How to Write Great eBay Item Descriptions that Sell by Shopster

Blog post by Shopster

Writing eBay Item Descriptions that Sell
Buying online as a rule is an impersonal exercise. While very efficient, it’s essentially, a no-touch experience i.e. the consumer and the seller do not need to make contact for a sale to occur. Because online business owners don’t have any live salespeople to fall back on, they need to guarantee that their site answers any questions a customer might have - hence, why great product descriptions are so critical. A product description is your salesperson, your chance to engage a customer and get them to buy, buy, buy.

3 Tips for writing engaging product descriptions:
Know your audience and write to them
Ensure that your writing style aligns with the audience you’re writing to. If it’s a highly technical audience use the appropriate jargon. Likewise, if you’re writing for a group of grade 6 children – write at a grade 6 level. When writing product descriptions, imagine your target audience and let that guide your language.

Get your customer’s attention
Use attention-grabbing phrases to grab shoppers’ interest quickly and keep it. Don’t be afraid to use strong words, questions, and phrases to do so. Pierotucci does a great job with opening sentences like: “Walk into a room and make an impression”, “Looking hip and cool is easily achieved when you are wearing this fabulous short fitted jacket”.

Tell a story & appeal to emotions to encourage buying behaviour
Once you have a potential customer’s attention, appeal to their emotions to encourage buying behaviour. Then offer logical support to help them rationalize their desire to purchase. Use each product description to paint a picture in your shopper’s mind, tell them a story, and let them insert themselves in the lead role. Use descriptive language and specific examples to get the best results.

Back to our Pierotucci example “Walk into a room and make an impression. Buttery-soft leather adds distinctive class and undeniable comfort to this sleek blazer perfect for work, weekend, and travel." This product description lets me visualize myself wearing this jacket - I can almost feel the leather on my skin, hear the whispers as I walk into a room. This product description does not just make me want this jacket, it makes me feel like I need it.

The moral of the story: Write to your audience, grab their attention, and then engage their emotions to keep it. By keeping these three tips in the forefront of your mind when writing your product descriptions, you stand a much better chance of turning your site browsers into paying customers.

Shopster is an eBay Certified Solutions Provider providing additional product and inventory for eBay sellers through dropshipping. Shopster has customers in 22 countries and provides full service dropshipping to both the United States and Canada.