On this page
What belongs in a good product description?
A product description has one job: answering the questions a customer would ask a sales assistant in a shop. What exactly is it, is it right for me, will it fit, and what is in the box? Copy that answers those questions helps people choose, and that saves you returns and emails with questions. This is what belongs in a good product description:
- Who it is for. Commuter, student, home barista, parent of a four year old. One sentence is enough, but it lets the right customer recognise themselves.
- What it is. The product type in plain words, the way a customer would search for it: “single pannier”, not just “bag”.
- The key specifications. Dimensions, capacity, weight, material, power, compatibility. Numbers with a unit, not “large” or “light”.
- Use. What it is for and how to use it, and what it is not for.
- What is in the box. Accessories, cables, mounting parts, and what you need to buy separately.
- Care or fit. How to clean or wash it, whether a size runs large or small.
Not every product needs all of this. A children's book calls for the age range, number of pages, format and what the story is about. A coffee grinder calls for the grind settings, the bean hopper capacity and how to clean it. For each category, look at the questions your customer service keeps getting: that is your list.
The structure: short intro, specifications, details
Visitors do not read a product page from top to bottom, they scan it. A fixed structure in three layers works for almost every product:
- A short intro of two or three sentences. What it is, who it is for and the main benefit. Anyone who only reads this knows whether the product is right for them.
- Specifications as a bullet list. Five to eight bullets with the facts customers compare on. Start each bullet with the attribute: “Capacity: 20 litres”.
- Details. One or two short paragraphs on use, fitting, care and what is in the box. This is where you explain why a feature matters.
Use the same structure for every product in a category. Customers then always find the information in the same place, and you can check texts, or have them written, much faster.
Keep the product title separate from the description. The title holds the brand, product type and the main distinguishing feature, no sales talk. The short description, often shown next to the photo or in a listing, is a summary of the intro, not a separate piece of advertising.
Put the specifications for each category in a fixed order with fixed units, for example always capacity first, then dimensions, then weight. Anyone comparing two products then sees the difference at a glance.
Product description example: a bike pannier, before and after
This is what a typical supplier text looks like, copied word for word into many webshops:
Before: the supplier text
“Bicycle bag waterproof. High quality. Large volume, ideal for daily use. Colour black.”
Nothing in it helps a customer choose. How much fits in, will it fit my rack, how heavy is it, how does it close? “High quality” says nothing. You get the facts from the supplier's spec sheet, or you measure and weigh the product yourself.
After: the same pannier, rewritten
Waterproof 20 litre single pannier for anyone who cycles to work or school every day. The roll-top closure keeps your laptop and clothes dry, and the quick-release hooks let you clip the bag on or off in seconds.
- Capacity: 20 litres
- Dimensions: 32 x 17 x 42 cm (w x d x h)
- Weight: 950 g
- Material: PVC-coated polyester, welded seams
- Closure: roll-top with buckle
- Mounting: quick-release hooks for rack tubes of 8 to 16 mm
- Colour: black with reflective strip
In the box: the bag, a detachable shoulder strap and adapter inserts for thin tubes. Inside is a hook-and-loop sleeve for a laptop up to 15 inches. Clean it with a damp cloth and a little soap; it is not machine washable.
The fill-in template
Use this structure as a template for your own product descriptions:
| Block | What you fill in | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Intro | [Product type] with [key feature] for [audience]. [Main benefit in plain words.] | Waterproof 20 litre single pannier for anyone who cycles to work or school every day. |
| Specifications | 5 to 8 bullets: attribute, value, unit | Capacity: 20 litres |
| Use | What it is for, what it is not for, how to fit or set it up | Fits rear racks with tubes of 8 to 16 mm |
| In the box | Everything included, and what you need to buy separately | Shoulder strap, adapter inserts |
| Care or fit | Cleaning, washing, sizing advice | Damp cloth, not machine washable |
Common mistakes in product descriptions
Most weak product descriptions make the same few mistakes. Run through this list before you publish a text:
| Mistake | Why it goes wrong | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Copying the supplier text word for word | The same text appears in many other shops and was written for buyers in the trade, not for your customer. | Take the facts out, write the intro for your own audience and complete the specifications. |
| Missing specifications | Customers cannot compare. They buy elsewhere, or order and send it back. | Work with a fixed list of attributes per category. |
| A wall of text | Nobody on a phone scrolls through five paragraphs without structure. | Short intro, bullet list, short paragraphs. |
| Empty superlatives | “Premium quality” and “the best” cannot be checked and convince nobody. | Replace them with a fact: “welded seams” instead of “premium quality”. |
| Guessing facts | A wrong size or claim leads to returns and complaints. | Only write what you know for sure and leave out an attribute you do not know. |
| A different layout for every product | Customers have to search again each time, and checking takes longer. | One template per category. |
On findability: once the facts are in order, you have done the most important work for search engines too. How to work in keywords without making the text unreadable is covered in SEO product descriptions.
Product descriptions for hundreds or thousands of products
For ten products you write this by hand. With a thousand products from three supplier feeds, that no longer works. This is where StoreLinkr's AI product enrichment comes in:
- It starts from the EAN. StoreLinkr looks the product up in the product catalogue, in Google Books for books, and uses what your supplier or POS already delivers. No EAN, no enrichment; the EAN itself is never changed.
- Your tone and your template. You choose a tone of voice (professional, informal, persuasive or humorous), a target audience and keywords. In the own instructions for product texts, up to 2000 characters, you set your structure, for example “End with a bulleted list of the key specifications” or “Always mention the material and the capacity in litres”.
- No invented facts. If there is a supplier text, it is rewritten faithfully: every fact stays and no new claims are added. If your instruction asks for a fact that is not known, the AI skips that part.
- Review first, then save. You see the old and new text per field and accept field by field. Select products in the product overview to enrich them in one go. Accepted texts are stored as product rules, so the next import does not overwrite them.
- Reversible. Every enrichment is logged with before and after, and one click reverts it.
You use your own AI key from Gemini, OpenAI or Claude, choose the model and set a daily token limit. The details are in AI product descriptions. If it is the specifications themselves that are missing, read product data enrichment.
AI cannot make a text better than the facts it rests on. Make sure the EAN, brand and attributes are right before you have hundreds of texts written, or you multiply the mistakes.
Product copy at scale, in your tone
Enrich products from the EAN and let AI write descriptions following your own instructions, with every change shown for review first.
