked a couple of good and bad examples of product content writing.

This content is an excellent example of how to write product descriptions. The headline is clear and concise, containing the necessary keywords for effortless discovery. Besides that, you can see the key characteristics through readable bullet points.

But it’s not just about basic information. On the contrary, you can also learn about the benefits such as versatility, functionality, and stylish features. Paired with lots of images, this product description is up-to-the-point and convincing.

Contrary to the previous example, we have a no-so-good product description of a lunch box. Although informative, this product content sample is bad because it’s too long and monolithic.

A considerable portion of the text doesn’t look good, and we can imagine visitors leaving this page right away. The brand doesn’t even bold keywords, so nothing really stands out here.

There are a few bullet points, but that’s not enough to successfully break up such a large piece of text. Our advice is to keep your bulletins shorter, leaving no more than two or three lines for one bullet point.

This Moto G Play description is another example of well-written product content. We love how the brand focuses on common pain points such as battery life, camera, and compatibility. After all, average users are very likely to pay attention to these features. 

At the same time, the description has a smooth structure that leaves no room for confusion or misinterpretation. You can skim through the content within seconds and still figure out the most important product features.

We would probably call it lazy if we had to use one word to describe the second example of poor product content. Apart from providing technical details about the seat or brand, you can hardly find other relevant information about this bike. 

To make things worse, products like bicycles for children give you a lot of ideas to work with. You can use a friendly tone to address parents—who are likely to purchase this item—and tell a heart-melting story about kids and bikes. In this case, we’ve seen none of it.

Conclusion

If you thought writing high-converting product descriptions was easy, you’ve probably changed your mind after reading this post. This is especially true for an online store with thousands of items requiring standout descriptions. 

That’s why we encourage you to test AX Semantics for free.

Our platform will help you create hyper-personalized product descriptions at scale. Even better, you get to automate the process and minimize content writing costs along the way. 

The alternative solution is to follow our tips and write product descriptions independently. Just remember—they have to be concise, convincing, and actionable to boost conversions. 

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