Do People Read Product Descriptions?
Liz Griffith
Senior Copywriter
Five reasons they’re the ultimate closers
Ever wonder why some products sell better than others? The answer might be in the details – specifically, the product details on the PDP. By the time shoppers land on the PDP, they’re highly interested, teetering on the edge of a purchase. As the final stop on the shopping journey, it’s the place where people make the choice between clicking buy or clicking away. And the quality of your product copy can tip them in one direction or the other. According to VML’s 2023 Future Shopper Report, accurate product copy is the second most important factor influencing the purchase decision, trailing only price. And while people bemoan reading as a lost art, studies show that around 82% of people read product descriptions before slipping an item into their cart.
“It’s remarkably easy to undervalue the significance of PDP pages,” says Carter Jensen, Senior Manager of Enterprise Marketing Capabilities for General Mills. “But I believe there’s no digital touchpoint more important to your goal of driving sales than a PDP.”
Just how can your PDP increase conversions and drive sales? Here are six reasons to treat product descriptions like the ultimate sales closers they are:
- Strong product copy answers essential questions.
Strong product descriptions answer shoppers’ immediate questions like, “is this jacket waterproof enough for the Pacific Northwest?” And, “is this nail gun able to throw a fastener into wood, concrete or steel?” Shopping almost always involves choosing between similar options, so the strongest descriptions play the role of great retail workers, not just selling people an item but the right one for their needs – and doing it with respect.
- Strong product copy reduces returns.
The better shoppers understand what they’re getting, the less likely they are to return it. So it’s no wonder brick-and-mortar stores have far lower return rates than their ecom counterparts. And the main reason people return more things online? Because it didn’t meet their expectations in some way, usually around fit.
In person, you can get product info instantly by looking, touching or trying something on. But ever since shipping boxes replaced shopping bags, product descriptions have been a stand-in for dressing rooms – and not every brand sees the importance of copy. Together with images, good writing is your closest stand-in for the experience of shopping in person – it can tell shoppers where a crop top is designed to hit on the body or if the fabric has any stretch. Descriptions give shoppers reassurance that this is (or isn’t) the thing they’re looking for.
- Strong product copy solves shoppers’ real-life problems.
Copywriters are often told to speak to “the benefit of the benefit,” or the real problem this person’s trying to solve with this product. For a dog bed, that might be a little more space in the bed for yourself. Good copywriters speak to the story of a product, whether that’s how it came to be made, the purpose it serves or the community that’s formed around it. And the better story you tell, the more likely someone is to remember it. Stories are remembered 20 times more than facts alone, according to neuroscientists at Princeton University. They also cultivate emotion and a sense of connection to others. Most shoppers won’t remember that the Carhartt’s Yukon Extremes line is made with 500 denier CORDURA® – they’re much more likely to remember that it was worn by workers building the Alaskan Pipeline.
- Strong product copy shows you care.
The amount of care you show in your product descriptions can translate to the amount of care people believe you hold for your product. Care means understanding the product you made and the culture around it. And the most loved brands are the ones tapped in to who’s buying their things, what they’re getting it for and the questions they may have before buying it. Speaking directly to shoppers’ needs shows you have deeply considered who they are, which in turn also boosts trust in the brand.
Another way a brand can express care is through the attention it pays to the details. Personal touches with wording and imagery send the message of, “someone was here and thinking about you.” Small surprises shoppers don’t expect can build connection and make your site stand out from a sea of uninspired copy.
- Strong product copy prevents abandoned carts.
While the distractions of the internet don’t typically prevent shoppers from reading product descriptions, the noisy environment does impact something – attention spans. Shoppers can be quick to click away if they can’t find what they’re looking for fast. Good copywriters anticipate what shoppers care about most and serve that information up in a way that’s effortless to understand. There are many different tones of voice you can choose to speak with in product descriptions, but one thing’s generally true across styles: the less work shoppers have to do, the better.
- Strong product copy brings people to your site.
Copy not only talks to people but also to search engines and LLMs, so it has a big role in driving traffic to your site. And by optimizing descriptions for search engines, brands can increase organic reach.
Quick tips to boost SEO:
- Write how you speak. Natural-sounding copy is the most likely to grab and hold attention, whether you’re talking to people, search engines or AI chatbots.
- Don’t pile on the keywords. Search engines can easily detect awkward attempts at keyword stuffing, and they’ll rank your page lower as a result.
- Use unique copy. Duplicate content makes it difficult for search engines to determine which of the repeats are the most legitimate, resulting in multiple weak pages instead of one strong page.
People who bet against the written word rarely win the wager. If you’re in a meeting where someone proposes doing away with product descriptions, remember these six ways it impacts sales and brand trust.