How to write a product description that sells

Four jobs, in order:

• Say what it is - plainly, in the first line. Material, size, what it does. A shopper who cannot tell what the item is in three seconds leaves.
• Turn features into benefits - "600-denier fabric" means nothing; "survives being dragged through an airport twice a month" is a reason to buy. Every feature earns its place by answering "so what?".
• Answer the exit question - every product has one question that stops the purchase: will it fit, will it work with what I own, how do I wash it, how long does it last. Answer it in the description instead of losing the sale to it.
• Use the shopper's words - the terms people type into the search bar, not your internal product names. If buyers search "laptop backpack", the description says "laptop backpack", not "commuter carry solution".

A weak description, and the same product done right:

Weak: "Premium quality water bottle made from high-grade stainless steel. Durable and stylish design perfect for any lifestyle. Buy now!"

Strong: "A 750 ml double-wall stainless-steel bottle that keeps drinks cold for 24 hours or hot for 12. It fits standard car cup holders and bike cages, the powder-coat finish doesn't sweat or slip, and the wide mouth takes ice cubes and a bottle brush. Dishwasher-safe lid; hand-wash the body to protect the insulation."

The strong version names the capacity, proves the claim with numbers, answers the three questions buyers actually have (will it fit, will it sweat, how do I clean it) and still reads in ten seconds.

One more, for apparel:

Strong: "A midweight (280 gsm) organic-cotton hoodie, pre-shrunk and cut true to size - if you're between sizes, take the larger for a relaxed fit. The kangaroo pocket is double-stitched, cuffs are ribbed, and the print is screen-printed, not vinyl, so it survives the dryer. Machine wash cold, inside out."

Weight, fit guidance, construction details, care - each one is an objection answered before it is asked.

Fill the brackets and delete what does not apply:

[Opening line: what the product is, for whom, in plain words - include the main search term.]

[Two or three sentences turning the top features into benefits: what does each one let the buyer do, avoid, or stop worrying about?]

[The exit question, answered: sizing guidance, compatibility, materials, care, battery life - whichever one stops your buyers.]

• [Spec 1 - the numbers: dimensions, weight, capacity, materials]
• [Spec 2]
• [Spec 3]

[Closing line: who this is for and the single best reason to choose it - no exclamation mark needed.]

Search engines - Amazon's and Google's alike - weight position: terms near the start of the title and the first lines of the description count most.

• Put the main term in the title and once in the first sentence of the description.
• Use natural variants in the body ("water bottle", "insulated bottle", "flask") instead of repeating one phrase.
• Bullets are indexed too - lead each with something a shopper might search: "fits 15-inch laptops", "machine washable".
• Never sacrifice readability for a keyword. A description that reads like a tag list converts nobody, and platforms have penalized visible stuffing for years.
• On Amazon, the backend search-terms field (250 bytes) is where the leftover synonyms go - misspellings and variants that would look wrong on the page.

The numbers that matter:

• Title: up to 200 characters in most categories, but Amazon recommends under 80, and titles over 200 risk search suppression. Format: Brand + product type + key attribute (size, count, color). No promotional phrases - "free shipping" or "best seller" in a title violates the style guidelines.
• Bullet points: five bullets in most categories, up to 255 characters each; the first three carry the most weight because mobile truncates the rest behind a tap. Start each with the benefit, follow with the spec.
• Product description field: 2,000 characters maximum.
• HTML: no longer supported. Amazon stopped rendering HTML tags in product descriptions in 2021 - bold tags, bullet markup and font tags now display as plain text or get stripped. Write in short plain paragraphs; line breaks are the only formatting you can rely on.
• A+ Content: if you are brand-registered, A+ Content replaces the plain description with image-and-text modules - and when A+ is present, the 2,000-character description is not shown, so put your search terms in the title, bullets and backend field instead.
• Backend search terms: 250 bytes, no commas needed, no repeats of words already in the title.

Compliance notes that catch sellers: no pricing or promotional language in the description, no contact information or external links, and health claims that are not on the product's approved labeling will get the listing flagged.

Shopify:

• No hard character limit on the description - 100 to 300 words is the practical range.
• The SEO title (70 characters) and meta description (up to 320 characters, first 160 visible) are separate fields under "Search engine listing" - write them, don't let Shopify auto-truncate your first paragraph into them.
• Your description is also your Google landing-page copy, so the first 160 characters should say what the product is in searchable words.
• Editing many products at once: Shopify's bulk editor handles prices and inventory well but not long descriptions - for rewriting descriptions across a catalog, export the CSV, edit the Body (HTML) column, and re-import.

Etsy:

• The first 160 characters of the description double as the Google snippet - lead with what the item is, not with a welcome message.
• Etsy search reads titles, tags (13 tags, 20 characters each) and attributes more heavily than description text - but since 2022 descriptions are indexed too, so the main term belongs in the first sentence.
• Buyers on Etsy read for the story and the specifics: materials, dimensions, production time, and personalization options belong in every listing.

• The description restates the title five ways and never adds a fact.
• Features without benefits - a spec sheet is not a description.
• The exit question goes unanswered, and the buyer leaves to find the answer in a competitor's listing.
• Copy pasted from the manufacturer - duplicated across fifty stores, it ranks for none of them and reads like it.
• Writing for the platform's algorithm instead of the buyer - stuffed keywords, invisible text, title spam. Platforms penalize all three.
• One description reused across variants that differ in the exact ways buyers care about (size, material, compatibility).

The template above works - if you have one product and an hour. If you have a catalog, the writing is the bottleneck.

This service takes your product names, key features, platform and audience, and returns individual descriptions for each item - benefit-led, in your brand voice, with search terms placed naturally and the platform's limits respected. Results appear on screen in under 30 seconds, for a one-time $10. No subscription; the copy is yours.