How To Write a Product Description (Examples + Template)

Product descriptions convert browsers into buyers. When written well, they boost your store’s conversion rate, increase perceived value, and make customers willing to pay more for your products.

In this guide, you’ll learn 10 essential techniques for writing descriptions that sell, get a ready-to-use template, and discover how to optimize your product pages for search engines and mobile shoppers.

What is a product description?

A product description is marketing copy that explains what a product is and why it’s worth buying. The best ones don’t just describe what makes the product special, but tell a clear, compelling story about it, persuading customers to make a purchase.

Product descriptions can vary in length, style, and format. If you’ve established a strong brand voice, it’s best to stay consistent by writing your product descriptions in your brand’s unique voice as well.

Product descriptions appear on product detail pages (PDPs), category pages, marketplaces like Amazon, and anywhere you showcase items for sale.

What makes a good product description?

A well-crafted product description can significantly impact sales, customer satisfaction, and brand reputation by doing three key jobs at once: qualifying the right customers, persuading them of value, and surfacing in search results when shoppers look for products like yours.

• It informs customers about product details, such as features, uses, and benefits. This helps shoppers quickly understand what the product is, who it’s for, and how it works—filtering out poor-fit buyers while attracting the right ones.
• It convinces customers of the product’s value. This is where the persuasive power of a product description comes into play. It answers questions like, “What problem does this solve?” and “What makes it better than the competition?” while proactively addressing common purchase hesitations, such as price, fit, quality, or ease of use.

By addressing these points, a good product description paints a clear picture of a product’s value proposition. It highlights the unique benefits and advantages that set a product apart from its competitors.

Good product descriptions move buyers through a sales funnel, turning them from interested browsers to motivated buyers, making them more likely to hit the Buy button.

How to write compelling product descriptions that sell (with examples)

Many online stores list the features of their products and call it a day. While clear information about your items is important, you also need to tell people how a product can help them. 

These 10 techniques turn basic product information into descriptions that drive sales:

1. Speak to your ideal customer
2. Highlight benefits, not features
3. Avoid generic phrases
4. Support superlatives with facts
5. Feed customers’ imagination
6. Tell your product’s story
7. Use sensory language
8. Add social proof
9. Make descriptions scannable
10. Set and measure KPIs
11. Optimize product descriptions for SEO

1. Speak to your ideal customer

When product descriptions are written with a broad audience in mind, they can become vague and fail to resonate.

To make your descriptions engaging, speak directly and personally to your target audience. Anticipate and answer product-related questions as if you were having a one-on-one conversation, using language and terminology that resonates with your ideal customer. That includes using the word “you.”

As you write a description, anticipate what might make your ideal customer hesitate. If they’re unsure about whether it will fit their routine, explain who it’s designed for. If durability or quality is a concern, show what it’s made of and how it holds up over time. Weaving answers to common objections into your descriptions removes friction from the buying decision

Take a look at how The Oodie, an apparel retailer, harnesses this approach in the product description for its I Love Plants Oodie.

I Love Plants Oodie product description:

“Can’t stop buying plants? Unbeleafable. Don’t worry—us too! Cover yourself in your favourite obsession in our NEW I Love Plants Oodie! For every I Love Plants Oodie sold, one tree is planted across the world.”

When writing product descriptions for your ecommerce business, start by visualizing your ideal customer. What kind of tone do they appreciate? What vocabulary are they familiar with? Are there certain words they dislike? What questions might they have?

Think about how you would communicate with your ideal customer if you were selling your product face-to-face in a physical store. Then, try to incorporate that language into your ecommerce site. This approach can help create an online conversation that resonates more deeply with your customers, making them feel understood.

2. Highlight benefits, not features

While it’s natural to be excited about the unique features of your products, potential buyers are more interested in how those product attributes will benefit them. They want to understand how your product will solve their problems or enhance their lives.

Writing an effective product description, therefore, requires highlighting the benefits of each feature—addressing any uncertainty or cognitive bias around the helpfulness of your product. A good example of this approach comes from Dr. Squatch, a company that sells natural soaps for men.

Pine Tar soap product description:

“Made with real pine extract, this all-star bar is as tough as a freshly cut bat. A true MVP of the shower, this heavy-hitter knocks out grime with its gritty composition and ultra-manly, woodsy scent. Toss in the exfoliating oatmeal and the super-soothing shea butter, and you’ve got a bullpen of natural ingredients that will strike out any stink.”

Dr. Squatch’s product page places the ingredients list of its Pine Tar soap on a hidden tab, choosing instead to lead with a description, which paints a vivid picture of the experience of using the product.

The description suggests that the soap performs its function (to clean) in a way that’s specifically suited to its target customer (men looking for a natural-yet-heavy-duty bathroom product). 

When writing product descriptions, consider the benefits of each product feature. How can your product make your customers’ lives better, easier, or more enjoyable? What problems does your product solve? Remember, you’re not selling a product—you’re selling an experience. 

For each feature, ask: “So what?” The answer reveals the benefit. A “coconut-derived surfactant” becomes “gentle enough for your face yet strong enough for everywhere else.”

Dr. Squatch’s description also uses a brand-relevant extended metaphor (baseball) and overtly masculine adjectives (“tough,” “woodsy,” and “gritty”) to appeal to its target audience. Fine-tuning your copywriting in this way can help your product resonate.

3. Avoid generic phrases

When you’re unsure what to say about a product, writing descriptions can get challenging. It’s tempting to resort to general, overused phrases such as “effective” or “high quality.” However, clichés fail to impress potential buyers. They’ve heard these claims before, and they don’t provide unique or persuasive information about your product.

To avoid generic language, use specific, credibility-building power words that show proof and outcomes:

• Instead of “high quality,” use concrete descriptors like “hand-stitched,” “triple-tested,” or “sourced from small-batch producers.”
• Instead of “effective,” spell out the result: “removes 99% of buildup,” “lasts through 50 washes,” or “visible results in just two weeks.”

Take Beardbrand, for example. Instead of making broad claims about the effectiveness of its products, it provides detailed reasons why its Best Sellers Bundle is so popular.

Beardbrand Best Sellers Bundle product description:

“A do-it-all beard wash, hair shampoo, face wash, and body wash in a massive 14 oz. bottle. Formulated with hydrating, coconut-derived surfactants, this wash is gentle enough for your beard, hair, and face yet strong enough to wash everywhere else.

“Life is hard; soften up with this do-it-all beard and hair conditioner featuring an ultra-moisturizing punch of coconut oil and shea butter. Utility Softener doubles down as a hydrating shave lotion that helps reduce razor burn and irritation.

“An award-winning blend of jojoba, abyssinian, castor, and babassu oils makes Utility Oil the only oil you’ll ever need. Use this lightweight, moisturizing blend as a beard oil, hair oil, skin moisturizer, face serum, and pre/post-shave oil.

“Finish off your grooming routine with Styling Paste—a medium hold, satin finish styling aide for hair and beard. It locks in your look while leaving hair soft, flexible, and touchable for a natural, flowing, and reshapable style.”

Detailed descriptions like these serve multiple purposes. First, they add credibility to your products. By explaining the specific benefits of each product, you show potential customers that you know your products well and believe in their value.

Second, detailed descriptions help customers visualize how they’ll use the products. By painting a clear picture of the product experience, you help customers understand exactly what they’re buying and why it’s worth their investment.

Lastly, detailed product descriptions build trust. When you can speak with authority about the granular attributes of your products, customers are more likely to trust your brand.

💡 Once a product description has enticed a customer, Beardbrand uses a subscription model to generate recurring revenue from them.

4. Support superlatives with facts

Superlatives can sound insincere in product descriptions—unless they are substantiated with clear evidence. If you claim your product is the best, the easiest, or the most advanced, you need to provide specific reasons why.

An example of this product-writing technique can be seen in the product description for Casper’s Snow mattress.

Casper Snow mattress product description:

“A memory foam bed that actually sleeps cool. A cooling hybrid mattress that doesn’t quit. Designed with conforming memory foam and encased coils for support, plus Snow Technology for 12+ hours of cooler sleep."

While Casper makes the bold claim that its product can provide more than 12 hours of cooler sleep, it backs up the rhetoric with factual evidence. The product description explains how Casper’s cooling technology works. Additionally, Casper offers a 100-day free trial period to show confidence in its product and allow customers to verify the claim for themselves.

If your product really is the best in its category, provide specific proof. Otherwise, tone down your product copy—or quote a customer who can provide a positive subjective opinion.

5. Feed customers’ imagination

In a physical store, customers can pick up products, try them on, and imagine owning them. Online, you need copywriting techniques that create that same sense of ownership.

But how do you recreate that feeling when customers can’t physically interact with your products? High-quality product photography and videos can help—but there’s also a powerful ecommerce copywriting technique to increase desire: Let your reader imagine what it would be like to own your product.

Notice how Todd Snyder applies aspirational content, in the form of a tagline and hero image, to promote its Spring clothing collection.

Clothing collection tagline:

“Dreaming of the Amalfi.”

Todd Snyder transports website visitors to Italy’s Amalfi Coast—a place associated with luxury, relaxation, and classic style. The image helps link Todd Snyder’s clothing collection to the dreamy lifestyle you’d find in this famous Italian region.

To practice this copywriting technique, start a paragraph with the word “Imagine” and finish it by explaining how your readers will feel when they own your product. Then, use what you’ve generated to write an aspirational tagline in your brand’s voice.

Let’s say you’re selling an espresso machine called the Barista Pro. First, you might create this scenario:

Imagine stepping into your kitchen, the sun peeking through the windows. You pull a perfect cup of coffee from your Barista Pro and experience the rich aroma of a freshly brewed latte. You feel satisfied and energized.

From that scenario, you can craft a product tagline:

Start each day with an extra shot of joy.

6. Tell your product’s story

One effective way to create engaging product descriptions is to tell the story of your product. A well-crafted narrative can make your product more relatable and memorable, helping it stand out in a crowded marketplace.

A product’s story can include the inspiration behind its creation, the challenges faced during its development, or the impact it has had on customers since launch.

When crafting a product story, consider the following:

• What inspired the creation of the product?
• What challenges were faced during development?
• How does the product reflect your brand’s values or mission?
• What impact has the product had on customers’ lives?

The story doesn’t have to be lengthy. A single sentence about why you created a product or who it’s designed for can transform a generic description into something memorable. 

7. Use sensory language

Sensory language refers to words that describe how we experience the world: how things taste, smell, look, feel, and sound. By using sensory words in your product descriptions, you can help customers imagine what it’s like to own your product.

When you use sensory language in your product descriptions, you’re not just making your products sound more appealing—you’re also engaging more of your customers’ brains. 

As you’re writing your own product descriptions, think about how your product engages the senses. Whether it’s the “crisp” sound of a new keyboard, the “smooth” feel of a luxury fabric, or the “tart” flavor of a fresh fruit, sensory language can make your product descriptions more engaging. 

Sensory words help bridge the gap between browsing online and experiencing a product in person. Think beyond visual descriptions and tap into other senses:

• Texture: velvety, crisp, cushioned.
• Sound: whisper-quiet, satisfying click.
• Scent: woodsy, citrus-bright, freshly roasted.

8. Add social proof

When potential customers are unsure about buying a product, they often look for advice from trusted sources. While you can provide reassurance through high-quality product descriptions and other on-page tactics, you can’t be a neutral third-party.

This is where customer reviews and industry testimonials come in. Social proof is the idea that people are influenced by others’ actions or opinions. Examples of social proof include a comments section, customer reviews, quotes from professional critics and review sites, or mentions from mainstream newspapers and industry magazines.

Athletic wear brand Gymshark includes detailed customer reviews on each product page. They go beyond a traditional star rating system by including six relevant and easily understandable review criteria, such as “comfort” and “squat proof.”

Asking customers to review specific product features is a simple, effective way to show that you understand what your customers care about.

If you don’t have enough customers to host an active review section, consider allocating some of your marketing budget to sponsored content about your product in a relevant, well-known publication.

You could also consider adding a Q&A section to product pages where customers can ask questions and see answers from your team or other buyers. These real conversations address concerns that your description might miss.

At the very least, include images of people using your products to create the impression that your product is popular and trusted. Seeing others use and enjoy a product can reassure potential customers that they’re making a good choice.

9. Make descriptions scannable

Does your website design encourage visitors to read your product descriptions?

Consider how Kettle & Fire presents its product information. The brand uses eye-catching icons, simple dropdown tabs, and bullet points to make the content easy to scan.

Visitors can quickly scroll through the page and understand pricing, key benefits, ingredients, usage recommendations, customer reviews, and the brand’s values, all within a few seconds.

Kettle & Fire also organizes information based on what customers care about most. Different categories of information are separated by contrasting background colors, providing an instant visual guide.

Keeping your product descriptions clear and easy to scan makes them more reader-friendly and appealing to potential customers.

Here are some visual ideas to make your descriptions more scannable:

• Use headlines. Grab your visitor’s attention with compelling headlines.
• Use bullet points. Break up information into easy-to-read bullet points.
• Use white space. Don’t be afraid of white space. It can make your content easier to digest.
• Use a readable font size. Using a bigger font size can improve readability.
• Use high-quality product images. Well-designed and placed images can convey a lot of information quickly.

Write for mobile shoppers

A significant portion of ecommerce traffic comes from mobile devices, but product descriptions are often written on desktop screens. And what looks like a tight paragraph on your laptop can become a wall of text on your customer’s phone screen.

• Keep paragraphs to two to three sentences max for comfortable mobile reading.
• Front-load important information—mobile shoppers scroll quickly.
• Test your descriptions on a phone before publishing.
• Use expandable sections for detailed specs that desktop users may want, but mobile users can skip.
• Ensure your most compelling benefit appears above the fold on mobile.

10. Set and measure KPIs

The aim of a product description is to convince a shopper to buy. But how can you tell if your descriptions are doing their job?

Here are some common key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor on your product pages. They can indicate whether your product descriptions are working:

• Conversion rate tells you how many page visitors you converted into leads or customers.
• Cart abandonment rate shows how many shoppers put an item in their cart but left without buying. All stores deal with cart abandonment, but if this KPI is poor, your product descriptions and checkout process may need some work.
• Return rate highlights how many products are being returned. If it’s high, it could mean that your product descriptions or images aren’t accurately representing your products.
• Support inquiries. If you’re getting lots of questions about a product through email or a live chat feature, it could mean that the product description isn’t clear.
• Organic search engine rankings directly correlate with the amount of traffic entering your website. Good product descriptions help with search engine optimization and make your products show up in search results, leading to more visitors and sales.

What counts as good performance? While benchmarks vary by industry, tracking these metrics over time helps you identify which descriptions need improvement:

• Compare your conversion rates month over month to spot trends.
• If cart abandonment is rising, descriptions may not be closing the sale.
• High return rates often signal a mismatch between description and reality.
• Track which products generate the most pre-purchase questions—those descriptions likely need work.

Set up analytics to track these metrics by product, not just store-wide. A single underperforming description can drag down your overall numbers, and product-level data helps you identify which pages need attention.

Once you’ve picked which KPIs you want to watch, consider running some tests to see if you can optimize your product descriptions. A popular type of test used to iterate descriptions is A/B testing. This involves making a new version of your product description and serving it to a subset of your audience, allowing you to compare the performance of each version in real time.

You can run multiple A/B tests to fine-tune your product descriptions, until they are fully optimized for your KPIs. Try an app like OptiMonk to run tests on your Shopify store.

11. Optimize product descriptions for SEO 

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of helping your products appear in search results when shoppers are actively looking for an item. You do this by targeting specific keywords you think customers will type into a search box when shopping online.

Product descriptions do double duty here: they convince shoppers to buy and help search engines understand what you’re selling. When someone searches for “organic cotton baby blanket” or “wireless noise-canceling headphones,” optimized descriptions help your products appear in relevant results when a shopper is ready to buy.

Here’s how to write product descriptions that rank:

• Include your primary keyword naturally. If you’re selling a “ceramic pour-over coffee maker,” use that exact phrase in your description. That said, you should always write for humans first. Forced keyword stuffing reads awkwardly, undermines trust, and can hurt rankings rather than help them.
• Add keywords to strategic locations. Your product title, the first paragraph of the description, and at least one subheading should include relevant search terms. 
• Write unique descriptions for every product. Duplicate content across product pages hurts SEO and makes it harder for search engines to decide which page to rank. Even similar items need distinct descriptions that highlight differences in size, material, use case, or benefits.
• Use long-tail keywords. Specific phrases like “handmade leather wallet with RFID blocking” are less competitive in search results and often convert better than broad terms like “leather wallet.” Long-tail keywords tend to reflect stronger purchase intent and attract more qualified traffic.
• Optimize your meta descriptions. The snippet that appears in search results should include your main keyword and a clear reason to click. While meta descriptions don’t directly impact rankings, they do influence click-through rates, which affects overall performance.

Good SEO and good product descriptions reinforce each other. The same techniques that make descriptions compelling for shoppers—specific benefits, sensory language, clear formatting—also signal quality to search engines.

Use AI to write product descriptions

Writing unique descriptions for hundreds or thousands of products takes time most merchants don’t have. AI tools can generate first drafts in seconds, but the best results come from knowing how to guide them.

According to Shopify’s November 2025 merchant survey, 75% of business owners now use AI tools. Content generation came in as the most common use case for merchants at 69%.

Here’s how to use AI effectively for product descriptions:

• Start with detailed inputs. AI works better with specifics. Instead of “write a description for a candle,” try “write a description for a hand-poured soy candle in a reusable ceramic vessel, scented with lavender and eucalyptus, targeting customers who value sustainable home goods.”
• Provide brand voice examples. Share two to three existing descriptions that capture your tone so the AI can match your style.
• Edit for authenticity. AI-generated text can sound generic or overly polished. Add specific details, inject personality, and cut anything that doesn’t sound like your brand.
• Never publish without review. Check facts, verify product details, and ensure the description actually matches what you’re selling.

Shopify offers an AI assistant, Sidekick, which is trained specifically for ecommerce and can generate product descriptions directly in your admin. Enter your product details, select a tone, and get descriptions you can edit and publish to your website—without switching between tools.

Product description template

Whether you’re writing descriptions from scratch or using an AI assist, you need to consider the features and benefits of each product individually. Every product serves different needs, and every set of potential customers has distinct buying triggers. 

That said, it’s possible to take a similar approach to writing product descriptions across your store, by developing a product description template containing open-ended prompts. 

Try developing a template with two sections: a brainstorming section followed by a draft description section. Having a consistent process helps you write faster without sacrificing quality.

Product description brainstorm

Answer these questions for each of your products to develop unique, relevant information that you can craft in to a product description:

• Who’s the ideal customer for this product? Knowing who your product is for is foundational to writing a good description.
• What are the products’ basic features? Collect dimensions, materials, functions, care instructions, and other factual details about the item.
• When should the product be used? List the intended use cases for your product. Highlight the ideal scenarios for when a customer should use your product.
• What makes the product special? Think about the unique benefits of your product and why it’s better than similar offerings from competitors. 

Product description draft

Once you’ve collected your product information in a document, use the following template to draft your product description.

• Write an attention-grabbing product title. Keep your copy short and simple, while communicating a product use or benefit. For example, if you’re selling a patterned yoga t-shirt, you could call it the Fleck Studio Shirt.
• Craft a short paragraph. Turn your product information into an entertaining description that tells a clear story. For example, you could describe a scene in which your product is being used.
• Create a bulleted list. Add a section that lays out product features and materials.
• Include social proof. Deploy a product review app to capture customer reviews on your product page and integrate any customer feedback that already exists on search engines or social media platforms. 

Before hitting Publish on the product description page, run through this final checklist:

• Does it answer “Why should I buy this?” in the first sentence?
• Are benefits specific, not generic?
• Would your ideal customer recognize themselves in the language?
• Can someone scan it in 10 seconds and understand the value?
• Does it work on a phone screen?

Product descriptions are always worth the effort

Writing product descriptions for your online store isn’t about listing features. It’s a chance to connect with your target customers and show them exactly how a product fits into their lives.

Taking time to share your enthusiasm about a product’s backstory, design process, and thoughtful details proves you’re excited about your store’s items. That makes it more likely your customers will get excited, too.

Remember: Every description is a chance to turn a browser into a buyer—and a buyer into a repeat customer.