9 Product Description Templates to Use for Your Online Store
As any seasoned ecommerce seller will tell you, writing product descriptions is hard. In one short paragraph, you need to capture everything your product has to offer and convince visitors to make a purchase.
To make the challenge a little easier, many store owners utilize product description templates.
If you’re looking for some good templates to copy, you have come to the right place. In this post, we have brought together some of the best examples around, along with useful tips for customizing your favorite templates.
What Is the Purpose of a Product Description?
In spite of the name, the main purpose of a product description is not actually to describe the product.
Instead, a good product description should help shoppers to envision that product in their daily lives, and understand the benefits it could provide.
Shoppers may be able to glean some of this information from product photos and any technical specifications you provide.
But your product description is there to fill in the gaps, answer questions, and provide information. Get it right, and it will significantly enhance the confidence of potential customers.
In turn, this should lead to an improved conversion rate, and possibly even a higher average sale value.
What Makes a Great Product Description?
People don’t buy products for their features. They buy a product because it solves a problem or has the potential to make their life better.
Say you’re looking to buy a bike. You probably don’t care about the precise number of gears, or which material the brake pads are made from. As a shopper, your interest lies in whether this bike makes hill climbing a little easier and whether you can stop quickly in the rain.
This is why professional copywriters usually live by the motto, “Write about benefits, not features.”
The only exception to this rule is when you’re writing about a product that has intangible benefits, such as fashion items or a piece of art. In this case, it’s better to concentrate on how the product can make the customer feel.
Of course, not all shoppers are going to believe what you say. To prove that the benefits of your product are real, it’s a good idea to include social proof in your product descriptions.
This could mean quoting from glowing reviews, mentioning any awards that your product has won, or making mention of customer ratings. Just including this kind of content in your descriptions can boost your conversion rate by as much as 380%, and significantly increase customer spend.
Aside from the content of your product description, there is style to consider.
This starts with the tone of the writing. Good ecommerce writers try to write product descriptions as if they were delivering a pitch directly to a potential customer.
They also keep things concise; it’s better to have a short description that every shopper will read, rather than an essay that takes up the entire product page.
To improve the usability of your product descriptions even further, we highly recommend using bold text and…
- bullet points.
Research shows that web users tend to scan rather than read in a concentrated fashion. By using the formatting tools mentioned above, you make it easier for shoppers to pick up the key details with a quick glance.
9 Effective Product Description Templates and Examples
Unless you’re a professional writer, putting into practice everything we have mentioned above can be a challenge. That’s why many online retailers utilize product description templates, and simply adapt them for each product.
If you run any kind of ecommerce business, the following templates are definitely worth your attention!
1) The Basic Starter Template
This simple template from ThemeIsle works as a great starting point in most categories of ecommerce. It includes space to talk about your product, an area for the details, and that all-important call to action:
Product title [Incorporate the primary product keyword.]
Brief product description [1–3 sentences, in paragraph form. Explain the product’s benefits to the customer, and use powerful language.]
Key Features:
- Feature #1 [Describe the feature and its advantages for the customer in 1–2 sentences. Include a primary or secondary keyword if relevant and natural.]
- Feature #2
- Feature #3
(Add as many features as needed)
Product characteristics, variations, and specifications [This section will vary greatly depending on the product. Include as much detailed information as possible, and use lists and charts to make it easy to scan.]
Call to Action [For example, a Buy Now or Add to Cart button. This should be clear and prominent.]
This template obviously requires you to input the details, but it has been made this way in order to be very flexible.
2) The Food and Drink Template
You can’t always describe how something is going to taste. But a good food or drink product description can still make shoppers desperate to try the new flavors.
This product page from Silk is a great example to copy. It sums up the flavor experience in a couple of quick sentences, throws in a nice big CTA, and then reels off the key product features — in this case, health and nutritional benefits.
Notice that the number of words is actually quite low. Yet, Silk still manages to catch our attention and get across the key product details above the fold.
Lower down the page, shoppers can see the full nutritional information along with user reviews and ratings.
3) The Athletic Template
Everyone who buys sneakers expects comfort and durability. However, most buyers won’t be making a purchase based on these benefits. Design and branding are far more important here.
The folks at Adidas know this very well, and build their product descriptions accordingly.
The product description for the Ultraboost 1.0 contains one headline and two paragraphs, but it’s still concise enough to read in a hurry.
That big strapline grabs your attention, speaking to the exact target audience: fans of a college football team who want a running shoe. It also references the fact that the product is made from recycled materials, which is another key benefit.
The main text of the description talks about the athletic performance of the shoe, along with a high-profile athlete who is promoting the product. You can tell that every part of this description is aimed at sports fans.
Even as you scroll down to the bullet list of specifications and key features, the main CTA stays in view on the right of screen.
4) The Pain and Pleasure Template
There is a commonly used device in copywriting that we call pain and pleasure. The concept here is that you empathize with the pain points of buyers, and then deliver a more positive outlook in the form of a solution.
Obviously, that solution is the product you’re trying to sell.
This template from Made Urban shows you how to use pain and pleasure in your own product descriptions:
I started creating (your product) when I was (describe you as your ideal customer, before you created a solution) and (pain). I was (specific feeling, e.g. tired/frustrated/fed up) with (current options available). I wanted (pleasure/dream scenario).
I created a product with (features) so that (benefits).
If you’re a new business owner trying to figure out how to write good product descriptions, this template offers a really easy yet effective starting point.
5) The Scannable Template
With certain products, shoppers don’t actually care about the details. All they want is something that fixes their pain points or provides a positive experience.
In such cases, reducing your product description to key power words and phrases can be very effective.
Naked Wines is an ecommerce site that aims to make great wine more accessible to people who enjoy a glass. The writers for the site could have gone on and on about provenance and tasting notes — but that simply wouldn’t appeal to the key buyer personas.
Instead, they created a quirky, attention-grabbing pitch, formatted entirely in bullet points.
For those wanting a little more detail, all the key information about each bottle is displayed in small icons lower down the page. Plus, there is a more extensive description of the winemakers, with a video introduction thrown in, and those all-important customer reviews.
6) The Good Times With Friends Template
What’s the benefit of buying a new BBQ? Sure, you might be able to improve the quality of your outdoor cooking. But essentially, it’s all about bringing your friends together for hot dogs and patties on a warm summer evening.
The writers at Weber definitely want you to picture that scene in your mind. In the product description for the Spirit II E-210 Gas Grill, every sentence refers to a physical feature — and then links it to the BBQ experience.
Grilling nerds can still get a closer look if they scroll down, and there is a little social proof inserted right at the top of the page — in this case, the customer rating.
7) The Warm and Fuzzy Template
Of course, grilling with friends isn’t the only occasion or feeling that we can evoke with good product copy.
This template from Made Urban gives you the freedom to talk about any positive event or emotion in the context of your product, and how potential buyers will benefit from making a purchase:
These (product name) look/pair amazing with (other items – paint a detailed picture). Perfect for (occasion) at (place) in the (time – e.g. evening/winter/summer/etc.), when you want to feel (pleasure). They have (feature) so that (benefit).
Notice that the gaps in this template allow you to be very specific with your descriptions. This means you can go after target customers in any niche.
8) The How to Use Template
With some products, the best way to explain the benefits and features is by explaining how you can use them.
While this template from GreenDropShip is designed primarily for beauty products, it can work for anything from moisturizer to furniture varnish:
- How to Use — Describe how best to use the product in question (e.g. smooth all over the skin or rub into hair for 5 minutes)
- At a Glance — List the various benefits of the product in question (e.g. immediate relief for chapped lips or moisturizing dry, cracked skin); avoid repeating the benefits mentioned above
- Ingredients — Copy from the manufacturer’s label
- Amount — Use this section to list the amount or volume (e.g. 20 grams or 750 milliliters).
- Reviews — Short testimonials plus customer ratings
9) The Minimalist Template
Sometimes, the most compelling product descriptions are the shortest. With some products, you only need a really good strapline and a single-line description to get people interested.
Google often utilizes this kind of description for tech products, such as smart speakers. Here’s a great example:
Rather than sticking with the traditional product page format, the folks at Google choose to deploy large, high-quality images all the way down, punctuated with individual lines of text that refer to benefits. The whole page is really a series of eye-catching taglines.
This kind of product description and page design is worth copying if you have a highly visual product that doesn’t need a great deal of explanation.
Tips for Creating Better Product Descriptions
If you take inspiration from the product description examples and templates, you should be on the right track towards making more sales.
However, there are a few key techniques that aren’t so obvious at first pass. Here’s a quick look at some methods used by successful ecommerce store owners:
- Create ideal customer profiles (ICP) — To write a description that truly tugs at the heartstrings of buyers, you need to understand who you’re talking to. By building a profile of your ideal customer, you should get a clear picture of your customer’s wants and needs.
- Make everything SEO friendly — Although the primary purpose of a product description is to convert visitors into customers, you can also attract more potential buyers with search engine optimization. As you create your titles and descriptions, be sure to include plenty of relevant keywords.
- Improve your product photos — Your product description and your product photos should go hand in hand. Make sure to upload plenty of high-quality images, with a focus on the benefits you outline in your description.
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