The e-commerce market in the UK is the biggest in all of Europe, worth around £156 billion. To put this figure into perspective, the second largest market, France, is valued at just over half of that at £82 billion. The sheer size of the UK e-commerce industry translates to a tremendous opportunity for budding entrepreneurs looking to make the most of online business, but it also means more competition. That's why Applify strives to provide tips on how to get started and successfully build an e-commerce business from the ground up.

That said, among all the aspects of building your e-commerce site, one of the most important yet drastically overlooked features is your site's product descriptions. These not only help with search engine optimization (or the process of getting your website to rank higher than your competition in search results) but are also tools for aiding potential customers along their purchase journey. That's because good product descriptions let customers know about the features and benefits of your goods, and ultimately, influence their purchase decision.

1. Write for Your Target Audience

At this stage, you may already have a good grasp of your target audience. It’s important to keep them and your market research in mind when creating product content. Here are some questions to consider as you write down your product descriptions: What are their interests? How would they describe this product to a friend? What product would features interest them the most? Answering questions like these will guide you in creating content that would work.

2. Focus on the Benefits

Product specifications and technical features should mention in a product description, but these shouldn't take center stage. Instead, engage your potential customers a little more by highlighting the benefits a product would bring to them. This makes each feature of an item more enticing. How will your product make a person happier, healthier, or more productive? Let them know through your unique product description. For instance, when snorkeling gear comes in a seamless contoured lens that offers a non-obstructed view, an excellent benefit to mention is that the product helps you “see more wildlife."

3. Study Existing Product Descriptions

In Ayima’s ‘5 Tips for Writing SEO-friendly Product Descriptions’, they recommend getting into a habit of benchmarking, which means checking out how others are writing or presenting their product descriptions. This will allow you to see what works and what doesn't. If you sell similar products, benchmarking will also allow you to think of unique content for each product page. That's because Google will have a difficult time indexing site if it sees that your content is too similar or worse, a direct duplicate of another site's product page.

4. Tell a Story

Good product description not only contains all the relevant details but also influences the buyer through emotions. Storytelling is a unique way of engaging site visitors considering they cannot hold or feel your product before purchasing. When creating a story, The Next Scoop advises keeping the content down to earth. Let the story speak to the shopper in a way that says you know exactly what they are going through. As in the earlier example, a description for snorkeling gear can also help customers "experience more out of their underwater adventure."

5. Embed Product Videos

Product videos can boost both your traffic and sales. An infographic on Social Media Today points out that 73% of consumers are more likely to buy a product after watching product videos, while 60% would rather watch a product video than read a product description. So if your budget allows it, invest in video content for your product pages. However, videos should not compensate for lackluster product descriptions. When writing down descriptions, always assume that the buyer has no way of “feeling” the product, even when you know there’s an accompanying product video.

Conclusion

In the absence of the ability to touch and experience a product, words have tremendous power in e-commerce. Good product descriptions can help boost your business in terms of SEO and conversions. Hence, they should not overlook when setting up your e-commerce platform.