Completely leave out product descriptions
All your customers need is a blurry, browser resized, stretched picture of your product. They don’t need to know its features, limitations, or comparisons to other products. Hey, if they knew all that they would probably go buy the other guys widget right?
Don’t describe your product at all. Be sure to use your own arbitrary part number scheme too, so customers can’t search by the manufacturer’s part number to find the products they already know they want to buy.
Oh, and use some random other picture for your product with a note at the bottom that says ‘Picture is a demo, actual product may vary’ so the customer never really knows what they are going to get.
Sound familiar? The amount of shops that have little to no product information is staggering – one my own clients just will not listen to my advice about giving customers as much information as possible. He prefers the page to look “uncluttered”…d’oh.
Get descriptive with your products
Tell all about your products. Tell what they are made of, how they fit (Loose? Tight?), what colors they come in, who is their intended user group, what they do, how they do it, why the customer wants to buy it.
In a brick-and-mortar store, customers can read the box. They can pick up the item and hold it in their hands, check out all the angles, and try it on. On your website, they can’t. This is why a comprehensive product description is a must.
Not only is a customer going to base their purchasing decision off your description (or lack thereof), search engines are going to index your site and position your listings based on the quality of your content. Now which site do you think is going to get the better listing for a given product- The one that says ‘Boot’ or the one that has two paragraphs about an awesome mid-thigh leather boot with rhinestones, fit and quality of the materials, and care instructions?
If you run any type of website that sells anything, you need to give the potential buyer enough information to get out his credit card. If you don’t give the info, then you are a fool. Note that I am not asking you to write “War and Peace” – just give enough info to make the buyer happy!
Most of this post is courtesy of my good friend Jason over at JC Commerce.