Product descriptions....are they necessary?

[Bronco78th]

So tonight I was adding a new product to my small ecommerce store. I wrote a description. I moved onto the next item then got annoyed with myself because I was repeating exactly what I'd wrote 10mins earlier on the previous item and had no inspiration to move on.

Why was this? This was because I'm an engraver and was trying to write about the same item...but with a different artwork. If I don't repeat myself each time about the item itself. I repeat myself about the engraving instead....as the same engraving design will appear on multiple items.

To be honest, Writing descriptions bore the holy hell out of me. Not helped by the fact my grasp of the English language and creative writing ability is not A* standard, part of me wonders unless your selling something complex, unique or highly specific. Is there any point to descriptions at all?.

Given increasingly the fact customers shop on phones with small screens a sentance of text becomes a paragraph quickly. It's also debatable how many people even read them....I know when I'm shopping online I rarily do. I go straight to the spec list.

and that's my point. I already have a spec list....item size.weight.material. MPNs.barcode.....and shock horror an image that shows the interchangeable artwork for this specific listing.

So Why would a customer need a paragrah/wall of text basically repeating the spec list for a reasobly simple item anyway?

I know (allegedly) well written descriptions help website SEO considerably....but in my case my descriptions are not well written...they are crap. So I can't see a huge gain from bothering with them but feel obliged to at least try.

I'd rather spend the time creating more artwork.

What's your thoughts?

John

 

[fisicx]

If the descriptions are the same then the products are the same and should be variants.

Maybe you should be describing the artwork not the product.

And yes, product descriptions are important

 

[antropy]

Good advice above.

Some different advice - ask some of your customers what sort of description they would like to see. See if they have any questions that need to be answered?

Find out what else they need to know that's stopping them press that buy button.

 

[Mr D]

Without descriptions why should someone buy? I tend to ignore stuff that doesn't have a description of some sort.
For crafted items I do like knowing plenty about the item.

Perhaps you can create a word processing document then copy & paste the same bit or relevant sections of text into each item description as needed while adding specific info for that product as you have been doing.

 

[antropy]

Perhaps you can create a word processing document then copy & paste the same bit or relevant sections of text into each item description as needed while adding specific info for that product as you have been doing.

Well, a good developer could pretty easily make a system that showed different description parts based on product attributes or categories etc. That would automate the whole process.

 

[Mr D]

Well, a good developer could pretty easily make a system that showed different description parts based on product attributes or categories etc. That would automate the whole process.

True but I was trying the non technical route for the OP.

 

[antropy]

True but I was trying the non technical route for the OP.

I'm not sure how technical or not the OP is, would be good to see what they think!

 

[shumicps]

For SEO purposes, product description is important because you need to include relevant keywords into product descriptions. Just make sure that the keywords are not over-stuffed in there. For driving online sales showcasing product’s features is really a good way because effective product descriptions makes the product more credible.

 

[Bronco78th]

fisicx - Variants wouldn't work in this instance as id literally have 4 items listed.

I have like a standard glass tumbler and I have say different 10 designs on it which I put as a new listings, though I do use variants if I have variations of the same design...like I got a masonic logo with 3 variations of 1 design for example, thats one listing.

antropy - OP is reasonably technical, maybe not able to stretch that far but it is a good idea...might look into this.

shumicps - I know SEO implications of my proposition, but on the flip side don't you get marked down for repeating yourself constantly anyway??

This is something im wary of and I do try mix it up, but ultimately is just making a job I find difficult and boring, even more difficult.

Thanks for the replies though, have had a couple of ideas on how to approach the descriptions differently.

 

[Vadym Gurevych]

One more thing, though. Descriptions can be used to help people find the best match when they search for something on your website. Maybe not just descriptions but a list of keywords per product (if your Ecommerce solution allows for such). So it is not just for SEO and not just to give customers an idea of what they are looking at, but for search as well.

Also, you say you have the spec for each product. Maybe, if your Ecommerce solution does that, you could use the spec to describe the product in the best way for the customer? You know, like when people buy a camera, for example, they would look at some of its properties and wont necessarily even pay much attention to the description. Also, spec / properties could be used as filters to help people find the best product for them.

 

[fisicx]

I have like a standard glass tumbler and I have say different 10 designs on it which I put as a new listings, though I do use variants if I have variations of the same design...like I got a masonic logo with 3 variations of 1 design for example, thats one listing.

Right, so don't describe the tumbler, describe the artwork, the story behind the design. If someone walking into the shop and asked about a particular piece of engraving what would you say to them.

We know a guy who does glass blowing and he can tell you a story about every piece he makes. This gives it provenance and gives us a story to tell people who see it in our house.

So the masonic logo would tell about the commission that generated the work, what you used as the model, how you began the process, why you chose this particular tumbler and why there are three variants. You could easily write a hundred words on just that one item. If you don't like writing then use a speech to text application.