Summary: E-commerce shopping will not yield results till it is supported by apt and engaging product descriptions. Know more about the challenges of not having great e-commerce product descriptions, and how these challenges can be addressed
Reading duration: 5 mins
Who is it for: Online retailers, e-commerce business owner, e-commerce website development agencies.
These days we see lot of e-commerce shopping sites emerging to make shopping a smooth experience. The proliferation of e-commerce has been phenomenal across the globe. While global shipments are expected to surpass a whopping $3.2 trillion of B2C e-commerce, India too is doing very well in terms of growth. Online retail has grown by 57% in a matter of just two years from 2014.
The key reason for this sustained growth story is the phenomenal user experience online retail provides to shoppers. However, this also means an overcrowded marketplace trying to get a bigger slice of the online commerce revenues pie. Hence there is high competition in online space to sustain in the e-commerce industry.
What is needed to build this phenomenal user experience?
Now, to run ecommerce shop efficiently and provide stellar user experience, two things come into picture. One is high-resolution images and the other is the product description. A majority of the eCommerce industry focuses on the first part i.e. on images and somehow, the second part i.e. e-commerce product description writing is getting neglected.
What does this mean for the online retailer?
A less than satisfactory user experience.
A visitor is attracted by the high-resolution images placed on the website. However, due to lack of proper description of the product, the website owner eventually loses the visitor and thus the prospect of online sales.
Problems with insufficient/improper product description
1 – The challenge of insufficient information
For instance, let’s consider a fashion product. The e-commerce website may provide a great high-resolution image. But it might come with just a single line of description –“High quality material dress with work”. The visitor might need more substantial information like
- The type of material it is,
- The kind of work present on the dress
- Wash and care instructions
- Color and material care instructions
Without this important information, the visitor isn’t presented a compelling picture of the product. This poor experience in e-commerce product description content leads to cart abandonment and lost revenues.
2 – The challenge of improper information
Most of the e-commerce portals simply duplicate the manufacturer description, oblivious to the fact that this practice is a strict no-no for Google ranking as well as user experience.
What constitutes a great product description?
Below are the points that any e-commerce site needs to follow to convert any visitors into buyers when it comes to e-commerce product description writing
- Proper description of the product with an elaborate list of specifications, features and benefits.
- It should be unique and sales persuasive to attract a buyer. For this, you need to brainstorm on developing a buyer persona and frame the description to match this persona
- It should be SEO-friendly and plagiarism-free so that the website gets organic traffic.
- The main words or benefits should be in bold for the user to scan quickly and with great effect. Use of lists, different colors, bigger font style, and photography all go hand-in-hand to boost the readability of the description
- Make sure you spell out the benefits to the shoppers/users rather than iterating your strong points. Any point that makes the lives of users easier, better, or convenient needs to be highlighted for better engagement.
Unique e-commerce product description content developed by professional-grade content writing agencies will help increase engagement and subsequent conversion for buyers. It will also help optimize for search engines, and spell out clear benefits without beating around the bush.
